Washington, D.C Memorials!!!

After a stressful early morning, starting at 4:30am, we got on our flight to D.C (Graham had a seat, I didn't...leaving him to fly at 8am, and me to MAYBE catch a flight at 8pm or the next day!!!!!!) and couldn't wait for what was in store, now that we could relax!

We arrived in Washington and checked into the W hotel.  It is both modern, and architectural in style, full of character, and class.  I have never stayed somewhere with a price tag that the W comes with, but as Graham is on business, it's a luxury I can get used to!!!

We then got picked up by Jesse and Helen and went for a delicious brunch!  Nothing like some crab eggs benedict to get you started, after a 4:30am wake up call!  We sadly didn't get any pictures of the 4 of us, but we had fun, caught up over some bellinis and enjoy a nice walk together after brunch.  Thanks for taking us out Taylor's!  It was great to spend some time with you both!

After brunch, and a car tour to orient ourselves around the monuments, we picked up our camera, a map, a bottle of water (thank goodness, it was almost 40 Celcius!), and started walking...and walking...and walking...followed by more walking.  Our day ended up being packed with monuments, sightseeing and a lot of culture, but by 11pm, we were exhausted and ready to take off our shoes and get to bed!  Here's what our day looked like!

Our first view of the capital, from the doors of our hotel!!!

The Old Post Office, it's beautiful and was something we just stumbled upon!

The architecture in the Old Post Office was pretty breathtaking!

The view from the Post Office tower of the Washington Monument and Congress Buildings!

The view of the capitol and the Smithsonian Museums from the Tower!  Pretty marvelous!

The National Art Gallery

Walking up to the Capital building!

An artistic shot by Graham, which was totally fluke the first time!!!  He was trying to take a shot of me, not realizing it was zoomed in and he got this!!!

The obligatory tourist photo!

The Smithsonian Castle Information Centre.  Gorgeous!

Me trying to be a "fun" tourist, while embarassing Graham HEAVILY!  I was excited to see the Washington Monument, and have always wanted to be ridiculous like this!!!

Being artistic.

It really is breathtaking standing here.  Everyone should do it once in their lifetime.

I stood like this for a substantial amount of time, feeling quite overwhelmed...

Graham contemplating the American past, present and future.

Patriotic.

I had to put this up as a memory, of what happens when you ask an Asian tourist to take a photo of you at a tourist spot.  WHO DOES THAT?!?!?!?

The view from the WWII memorial.

The Lincoln Memorial as viewed from the WWII memorial.

Reflecting on the stars in honour of the fallen soldiers.

The crests in the WWII memorial.

Again, I apologize, but this is a portrayal of my husbands humour!

A tourist photo taken by a well trained Swiss couple!

Sadly, the reflection pool is under construction.  It is still quite a view though!

This was a stop Graham wanted to make sure we hit today.  Why?  "You know the one, that one on The Simpsons!  I wanna go to that one!"  Oh dear!

Abe Lincoln!

The Second Inaugural Address

Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream".

The WHITE HOUSE!!!!!!!  That's as close as we could get Sunday due to a protest screwing us on getting up close!  GORGEOUS in person!!!!

For once, we were BOTH excited to take a "tourist photo".

Well, there you have it!  A long, and exhausting walk/tour around the sites of the National Mall!