DC

I tagged along with Roy to a conference in Washington DC and while Roy was busily working away and watching lectures about biometrics, I was exploring the city of Washington DC and lazing about in the comfort of our fancy hotel room. Luckily for Roy he had a free afternoon where he could come out into the city and check out the sights. We managed to fit in quite a lot in an afternoon - lots of walking and ogling famous things throughout the capital of the United States. There weren't too many funny stories to go with our adventures so I will just tell it through photos.

A shot of the Pentagon before I noticed the signs saying "No Photography". 

Our hotel

A different kind of street art

"Candy"

The first and hopefully last purchase from Taco Bell - the concept of fast, Mexican food was good but in reality it was slop held together by a tortilla. It seemed kind of pre-digested (hope that gives you a nice picture).

National Air and Space museum on the National Mall. 

Apollo 11 command module.

Capitol building. 

Washington Monument.

The Natural History museum on the National Mall.

National History museum on the National Mall. 

I was pretty excited about this - Julia Childs' kitchen.

Kitchenaid mixer in the corner... jealous! 

Protests - not sure if it was officially part of the "Occupy" protests.

The White House. 

The Lincoln Memorial. 

The view of the "Reflecting Pool" which wasn't very reflective since it's being refurbished and the Washington Monument while the sun was going down.

Just like the movies... At George Washington University. 

Mmmm.... onion straws. Really tasty! 

A diner jukebox.

Johnny Rockets Diner. 

One of those thickshakes that you have to suck until your cheeks cave in. 

Vegie burger at Johnny Rockets.

Arlington Cemetery.

JFK's grave. 

Going into where the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is. 

Pentagon view from the revolving restaurant in the hotel. HA! Revolving restaurant... so snobby.

Jalapeno poppers that weren't all that spicy.

Revolving restaurant.

While we were in DC, there was a tornado warning for that area so we were eagerly awaiting news of whether it will be 'touching down' near where we were staying. Luckily for us it didn't come near. We were wondering what affect a tornado would have on a revolving restaurant.

Let's see how many times I mention the revolving restaurant in this post shall we? Trust me, we don't normally hang out in revolving restaurants (yep, said it again) but there wasn't much around our hotel and we wanted to go somewhere for a drink and hey, it had a pretty nice view!

Out for some Mexican food and giant margaritas and sangrias. 

Cocoa tree in the Botanical Gardens near the Capitol Building. 

Roy hanging out in a tree (it wasn't real).

So we managed to see a lot of what DC had to offer. We experienced a fair bit of "American-ness" with our frequent eating out at diners and fast food chains and hanging out in "malls" and such. DC is a very clean city with a decent metro system which made it very easy and pleasant to get around. There were lots of military personnel wandering around and lots and lots of SUV's. I think we've pretty much covered what DC has to offer. I'm guessing it's pretty much like visiting Canberra - once you've seen it, you don't really need to see it again. On to New York we go!