Philadelphia and Washington DC

My auntie has organised a two day Capitol tour with EWorld Tours. We were picked up by auntie's Jamaican friend, David, and was brought to NYC's Chinatown. When we got there, Tita Agot grabbed some delicious baked siopao and we enjoyed it on the four hour bus trip.

Our tour guide's name was John, and the driver was George. They gave us a valuable insight on what was in store for us for the rest of the day.

We made a restroom stop around the two hour mark. My sister saw some Cinnabon treats so she quickly grabbed the chance. Then off we went and we made our lunch stop in Pennsylvania, right outside the Independence Hall in the city of Philadelphia. We saw Liberty bell too but it was a closed spaced and paid entry was required.

We ate some Tita Agot spaghetti and left over fried chicken wings in the lunch place. Tita also bought some salads, a mix of mushrooms, broccoli, crab meat, bell peppers, carrots and onions.

Then we finally arrived in Washington, District of Columbia.

The first place we visited was the Christmas Tree and the Whitehouse. Mom was quite disappointed at the state their Christmas tree was in as she is used to the humongous Christmas trees ubiquitous during the festive season back home. But live trees are never perfectly shaped.

The Whitehouse ended up to be small in our photos, probably just a little bigger compared to the house markers in the game Monopoly. This was because we couldn't come any closer, understandably so, due to security reasons.

Then John and George took us to Newseum, a centre that exhibited journalism highlights and underlined the first amendment of the constitution. Also they had exhibits on terrorism, some replicas of what the culprits utilised, what dangers FBI face, and a small memorial on the September 11 tragedy.

Next, we were led to the Washington DC Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum that featured the 44 presidents of the USA. The gallery was completed with some famous celebrities. I got a photo with Uncle Sam.

After that, we had a cruise aboard a small boat called Nightingale II around the Potomac River. It was perfect timing for a wonderful sunset. We saw very briefly the Pentagon, the heart of the US Security.

Finally, we were led to Abraham Lincoln's memorial. The moon was full and was at the perfect angle to the Washington monument. The gargantuan Lincoln sitting in that temple looked austere. His speech was engraved on one of the walls. Atop the roof, the names of the United States of America were enumerated.

I expected our accommodation to be some small time Inn, but we were actually billeted in Hampton Inn and Suites by Hilton in Falls Church. Too bad I wasn't able to bring my swimmers as they had a pool there. But then again I wouldn't have had enough time as I had a lovely catch up with Miss Tetet, my Maths and Physics teacher way back in high school. We reminisced on our STEC STHS days, and chatted about the climate and some cultural differences between USA and Australia. When I got back to the room, my sister and tita Agot were just wrapping up their massage session.Read more