Washington DC

Really enjoyed the train trip here from New York. Very comfortable as we perched there in our seats using the wifi. The trip was about two and a half hours but flew by quickly.

As soon as we arrived at our hotel Catherine had me marching out the door quick smart. We started at the Capitol Building, checked out the Supreme Court, Congress library and we then walked for six hours. We went from there right up to the Lincoln Memorial checking out all the various monuments along the way. There is quite a bit of maintenance occurring so the mall wasn't the usual expanse of green but is cluttered with mounds of dirt , equipment etc. It is quite spectacular to see it all even for me who has seen it all before. The heat and humidity is knocking us around somewhat but we persevered. Enjoyed a wonderful meal last night.
 I had prepurchased tickets for the hop on hop off bus so today we joined the yellow line and went up into the Georgetown area. Love the homes in that area. Catherine wanted to checkout the uni there so we marched up there. I found a restroom in the library. Finding restrooms being something I am becoming particularly good at.

After a wander around there we rejoined the bus and continued over to the mall area to start on the museums. They are so huge that there is just too much to take in.

We were both happy to hop back onto the air conditioned bus after a long hot day to bring us closer to the hotel from where we would have a fairly short walk back BUT the bus broke down. Overheated just like us. Well I soon found a coffee shop, Catherine found H and M, Zara, Forever21and had a bit of a shop and we walked back to the hotel.

I told catherine that I was done for the day.  I love the gardens around here. Especially love the planter boxes with the tiered planting. So lush and colorful. There was one planter that had the most spectacular hibiscus growing. Absolutely enormous. The trees are beautiful.

It is a  pretty city and easy to navigate . Love the streets that are named after letter. E.g. K street, c street. Discovered when navigating our way home last night that there isn't a j street.

Of course we checked in at the white house on our walk back to the hotel. Not sure if Obama is home. I would say he is holidaying somewhere lovely and cool.

9/11

As I had booked our visit to the 9/11 for Monday at 10:30am we caught the metro downtown, had a wander around the financial district, had a coffee in a very pleasant cafe that most importantly had a restroom, became slightly disorientated after leaving the cafe, but did then make it to the memorial site on time. Bags were checked and we were through security and into the site. I actually found it very emotional. The tv images of that day are so vividly imprinted on my mind and to think that so many lost their lives at this spot. I took photos of the place but didn't think it appropriate to do what a lot of visitors wre doing and that is take photos with us in the photo. It is a beautiful area with trees and grass areas. Most amazingly there is the survivor tree still standing strong with support ropes but still standing defiantly there. The new towers are being constructed and to see trinity church still there havingmsurvived that day was a message of hope and strength. Yes I am pleased that I went as that day needs to be remembered by the whole world. Having been to the photographer, Sassans exhibition provided the images so that I could see beyond what is now there to what was there. His exhibition so worth seeing. So many artifacts that he collected, including dolls, phones, shoes tickets, not it wasn't macabre but well done. Seeing a piece the only found piece of the plane was eerie. Seeing glass from the buildings windows was eerie. Apparently only enough glass to fill the boot of a car was recovered. The rest returned to sand.
I feel sassan, and I am going to have to check the spelling of his name, was the only photographer allowed into the site. He found it tough . What an understatement!
We didn't linger at the memorial.
But left th visit of course, the court houses. We meandered to what was the civil court, checked my camera in, went through security and wandered around admiring the beauty od the entrance ceiling, peeking into a few courtrooms and oh! Most importantly discovering a restroom.
I loved the architecture of these buildings .
It was then time to walk to Soho where I must admit I did get cranky with Catherine who managed to spend an hour inTopshop while I sat in the shoe section and waited. When we eventually left I then discovered another Bloomingdales was just down the street. Not that I was going to be buying anything else though.

More shopping

Aha!  Bloomingdales helped us recover from the heat, read previous entry. It was Air conditioned, there were great clothes. Oh , happy happy was me!!!!!! We Checked out some surrounding shops an the walked back to our hotel via 5th avenue. ll the jewels had been taken out of the shop windows so we will have to return to see them.    
Oh yes food. One of the shop assistants told us Bout the yoghurt on the seventh floor so off we trekked. Yes worth the trip. Oh and of. Ourse getting the visitors ten percent off our purchases is a great incentive. Think of All the money I M saving!!!!!!!!

What a place!

Well, life here is certainly interesting. It's hustle hustle, well except for those annoying people who dawdle . We have walked our feet off and I have to admit that they are very very sore.   Checked out Macy's store yesterday and my oh my the shoe department was an absolute madhouse I have never seen so many shoes literally flying around. The idea is to give your order to a salesm an who enters it into his hand computer And someone then brings the shoes to you. I decided to be brave and in I went! Wish that I had had no ing gloves, but managed to find a shoe so gave my order to a man who told me where to wait and wait and wait and wait, anyway he eventually turned up Pologizing but had the wrong shoes so he very kindly said he would go And get the shoes himself. He did and yes I bought them but my feet are so swollen that I felt as though I was pushing puffy sausages into a matchbo x.
I think I will jump off a cliff before I tackle Macys new York again. San Francisco, yes, here, no!

By the way Mary Poppins was mArvellous. The scenery, choreography , singing. Definitely worth going to. The theatre itself was spectacular. What amazing places these are. We went to a play called One Man and Two Governors last night and after. Shaky first ten minutes, we laughed our heads off. It was a British show and I enjoy their sense of humor. Before the show commenced a quartet performed. They consisted off a singer, guitarist, bassist?? and percussionist ona washboard. The play was set in the sixties so they were appropriately dressed. Ver impressive.

On departing the theatre there was an avalanche of humanity stu k in the street because apparently Ricky Martin was there so all the star struck ones stopped for a glimpse. When we tried to hustle through, Catherine was grabbed by a cop and thrown. She was rather upset so,we went to a little diner where she had a cup of tea and we shared a bowl of calamari.

Actually then managed to ring dad on the correct day for his birthday. Well we had tried earlier when we knew it would be eight thirty in Aus and couldn't work out why dad didn't answer .catherine said that we could understand it if it was a Sunday cause he would be at chur h and the it dawned on us, it was Sunday over there and that's where mum and dad were. I think we are losing it. Just tired.
Managed to surprise Michael, declan and Kieran with a phone call as well. These phone cards Re great and now we have managed to work out that we can use our iPhone and not have to run around the city like demented lions raging and looking for a Public phone............

A bit slow, we are.

Ok, so today we decided to visit Central Park. Hot hot not, so we caught the metro for the short trip and upon arriving at Columbus Circle, we're immediately accosted by the sellers, hire a bike, be driven in horse drawn carriage, be taken around in  y someone else doing the peddLing whilst we sit in the sHaded pedicab.......ummmmm sounded good to me. Catherine was keen to walk but me being the sucker negotiated a price, and off we went.  Well honestly I think it was worth the sixty, yes I negotiated down to sixty!!!!!!dollars cause it was so hot Nd it gave us a much faster look at the park. I had considered hiring bikes Nd we could ride around ourselves but after seeing the ambulance caring for one poor fellow who had a crash Nd then another, nope I made the right choice. Whizzed around by a most entertaining fellow who afterall was well mannered enough to Apologise for the fact that he hadn't worn a belt and we kept getting a view of his undies, no backside thank goodness cause with the heat I would have passed out
The time saved meant we could progress on to part two of the day.