Day Three

Day Three

Feeling the effects of the change of time zone plus lack of sleep today, have felt like I’m moving through treacle all day.  We are 19 hours behind NZ, so 7pm at night here is midday NZ time.  Had a rude awakening this morning with the workmen downstairs started banging and sawing.  The owners of the apartment are doing up the other units in the building so there were workmen here until at least 7 last night when we went out for dinner, and when we got home again, no power.   We were able to phone the owner and his partner came to our rescue, the painter had turned off the mains by mistake.  Sigh.  The downside of using places like this rather than a motel, redeemed by the fact the owners live nearby and were able to fix it quickly.

So we had a later start to the day, first stop was to buy a camera to replace the piece of junk sony that has died for the second time.  Was replaced under warranty last year some time, the replacement fell ill not long after that but we were able to revive it, now the second one has died completely.  Not buying another sony !!!  So a replacement was purchased and we headed off to the Capitol, and went to the Library of Congress.  Wow, what a stunning building.  We spent ages in here, it is a beautifully ornate building with painted ceilings, mosaic floors, marble columns and leadlight roof domes.  Then we went across to the Capitol building and had a bite of lunch.  After the amazingness of the Library building, we weren’t bothered about waiting for a tour, so once we’d finished our eats we caught the metro back to the Smithsonian, and walked to the Air and Space Museum.  Needless to say, J was like a kid in a candy store.  I thought the space stuff was pretty cool, got the see the actual waistcoat worn by Gene Kranz.  If you’ve ever seen Apollo 13, he was the Chief of NASA’s flight Control Division and there is a scene in the movie where his waistcoat, handmade by his wife especially for each mission, is delivered just before launch.  They also had the original Wright Brothers “Wright Flyer”, the first aeroplane to successfully undertake sustained controlled flight.  The wing fabric has been replaced but the rest is original.

Had some niggly issues with our credit cards being declined which was most annoying.  Westpac tell us it’s a CVV issue and we should either use ATMs’ or a different merchant.  Helpful – NOT !!!  The pos terminals here are pretty old, mostly swipe based rather than chip and even have a panel for you to sign on so your signature can be captured – no PIN entry here !!

Feeling pretty tired by this point, feet aching, legs heavy, but the Pentagon was on the same train line as we had to catch back to Foggy Bottom where we are staying, so we decided to head out there for a look see.  Went to the Memorial for those killed in the September 11 attack where the plane was flown into the Pentagon.  It’s a great memorial, really simple but well thought out.  There is a seat in the park for each of the victims, with their name enscribed on the end of the seat.  For the victims that were working in the Pentagon at the time, the view of their name has the Pentagon building in the background.  For the victims on American Airlines Flight 77, when viewing their names, the visitor sees the victim’s name and the direction of the plane’s approach in the same view.  Each seat has a pool of flowing water beneath it to reflect the sky and light.  There are maple trees planted throughout the area which will grow tall to provide shade to over the Memorial in years to come.

Security is very noticeable around the Pentagon and I was asked to delete a photo I had taken of the side of the building as it also had included some check points plus cars in the car park.  You are allowed take photos from within the Memorial grounds where all you can see is the outside wall of the building, but not the entrances/exits where the security checks etc are done.  Seemed a bit farcial to me, if I was wanting to gather intelligence on the building I wouldn’t be wearing a bright pink t-shirt and looking obviously like a tourist, but he was armed so I wasn’t going to argue the finer points of Homeland Security.

Then it was time to head home, eat and rest our weary pins for the night.