Journey with Joe and Janet

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Gas and birds.....

Above picture is price of gas... if we had just gone down the street about 5 miles we could have gotten it for 2.77/gallon

If you look next to the window on the left you will see a pigeon trying to get off the subway. He had to wait until the next stop when the conductor chased him off. I guess everyone is required to pay a fare.

Last day in DC

Today was our last day of travel as we fly out in the morning. We got up and packed and headed out. Our first goal was to find the White House and then find parking close to the South East gate since that is where we enter for the tour. It took a bit but we finally found parking under the Ronald Reagan building a few blocks from the White house. Unfortunately we could not take our camera so there are no pictures of this part. We found our way to the White House and it was very interesting. It is a short self guided tour of the East wing. We were there a few hours after President Bush gave his speech today so they were still removing equipment from the grounds. We were able to see the long hallway on the bottom level with pictures of various presidents. We then went up one level and saw the hallway the President walks down to for press conferences. Then there was the Green room, blue and gold room, red room, and the Dining Hall. It was quite amazing seeing the elaborate and expensive antiques and multiple paintings in each room.

After we finished the tour we found our way back to our car and headed up to see the DC temple. This is Jenn's favorite temple, it is just gorgeous and the drive into the temple is amazing as well. The temple sort of appears out of nowhere, almost floating up from the ground. Here are a few pictures....

More fall colors and that is the car that we spent the week in I think I'm in love. We drove close to 800 miles and only used about 16 gallons of gas. So around 50 mpg :)

We then headed back to NYC to check in and get a good nights rest before we flew out. We were amazed at the gas prices, the lowest one being 2.77/gallon. We also so at least 1000 geese as we drove up highway 1. They were everywhere throughout Princeton. I currently am not a fan of Mapquest.... it took us on this crazy slow out of the way ride from the Verrazano bridge to our hotel. A simple 9 mile drive took us over an hour!!! I liked seeing Brooklyn but not for this long.

Anyways it's been a great trip and Mom has been very patient with me. I have no patience in the morning for questions I just want to get up and get going. This probably comes from being single so long. We again had perfect weather we even saw 85 degrees today! There is a storm coming in though, luckily it will hit after we have arrived back home.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Snipers, Ford Theater, and the White house

Can you see the snipers? They were on top of all the buildings surrounding the White House. It became a game after a bit. There was a big celebration for Columbus Day, and a even bigger protest being held at the World Bank. All the federal buildings were closed today as well, but we hit the town hard starting at 9am and didn't get back to the hotel until after 5PM. It was a fantastic day. We again lucked out with warmer then normal temperatures. By noon it was already 80 degrees, we were both wishing we had packed capris and t-shirts!

Here is a picture from Ford theater where President Lincoln was assassinated

After President Lincoln was shot they rushed him across the street to this building so he wouldn't die in such a public location

Here is a picture from the back side of the white house

This is the famous Watergate hotel

Union Station - Columbus Day Celebration

If you look closely by the flag poles you will see many soldiers dressed in different colors

Union station is where the big inauguration ball is held, the lobby is wider then the Washington monument is tall

If you look next to the tall monument you will see soldiers in procession

Next to the monument is the Freedom Bell which is a smaller version of the Liberty Bell

Tomb of the unknown soilder and Thomas Jefferson Memorial

This is a must see if you are in DC, just be ready for a nice hike! There is one guard that keeps watch of the tomb. At the top of the hour they change the guard. Here are some pics of the change. Their are two soilders that are changing and one is the Commander in charge of the change.

The guards are presenting arms to the commander before the change

This is the current guard before the change begins. He takes exactly 21 steps on the black strip. It's amazing who exact they are in this march.

This is the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. It's quite large and is contained on an island. We did not have time to get off and see this but hope to on a future visit

Korean Memorial and JFK burial

This is the view opposite of the Lincoln Memorial. You can barely see the WW2 Memorial about halfway between the Washington Monument

This is the Korean Memorial, their are 19 soldiers in the garden. When you stand between the soldiers and the wall it appears there are 38 soldiers. This represents the 38th parallel they were fighting over. One of my new favorite spots!

Here we are in Arlington Cemetery. JFK is buried at the top of the steps along with his son and his wife. There is a place for his daughter to be buried as well.

These are the nameplates for JFK and his wife next to the eternal flame. You can't quite see the flame but it is in the middle of the round stone.

If you look over Mom's shoulder on the left you can see the Pentagon building

Lincoln and Vietnam Memorial

After climbing the big hill to Arlington our feet were getting a bit sore. We were tempted to skip the stairs but knew it was something we needed to see up close. We were not disappointed