'To go or to not go' - that was the question which haunted us in the most important of cold December weekends. Yes, the one right before Christmas. And you can guess what the decision was. Off we went on a fine Saturday morning to Washington D.C, the capital of United States, often referred to as "The District".
We reached the city in the pm and decided to start off with what else?, the White House. After walking along what seemed like a looot of miles and trying to guess which of the white buildings might be White House, we got to our destination at last. White House beamed at us amidst all Secret Service cars parked in the area. Ofcourse, we had not booked a tour months in advance, so had to be happy with seeing it from across a fence. The whole area is full of Government buildings like The Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Department of Commerce, American Red Cross and the Department of the Treasury, to name a few. Each of these buildings look magnificent. And my personal opinion is that some of them actually look better than White House, more white even ;)
One of the benefits of braving the weather at this time of the year was that we got to see the National Christmas Tree placed near the White House. The tree was all decked up and was indeed a pretty sight. There are smaller trees each representing U.S states all around the national tree, and altogether it makes a very bright Christmas Scene.
We set off the next day to Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Air & Space museum. To be completely honest,I should say that this was the very first time that I actually fell in love with a museum. Museums to me have always been places with a lot of things that might accumulate dust but never much interest. Boy, wasn't that about to change. This one was a refreshing change. It was amazing with a hanger inside displaying all sorts of planes, helicopters, space shuttles, missiles, transmission equipment and what not! We got to see the space shuttle Discovery(and mind you, this was the real one which went into space, not a model), Enola Gay - the aircraft to bomb Hiroshima in Japan(the atomic bomb - Little Boy), Nemesis - the racing champion and a lot others including the ones used in World War 2. And flights were not all. There were missiles, maneuvering equipment, a model of Pathfinder(yes, the one which went to Mars and we read about in newspapers) and even an air traffic control room where you could listen to real transmissions from Reagan airport. Trust me, a trip to D.C will not be complete unless you dedicate a fair amount of time to this awesome place.
We drove by Washington Memorial(entrances closed after a recent earthquake) and off we went to the U.S. capitol, which until then I would have recognized(wrongly) as White House. The dome looked inviting and as we walked around it, realized that it was indeed an architectural marvel. It was picture time what with tripod setup and everything there. Infact, most of these places were not much crowded, one for Christmas and one for near-freezing temperatures. By then, it was getting dark and we drove around the city for another closeup look at the White House. Ofcourse, we couldn't find any parking spots and had to be happy with driving all around the city(same can't be said for Renjith who was driving then, driving in D.C., the city, can be a real pain!). And before we knew, it was time to come back.
This was another trip where we had fun going to places together and talking and making fun and eating and seeing wonderful monuments. We might not have "covered" a lot of places, but it was definitely worth every minute. It was all about being in good company to enjoy good things. And all we wanted to do was make it last forever. Hoping for many more such trips. Me signing off ;)
We reached the city in the pm and decided to start off with what else?, the White House. After walking along what seemed like a looot of miles and trying to guess which of the white buildings might be White House, we got to our destination at last. White House beamed at us amidst all Secret Service cars parked in the area. Ofcourse, we had not booked a tour months in advance, so had to be happy with seeing it from across a fence. The whole area is full of Government buildings like The Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Department of Commerce, American Red Cross and the Department of the Treasury, to name a few. Each of these buildings look magnificent. And my personal opinion is that some of them actually look better than White House, more white even ;)
One of the benefits of braving the weather at this time of the year was that we got to see the National Christmas Tree placed near the White House. The tree was all decked up and was indeed a pretty sight. There are smaller trees each representing U.S states all around the national tree, and altogether it makes a very bright Christmas Scene.
We set off the next day to Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Air & Space museum. To be completely honest,I should say that this was the very first time that I actually fell in love with a museum. Museums to me have always been places with a lot of things that might accumulate dust but never much interest. Boy, wasn't that about to change. This one was a refreshing change. It was amazing with a hanger inside displaying all sorts of planes, helicopters, space shuttles, missiles, transmission equipment and what not! We got to see the space shuttle Discovery(and mind you, this was the real one which went into space, not a model), Enola Gay - the aircraft to bomb Hiroshima in Japan(the atomic bomb - Little Boy), Nemesis - the racing champion and a lot others including the ones used in World War 2. And flights were not all. There were missiles, maneuvering equipment, a model of Pathfinder(yes, the one which went to Mars and we read about in newspapers) and even an air traffic control room where you could listen to real transmissions from Reagan airport. Trust me, a trip to D.C will not be complete unless you dedicate a fair amount of time to this awesome place.
We drove by Washington Memorial(entrances closed after a recent earthquake) and off we went to the U.S. capitol, which until then I would have recognized(wrongly) as White House. The dome looked inviting and as we walked around it, realized that it was indeed an architectural marvel. It was picture time what with tripod setup and everything there. Infact, most of these places were not much crowded, one for Christmas and one for near-freezing temperatures. By then, it was getting dark and we drove around the city for another closeup look at the White House. Ofcourse, we couldn't find any parking spots and had to be happy with driving all around the city(same can't be said for Renjith who was driving then, driving in D.C., the city, can be a real pain!). And before we knew, it was time to come back.
This was another trip where we had fun going to places together and talking and making fun and eating and seeing wonderful monuments. We might not have "covered" a lot of places, but it was definitely worth every minute. It was all about being in good company to enjoy good things. And all we wanted to do was make it last forever. Hoping for many more such trips. Me signing off ;)
