US Road Trip Part 3: Washington D.C.

We arrived in Washington D.C. around 2.30pm and were very happy to see our stylish hotel, the Palomar, located by Dupont Circle. We had managed to find a good price for an executive room, almost as much as a regular double room.

As you can see I look pretty happy and I also match the interior pretty well! :)

The bathroom was not too bad either!

Old restored colonial houses towards a modern background. There is a name for the neighbourhood/street but I can't remember it or find it - anyone knows?

Almost the same time we arrived at the hotel, members of my extended aupair family arrived as well (they live in Virginia Beach, about a three hour drive from D.C.), and we headed out on the town with them. Here's me with Amy and her children (from the left) Ella (10 years old), Kyle (15) and Jack (12). Amy used to be married to my aupair mother's brother so these are the cousins of my aupair children. I have known them since Kyle was 3 and Jack newborn and Ella wasn't even born, and Amy and I have become close friends! Amy and Kyle visited me in Sweden about five years ago and the last time I met up with them was in October 2004, which as the last time I was in the US before the trip this summer.

We walked A LONG WAY that afternoon, from Dupont down to the White House along the Mall past the Capitol and up to Union Station where we took the Metro back to the hotel. The kids didn't complain a single time, well, towards the end when they were getting tired and hungry. The 15-year-old talked to Peter constantly throughout the 3-hour walk while Jack kept to the side - as illustrated by this photo. You could tell he was listening but he's in this (pre-)teen mood.

I think the Capitol is such a beautiful building.

Capitol detail.


This is one of my favourite photos from the trip (taken by the Capitol lawn).

Ella was so funny taking photos with her mobile phone constantly - and concentrating hard!

Animal life in the capital.

In the evening, after dinner at a Thai restaurant, the grown-ups had a few drinks in the hotel var while the kids watched a movie in the room.

The next day we jumped on one of these hop on-hop off sightseeing tours, which took us past National Cathedral (pictured) and through Georgetown where I have never been before.

The trolley also took us down a street in D.C. that houses almost all embassies, for example one with a statue of Winston Churchill - guess which one! :) We also passed by Sweden House, which is not in the ambassadorial street but down in Washington Harbour (I didn't manage to take a picture of it though).

We also went past all the sights we had seen by foot the day before - the White House, the Capitol, etc. - but I'll spare you another set of photos. A new building for us though was the US Supreme Court of Justice. A grand building that was unfortunately covered by scaffolding when we were there.

We got off the tour bus in "museum street", the road that runs along the Mall and has all (or most of) the Smithsonian museums. Peter went to the Air and Space Museum (and for example saw the capsule that landed the astronauts from one of the Apollo spaceflights back on earth) but the rest of us had been there before so we went to the Holocaust Museum instead. It was actually Kyle and Jack who wanted to go there, otherwise I hadn't even known about it! Unfortunately we only had two hours there as Amy & the kids had to get on the road again, otherwise I would have stayed three or four hours. I think that is what you need to really see it all. It's one of or maybe even the best museum I have ever been to so if you're going to D.C., it's a no-miss!

After Amy & kids had left, Peter and I hopped on the trolley again and saw the Jefferson Memorial from afar...

...and went past the World War II Memorial (there is also a Vietnam memorial as well as a Korean War memorial but I have seen those on previous visits so we skipped them).

The Lincoln Memorial is a must of course!

And a visit with President Abraham Lincoln himself! He sure was a tall man!

Here's the view of Washington Monument and the Capitol from the Lincoln Memorial. The picture is pretty dark but the weather wasn't as bad as it looks, it was just very grey and we did get a few drops of rain later in the early evening when returning to the hotel.

The final stop on our tour of D.C. was Arlington Cemetery where many American soldiers are buried. Initially all Americans who had served the country were buried there but as they were running out of space they changed the "rules" so that only those killed in battle are given their final rest in this cemetery.

Presidents qualify as well of course. This is - I dare to say - the most famous grave at Arlington Cemetery, that of John F. Kennedy, where an eternal flame burns.

Jackie Kennedy and two of their children (those that died as infants) are buried next to JFK.

One of JFK's famous quotes.

Another well-known tomb, that of the Unknown Soldier.

That evening, our last of two in D.C. we met up with my friend Nonna (whom I met at Oxford), at Kramer's Café Kramer's café. I hadn't seen her since November 2004 so that was fun!

Kramer's had some fun drinks on the menu but we were too full to try one :(

After Kramer's we went to a pub where we saw this funny sign.

The next morning we got up at 6am to drive up to New England! To be continued...