Day 23: Washington DC

We're having a ball in DC, and we're now used to the jets coming and going over the river at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Our HO/HO bus tour yesterday was a great start and we want to finish the circuit today AND alight at Arlington National Cemetary. Graeme and Lorraine are contributing some great photographic material for the blog and for their Fb page, so I mostly concentrate on just looking at Washington DC. The various famous places in this city (e.g. White House, U.S. Capitol, Supreme Court Building, National Mall, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and Washington Monument) are fairly well-known and easily able to be looked up online, so it's not my intention to provide all of that in the blog; more to provide a record of our experiences here.

We have lunch at Washington's Union Station (in the process, locating the Claytor Concourse; see the photo included here and the document attached back at the Day 3 Footprint) and reboard the BigBus, on which we arrive at Arlington (along with about 20 tour-coach loads of school kids) and find that we're in time to take a guided tour that will enable us to see a changing of the guard at the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier. Also, for me to locate George Westinghouse's grave (Sect 2, grave 3418). This tour is really a 'must-do', and you should look up the Changing of the Guard ceremony on YouTube. In summer (now) they change every 30 min and in the rest of the year it's every hour. The spectacle is pure Americana... part solemn and reverential and part theatrical. It really should not be missed. The tour includes Arlington House, with its history and view over the city.

We conclude at Arlington, and take the Metro subway from the nearby station back into and through town. We have to change from the Blue to the Green line at L'enfant Plaza and do so, only to find there's a delay caused by 'someone on the road' (meaning track). The rush hour is piling onto the platform, so we take a quick vote and scarper up to the street, where I call up an Uber. Lorraine has previously secured three seats at the Nationals Park Baseball Stadium, as there's a week of major-league games in DC at the moment. We're going to see the Washington Nationals v The Cleveland Guardians (used to be The Indians). We arrive in time to hear--and see on a big screen--the presentation of The Star-Spangled Banner by DC Washington (no, really! Dwight Clyde Washington has been singing the National Anthem at American sports arenas for years), but we just miss the The Gay Men's Chorus singing America the Beautiful, Mayor Muriel Bowser announcing "play ball", and the First Pitch. Still, we get food and drink and find our seats (great seats!) no trouble.

We enjoy the game, even though the home team is trounced, and I am nearly (like, 6 inches away!) bonked by a high ball that comes back behind the batsman, bounces off the fascia of a level behind us, then bounces off the stairway railing right beside my noggin. Someone grabs the ball and has a great souvenir of the game, but sadly, it's not me.

We catch a taxi from the game back to the marina. What a day!Leggi altro