26.05 - Day 132 - New York to Washington
Sunday 26th May - New York, NY to Washington, DC (Day 132)
It's moving day. Busy buffet breakfast followed by packing of bags. As we walk along the street to the subway I remind Sienna of us walking away in Hoi An where we got waves and farewells from shop owners, restaurant owners and Kate’s masseuse. Here we don’t stand out at all and just disappear from view.
Kate, Seb and Sienna catch the subway all the way to the bus stop with all the bags whilst I pop out en route to get some bagels from Bagel Markets for lunch on the 4.5 hours bus ride. This is a Megabus so ‘bus stop’ is generous, it’s just a stretch of pavement on W34th St. But willing to overlook that for $10 a person with 2nd and 3rd row upper deck seats it works for us.
It leaves promptly at 11am heading South West easing along the uneven interstate. Just one stop at Baltimore Park ‘n’ Ride before continuing on, the only thing of note is spotting the two ends of the recently collapsed harbour bridge jutting out over the water.
We arrive at Union Station in Washington DC where it’s a 30 minute walk in the late afternoon warm sun to our hotel, the Embassy Suites. The room isn’t ready so the kids jump into and out of the pool complaining it’s too cold at which point there are complimentary drinks and snacks in the hotel restaurant.
Kate and I are glad for a beer and wine, the kids are thrilled for the giant bowl of M&M’s and crisps and a Coke freestyle machine.
The long daylight hours allows us time to walk the 10 minutes to the back of the White House with its pristine white walls and immaculate gardens and of course very large police presence.
There’s talk of freedom speech and peaceful protest regarding the dozen folk standing by the fence with banners silently protesting the Israel Gaza conflict.
Seb has more hypothetical questions - what if the president was kidnapped? What if a burglar got into the White House at night?
We walk a lap of the White House, the views more distant at the front but we overhear some people waiting for the president to arrive in his helicopter which is due any minute. We hung around for a bit (Kate insert - we waited an hour, until the kids were feral so we left), but he must be running late so we gave up and walked back to the hotel for bedtime.