Em and Jon’s Wedding

We’re married! We had such a great time - thank you to everybody who helped make it happen, and to all of you who helped us celebrate.

Em has mentioned what a good idea it was to stay on the outskirts of Washington: we were just off the beltway, less than half a mile from the Branch St. Metro station. The Washington Metro really impressed me - it was clean, efficient and cheap. Seems like the cars were the same as on the BART in the Bay Area, only newer. The stations were large and airy; the exact opposite of London or New York.

Em’s USA Lonely Planet guide book, which is mostly very good, has crappy maps. Mid-grey on a white background just doesn’t get the job done - so we didn’t take the most direct route from L’Enfant Plaza (the locals pronounce it “lerfont”) to the National Mall. I’m glad we didn’t, because we stumbled across the botanic gardens on our way to the Capitol Building.

Even the regular streets are very pretty round here: beautifully planted and kept, and for botanical numpties like me, the trees have signs on them identifying them. Now I know what a boxwood tree looks like.

The visitor center promised to be finished by 2006 in our 2004 guidebook is still a very expansive building site behind the Capitol building. A local policeman told us the new completion date is 2009 or so. Don’t hold your breath. We’re led to believe you have to hit the lines at 8am or something to have a chance of seeing a House session or getting a tour, so the fact that we did our usual crack of lunchtime start meant there was no chance of that, but then that wasn’t the aim of the trip. We’re here to wander about, pick up the ambiance, and maybe stumble across something cool. The idea is that there’s no schedule, then we can’t be late for anything. We have enough of that kind of thing in our normal lives.

The security around some of the most important sites in the country was conspicuous, but not as obtrusive as it might be. In all, I’d say it was very well done. Tourists can still get a sense of what the place is all about. It wasn’t long before we got treated to a 9-car entourage with sirens wailing heading down Independence Ave.

A few snaps of the Capitol building and then it was down 1st St., again directed by the friendly copper, to Tortilla Coast for lunch. Num num. Now for the serious sight-seeing. Past the Supreme Court, the Taft memorial playing tunes on its bells via the National Archives, DoJ, IRS and so on down Pennsylvania Ave. until we got to the Mayor’s office, the John A. Wilson building no less, where a press conference about the Deonte Rawlings shooting was underway. As if we needed reminding, this is where it all happens.

Onward, to the biggest tourist draw of them all, the White House, which to me was the least impressive. Maybe it was because you can’t get too close (although the railings stuffed with tourists aren’t as far away from the big jerk’s house as I thought they might be) but it just didn’t wow me like some of the other things we saw that day. I was impressed, in a 7-year-old-boy sort of a way, by the figure with the very big gun on the roof silhouetted against the blue sky, I suppose. Then I guess the Capitol is meant to be more impressive in some ways, what with the whole separation of powers thing and all. Anyway, we knocked on the White House door and ran away.

The next monument we saw, though, was incredibly impressive, and it seems that ol’ George W. was responsible for its commissioning. He just went up (a bit) in my estimation. The World War II monument surely was a long time coming, but it’s been worth the wait. My photos don’t do it justice to it, but I really was moved.

Next it was down along the reflecting pool towards the Lincoln Memorial. Now there is a pile of stone. They must hold him in high regard, because this place is the most staggering monument I’ve been to in a good while. The way the edifices are aligned on a great east-west line is reminiscent of Paris, and the scale is just as grand. The Lincoln Memorial, to me, takes pride of place at the Potomac River end of the National Mall. The seated statue of Lincoln is very imposing, and on either side lies the text of his two great speeches: the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address. It might sound trite, but imagine just how influential you’d have to be to get your words carved 50 feet high in stone in your nation’s capital.

It was getting towards dusk when we left the Lincoln memorial and headed for the Vietnam War memorial: the famous black v-shaped wall emblazoned with all of the dead and missing. It’s guaranteed to make you stop and think.

Then finally we walked across the way to the Korean War memorial. It was too dark by now for effective photos, but it was probably the best time to appreciate the design, since it’s made up of slightly larger than life soldiers in full battle-dress, most of them looking pretty scared. For some Americans, no doubt, it would have been difficult to accept that soldiers got frightened, but to me it’s a bold step forwards.