29.05 - Day 135 - Washington, DC

Wednesday 29th May - Washington, DC (Day 135)

A familiar start to the day, attacking both the breakfast buffet and then schoolwork in the room, and a familiar warm day ahead with a chance of scattered storms later in the day. 

Each day at 10am the Washington Monument releases some tickets for both the day in 30 days time, and for those less organised, tomorrow. At 10am Monday I’d jumped on the site but only a few single tickets were available. Yesterday at 9:59 I sat tapping Refresh, Refresh and as 10am ticked over I was able to source four tickets for today at midday - which is where we stroll after leaving the hotel. 

There’s a police helicopter flying low around the area, which we discover, after ascending 500 feet in the lift inside the obelisk and peering out the small window, is a precursor to the President’s helicopter - Marine One - (though actually any helicopter with the President aboard is called Marine One) arriving onto the lawn to pick him up (look closely in the top photo for the helicopter). 

A few minutes after the rotors have stopped spinning, small figures emerge from the White House and whisk him away to the South East. We might not have seen Mr Biden face to face, but still pretty cool to have “seen” the leader of the free world. 

There are only eight small windows but they afford great views over a city where the building height is capped well below us. The White House to the North, the Capitol Building to the East and National Mall and Lincoln Memorial to the West. Just beyond that over the river is the sprawling Pentagon building. 

Whilst DC might be a decent sized city, for the average tourist it’s conveniently compact and so it’s easy to see all these famous sights on foot. We sit at the foot of the Memorial in its shadow to eat lunch because in the sun it is too warm, yet a brief rain shower sends everyone looking for cover under the canopy of trees. 

It soon passes and we walk into downtown past buildings which look old but are almost too clean and so seem as though they have been built recently to look old - it’s actually the former, but they are suspiciously clean. 

Seb and Kate veer into the Martin Luther King public Library as Seb has school work to finish, whilst I take Sienna across the road to the National Portrait Gallery where we waltz around the quadrangle building until Sienna finds a reading nook, absorbing a book about Rosa Parkes. 

Once Seb has finished his work, Sienna and I leave the large glass covered indoor courtyard and join them - the kids delving into some books which I explore the library; a peaceful rooftop garden looking into the offices across the street, plus a whole floor given over to the struggles for racial equality - another example of where a library is about far more than a room full of books. 

We take a slight detour on the way back as well as shifting from a walk to a run as it starts to rain again, to Peach Cobbler Factory where we indulge in a pair of waffles smothered in chocolate and peanut butter. 

Back at the hotel the evening canapes / snacks are enough to see us through the evening, accompanied by more card playing including introducing Sienna and Seb to the game of Whist which they adapt to quickly.