Day 31: Washington D.C.

After visiting Washington for a couple of days I can tell you that it feels more like a big amusement park for historians and fine art buffs rather than a city.  Washington has many large museums and it takes days to see them all.  Lucky that are all laid out neatly around the National Mall.  This is nice because a fast person can probably do all the museums in a couple days.  Some one who likes to take their time in museums can probably finish in 3 or 4 days.  It’s really like one massive museum split up in to different buildings with a big grassy area in between.  But the best thing about these Museums is that they are mostly free; paid for by someone else’s government! I visited the Natural History Museum, The Smithsonian Castle, and the Air and Space Museum.  There are another 6 or 7 museums in the area that I did not visit.  pictured below is the rare Hope Diamond found in the Natural History Museum and a pair of space toilets from the Air and Space Museum.

Surrounding the National Mall area there are a great deal of monuments and memorials honouring important people in American History and soldiers who have died in the wars America has fought.  Can you guess who all the monuments below are for?

Many of the buildings in Washington look very classical with elaborate stonework and many columns.  One thing I liked about Washington was a law that limits the height of the buildings.  Again, this makes it feel less like a city and more like an amusement park.  Washington is also the home of the FBI building.  There isn’t much special about it architecturally, but it reminded me very much of ‘The X-Files’.  As I walked by I kept thinking that I would see Mulder, Scully or other characters walk by; I resisted the urge to ask on of the guards where Mulder’s basement office was and if I could see it. 

Also, if anyone has played Fallout 3, which takes place in the Washington D.C. area you will notice some resemblance between the game and real life.  But there are also some things they cheated on.  It was cool to see all the buildings featured in the game and creepy to get flashed of a post apocalyptic version in my mind.  But like NYC and all the films and shows that were filmed there I got some deja vu from walking around D.C. as well.

As I write this it it pouring buckets in D.C. and I am waiting for the bus to Chattanooga, Tennessee home of Lookout Mountain.  But I will talk about that more later.