Today we hoped to visit the attractions that we planned to see on the first day of the trip. It should be much quieter being a weekday and no other events going on.
Parking in the city center is still tricky however so we had to park in the JFK performing arts center which was a good 15 min walk from anything.
Our first attraction to see was the Lincoln memorial. Just as we got out of the car it started to rain,typically. We persevered on though just as we did in Niagara falls.
Fortunately the rain let off as we arrived at the Lincoln memorial and we marvelled at the view down towards the Washington monument and Capitol Hill.
We took some pictures and walked up the steps to have a look at the Abraham Lincoln statue inside.
The memorial looked very different from when I was there 15 years ago. They are building a new museum next to it and a new accessible platform (which wasn't open yet). The accessible platform had been placed right in the middle of the steps that lead up to the memorial which to me looked a bit out of place.
Nevertheless the view from the top was breathtaking.
We decided to walk along the path adjacent to the memorial pool towards the Washington monument and the WW2 memorial. There was an air of peace and tranquility in the area, apart from us having to dodge the electric scooters that were flying past us. We took some more photos around the WW2 memorial before finding a couple of food vans in the park. I had steak quesadillas and an Oreo milkshake which I managed to drip onto my trousers. Once I had wiped it off i had a wet patch which made it look like I had wet myself! Luckily the wind was quite strong so it wouldn't take long to dry!
After a brief rest we made our way a few blocks down the road to find the white house. Whilst making our way there we heard a lot of police sirens and saw a motorcade of bikes, police cars and other vehicles. There was heavy police presence. We later found out that the Japanese president was meeting at the White House with Joe Biden, so i doubt they would have had time to let us in as well.
As we approached the white house, which you could get quite close to, we encountered a group of protesters who were protesting about the Philippines supposedly being controlled or sold by the US. Anyway it didn't effect us as we were able to get some amazing photos of the white house stood right on Pennsylvania avenue.
Sam was overwhelmed with what he was seeing, he couldn't believe he was here.
After we had soaked it all in we headed back towards the car as it looked like the weather was going to get us soaked again. We made our way via the white house gift shop where Jill bought some things.
It was a long walk back to the car but our step count for the day was through the roof.
When we got back to the hotel which was about a 30 min drive away I decided to repack my cases ready for the journey home tomorrow.
For our last evening in the US we headed out to an outback steakhouse as we all fancied a steak. We had a lovely meal here. I had a steak with a few shrimps and garlic butter on the side plus veg. We spent the evening reminiscing our trip and all of the memories we had made.
After this we went back to the hotel,had a drink and watched TV.
Tomorrow is our final day as we head to the air and space museum just up the road from here before we fly home in the evening.
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