Day 3 in Washington DC

Please note that my title rhymes! I'm a poet who didn't even know it :-D

Yesterday morning we got up bright and early and made our way over to Mount Vernon - the home of George Washington. We nearly didn't get there quite so bright and early because I forgot that day passes could only be used after 9:30am. Considering we were at the Metro station at 8:30am that was a bit of an issue! Nick was just going to wait until 9:30 but I got over this idea quite quickly and just bought a 1-way ticket for both of us.

At Mount Vernon we watched an introductory video on Mount Vernon and George Washington. Considering that I knew almost absolutely nothing about him before yesterday I was a bit confused during it but I got the general idea! We then went up to have a look at his house which is beautiful and has an awesome view! We had to go on a bit of a round about route because there was quite a storm while we were watching the video and apparently some trees had come down on the normal path. I found this really odd because it was sunny when we went in! After eavesdropping on the National Treasure tour (Mount Vernon's where the President's birthday party was filmed in the second movie. We didn't do the tour because Nick hasn't seen it) we wandered down past the stables to the wharf on the Potomac River and then up to his tomb. What was more impressive was the memorial to all the slaves that are buried on the property. I really liked the museum and education centre because it told you all about the life of Washington in exhibits and short films. They even had his dentures on display! I was impressed that he set his slaves free in his will but hearing the thoughts of descendants of his slaves makes you think about why he didn't do it during his lifetime and why he never fought for the abolition of slavery.

We spent a good part of the day at Mount Vernon and on the Metro on the way back to DC Nick decided that he'd done enough for the day and went off for beers with a Swiss guy, Sam, who we'd met at the hostel. I went off to the National Gallery of Art which was awesome! I saw the only Da Vinci that's in the Western Hemisphere (it's double sided which I found odd) but the highlight was definitely the Impressionists section. There were five Van Gogh's on display including his self portrait. My favourite was one called 'white roses'. They also had an awesome collection of Monet's and I have found a new appreciation for Renoir. The Gallery only had one Dali on display so I went off and found that. It's one I hadn't seen any mention of before (it was called the Crucifixion I think).

The Gallery closed at 5pm so then I went off to the Art and Space museum (which closes at 7:30) to see the rest of the exhibits that I had missed the day before. I'm really glad I did! My favourite exhibit was definitely the exhibit on the Wrights and how they solved the problem of flight - it was fascinating! It was also very cool to see the first plane ever and I was surprised to see how insubstantial it actually was.

I got back to the hostel fairly exhausted but felt revived after my shower so Nick and I decided to go for a walk to see all the monuments lit up at night. It's so nice to be able to walk around a city in the dark and not have to worry. We saw the Washington monument although to be perfectly honest it's quite hard to miss, the Jefferson memorial which was quite spectacular all lit up, the WWII memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. By this stage I was totally finished so we caught a taxi home - the best $12 I spent all day!