Going to the Mall…

24 and 26 April 2014 Washington DC

Usually it takes  a threat or a promise to get me to a mall. The National Mall in Washington DC is a different story. 

Protestor tents in the Mall. Very earnest. Beer coolers are tastefully hidden.

No roof, hardly any stores and lots of elbow room. Stretching West – East from the Washington Memorial to the Capitol Building the National Mall is a big open park with gorgeous surroundings including the Smithsonian. You can keep coming back for weeks to fully absorb just the National Mall and its treasures – and if you add the adjacent memorial parks (Lincoln, Jefferson, Roosevelt) and the White House there is a lot of territory to cover. Unless you have been hiding in the woods all your life there are many landmarks here that are familiar parts of the North American psyche (yes even the psyches from the frozen north). It’s a strange blend of commonplace and surreal.

 

So we walked it. All points of the compass over 2 days (about 10 miles a day is our estimate) in the wonderful warm spring weather. Skimmed. Took a few pictures. Click here for photos if you haven’t drifted off yet. Click here for photos if you haven’t drifted off yet. Click here for photos if you haven’t drifted off yet. Wake up!

Welcome back.

View of Smithsonian Castle from the side. Unusual and crappy perspective.

The Smithsonian is a collection of 19 museums, some research facilities and a zoo. Most of the museums are free. I know you can Google so I’ll spare you the lecture. We flitted through several. National pride at its best. Bucket list material. To be allowed as close as we were to the White House is privilege not to be missed. Are you tearing up?

No stock photos. Mediocre and genuine.

The Metro system was perfect for us – we stayed at a campground north of the city and it was a short drive down to the station followed by a ½ hour trip to the National Mall. After a couple of days rubbernecking we started heading north since our US stay clock was running out (182 days max).

The Gap...

 

Doesn’t take a sharp eye to notice a bit of an annual cycle in this blog. Lots of output October to early April then silence for the summer.

But we have been busy doing stuff so if you have nothing better to do read on and I’ll try to catch up.

17 April 2014  Savannah GA - Doing the Squares

Ah believe there are 22 squares in the original plan which includes residences and churches around a square (park). We walked about 5 hours and covered them all. We cannot explain why. Yes we did know there are tours. We are not always smart but we usually know why our feet hurt. Mother Nature took pity on us and served up 68F and mostly sunny.

You can click on this sentence and get hurled into an album with lots of pictures of our walk. Fortunately for you I am not in any of them. 

In case you’re thinking that this was just idle walking around activity – au contraire. We found out that a) Savannah had no rock to build with and used other stuff (you will find out if you search the pictures) and b) The rocks (cobblestones) on the streets near the river were ship’s ballast dumped when they loaded cargo.

Restaurants (Goose Feathers is cool) yes. Shopping no. Bourbon as an antidote for sore feet yes.

Washington next (we get culture).