Washington DC

The White House - President Obama was home but didn't come out to say hi!

Hi Everyone,
Typing this on the bus again so it may be abit messy. We spent 1 1/2 days in Washington - another WOW!
It is amazing, there are so many beautiful buildings as well as the history.

When we arrived, we checked in and just had enough time to shower and change before we had an organised dinner and sightseeing tour. Our first stop was John F Kennedy Memorial.

The Foyer had flags from all over the world

We spotted the Aussie Flag

And some beautiful Chandeliers

JFK

We went up on the roof and took some photos of the skyline:

Larry pointing out some sights

 

 


then it was off to dinner, which was a Irish Pub. Some of the buildings we passed on the way.

 

 

We had a really great meal with great company.When we got back to the motel we went to the bar and had a few drinks with a couple of fellow travellers.

It was an early start today and off to the Arlington Cemetery. That was really overwhelming to see so many graves and to know that only Military Personal , retired Military or people approved by the president could be buried there.

We had a separate tour guide for this tour - Frank and he was very knowledgeable with quite a few stories to tell as well. He had actually met John F Kennedy!

Our walk through the cemetery started heading towards JFK's grave. But we passed many many graves before hand. Frank told us there where on average 30 funerals a day!!!!!!

 


This was Robert E Lee's family home until it was taken off him by the Government because he was out of the state and couldn't pay his taxes in person.

Then we reached John F Kennedy and his wife Jackie:

We then boarded the bus and went to the other side of Arlington. This statue is in honour of the United State Marine Corp:

Then we proceeded to the memorial for Nurses:

We then walked past a very long wall of names to honour the Vietnam Veterans who died and some who still remain missing:

They call this statue - The Faces of Honour:

It was a very emotional tour and they where not many of us that weren't brought to tears by our tour guide as he recited stories of people coming here looking for relatives. One story in particular that moved me was the man that had asked Frank to help him find a name on the wall. After they found it the man took a photo and cried - Frank asked if he was a relative? The man replied No, this man saved my Grandfather's life!

After this We continued onto the Memorial for President Lincoln.

Then it was onto the Korean Memorial:

Here are some photo's of the beautiful buildings and statues around Washington that we seen on the way:

Then Larry stopped off at the White House and he took a photo of all of us:

We were then dropped off for a few hours of free time. Dave and I decided to check out the Museum of Space and aircraft:

Washington wasn't very busy at all in comparison to other big city's we have been too, and we certainly felt safe there were police everywhere in all modes of transport:

We really got a laugh out of this one!

We got picked up at 4.30 and arrived back at the motel by 5pm very exhausted. But of course we had to shower and change and head off to get some dinner! We caught the shuttle to king st and met up with another couple on our tour - Trev and Anita and had a lovely dinner at "Pat Troy's Restaurant and Pub" We had a wonderful time. The owner Pat come up and introduced himself to us and we had a good chat. He told us that Ronald Reagan had eaten at his restaurant 6 times!
When we returned to the motel via the shuttle bus we all went up to the bar for a few more drinks - We have gained a bit of a reputation for doing this :)

This morning we are heading back to New York. Not all of us have the extended stay - which is 2 night all free time to do what you want. Dave and I have booked 2 shows. Sister Act tonight and Mamma Mia tomorrow night. With tomorrow being filled in by a 5 1/2 hr tour around the city.

Well that's all for now,

Cheers Dave and Shell

Philadelphia

Hi Everyone,

We left Niagara Falls Canada this morning - another visit to customs, this time on the US side but we had no problems, all good!

We headed of to Philadelphia, which is a state full of history!  On our way to the motel we stopped off  to see the stairs where "Rocky" was filmed running up them.

The famous steps!

Of course Dave and I had to run up them as well!

We had a horse and carriage ride booked for an hour after arriving so it was pretty rushed when we checked in.Then we all walked down to where we got the ride, it was a beautiful evening 5pm, lovely and warm. We were on a carriage with another Australian couple. The only problem we had was we had had a very long day driving and we got a tour guide that "Didn't shut up". He talked the whole 45minutes about the history of the place - which would have been great if he took a break every now and then or showed some kind of emotion, it was like he was reading a script! But we did enjoy the ride!

After that we just got some dinner and headed back to the motel. Larry our tour guide is a wonderful guide, he always gives you a map of the local area near our motels and points out restaurant's and shops and on this occasion he did warn us not to go past a certain perimeter for our own safety!
We are  very glad he did that as it was not a good night to be in certain parts of Philly! In one particular bar A man got ejected for smoking -  he returned in 10 minutes with a gun and shot 6 people, killing 1!

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20110628_Man_questioned_in_deadly_bar_shooting.html

Obviously guided tours are certainly are good idea in largely populated areas.

The next morning Larry walked us down to the Visitors Centre to get our tickets for the tour of the Hall of Independence. This was very interesting, being in the same room that the likes of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were once in. Amazingly the building is exactly the same as it was.

After leaving this we then headed back to the visitor centre to see the Liberty Bell:

After this it was time to head back to the motel to catch the coach and head off to Washington!

This tour is very full on but we are really enjoying it and we wouldn't have had the chance to see it all on our own.

Cheers for now,
Dave and Shell