Washington 2 Jan - 4 Jan

2 Jan - we went to Washington by Chinatown bus. Like in SE Asia, rival bus companies fought over us with promises about being just about to go, but the bus didn't leave until it was full.
I was less impressed with the cordination of bus, metro and rail in Washington. They have a through ticketing system, but neither the metro or rail could or would provide information on bus connections. At Union Station, the information desk handed us over to Travellers Aid. Travellers aid told us to catch a taxi to our hotel and investigate bus options once we were there.
Once we got to the hotel, we were able to rely on their free shuttle bus.

3 Jan - we visited Capital House, including sitting in the gallery of the House of Representatives, though it was too early for anything to be happening. The Senate wasn't even open at that time (12:00).
We then visited the US Botanic Garden.
We walked round the outside of the the White House. There was a protester outside. I gather from her website, that she has been there since 1981. She is protesting nuclear weapons and genocide weapons. I wish her all the best.
We moved on to the Vietnam memorials. Lan was not impressed by the memorial, but then it didn't mean a great deal to her either. She bears no malice against the soldiers, who described as invaders of South Vietnam by her government. Having been on the receiving end of B52s she feels more for the VN casualties. I asked Lan to complete the "Women in Vietnam" memorial.
Abraham Lincoln was covered in scaffolding.
Then we made the long walk across the Potomac to Arlington Cemetry and JFK's grave. Kennedy was the one historic name that meant anything to Lan on this visit to the US. Washington, Jefferson, Martin Luther King are not people she has heard of. The large but austere grave for JFK, Jacky and two of their infant children did touch her.

4 Jan - we visited the Bureau of Engraving & Printing to see dollars being printed.
Then we visited:
the American History Museum;
the Natural History Museum;
the 'Castle' (the first Smithsonian building);
the Freer Gallery; and
the African Art Museum.
All of these were very impressive with many beautiful exhibits, but my favourite is pictured here. From the exhibit on presidents in the American History Museum, is a filing cabinet badly damaged by a break in by Nixon's 'Plumbers' seeking the psychiatric records of Daniel Elsberg who had leaked Pentagon Papers revealing damaging facts about the American-Vietnam War. It was supposed to be a covert operation to gain information to discredit Elsberg, but was the first of a number of ham-fisted operations by Cuban exiles wanted to overthrow Castro rather than do Nixon's dirty work.

Follow this link for more of my Washington photos.