Somehow I totally missed posting anything about our visit to Washington DC. I don’t know how because it was really interesting. But seeing is this is slightly old news, I just bullet point it…

Parking the RV was fun. The first morning we ended up totally lost trying to find anywhere to park. And feeling slightly conspicuous, as absolutely no one else seemed to be doing their morning commute in a 27ft camper. In the end, we found free, three-hour parking near the monuments. The second day we parked in a parking building next to giant tourist buses. The $50 for parking felt steep but probably wasn’t that bad a price. The last day, we went back to the free three hour parking we found on the first day, unloaded the bikes and covered heaps of time in five hours, and managed to avoid a parking ticket

We got to see President Obama TWICE. The first time he drove past in a cavalcade as he left the Whitehouse, when we practically almost made eye contact. The next day, when he helicoptered off his front lawn in Marine One, we couldn’t actually see him, but he was right over us.

The city seems to be about three things – politics, memorials, and museums. And it’s all free, except for the politics.

There is a large green space called the Ellipse in front of the Whitehouse. We’d want to use it for a cricket oval, but it is specifically there so the public can protest within sight from the President’s office/home. I thought this was a nice touch and captured part of the heart of democracy.

We finished up the third day with a trip to the Smithsonian National Aviation Museum. I thought we had seen a lot of planes at the Naval Aviation Museum in Florida, but there is so much more to the world of flying than just the Navy!

At the George Washington Memorial – Washington DC

At the top of tThe George Washington Memorial, checking out the White House – Washington DC

Taken from the Ellipse, with Obama leaving the White House in Marine One – Washington DC

The man who lead the war to keep the nation together, freeing slaves, and who was killed four days after the victory – Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC

The family looking from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument – Washington DC

The only graffiti on the Lincoln Memorial: Engraving on the steps to mark where Martin Luther King gave his “I have a dream” speech – Washington DC

The WWII Memorial – Washington DC

At the WWII Memorial. Each star represents 100 US soldiers killed, and there are a lot of stars not in the photo – Washington DC

The world’s most successful reconnaissance plane. the Blackbird SR-71 – Smithsonian National Museum of Aviation, Washington DC.

The Enola Gay. The plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan. I had to just stop and stare – to be this close to that moment was surreal – Smithsonian National Museum of Aviation, Washington DC.

You know it’s bad when the Rangers have to put it on a bill board. But when the little suckers can be as tiny as a full stop and still transmit some incredibily nasty deseases, you have to get used to it or move on – Greenbelt National Park, Washington DC