Washington, DC: Days 5 & 6

Sunday 14 Jan
Back at the house to be domestic. Watched a lot of Firefly! Nearly through the whole season now!

Monday 15 Jan
After so many days of not really doing anything, I decided to make the most of my remaining 5 days in DC. It didn’t get off to the greatest start with me sleeping in, but that was fine. I more than made up for that later.

My initial plan was to visit the White House and surrounds and visit the Compucat Washington office (my Dad’s work). Due to the aforementioned sleep-in, I had a quick whistle-stop visit to the White House (which was OK as you cannot enter it post-9/11). For lunch, Emily, Ellen and I had planned to meet and discuss Sydney. Ellen works with my Dad in DC and Emily, her daughter, is heading to Sydney on a study abroad program in February. So they both came armed with loads of questions on Sydney and Australia and University etc. etc.

It’s Emily’s first trip abroad on her own, so it’s a big move! She’ll have an awesome time, that’s a given. The only issue that was raised was her taking Health Sciences units. These, at USyd at least, are taken on a different campus. One that is quite far away from downtown. So I think she’s decided to scrap them, which luckily at USyd is a really easy process. We never have ‘full’ classes so changing preferences is easy. (Not that I would have ever considered it ‘easy’ before I traveled abroad!)

We had lunch at the Hard Rock Café in DC. As far as I am aware, this was my first trip to a Hard Rock. It was surprisingly good actually! The portions were gigantic, of course, and the beer was poured horrifically badly, but the meal itself was tasty and SO filling.

After lunch I visited the National Archives. These house the Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution), the US Constitution (with Hancock’s famously large signature), and a copy of the Magna Carta. It was a fascinating museum, although being a public holiday (for Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday), the main documentary wasn’t running. I’ve heard this place can be mega-busy in the summer, but right now it was dead quiet, which was nice. I can imagine 100 people all bustling to see the Bill of Rights wouldn’t be pleasant.

From there I walked back down the National Mall to the Freer Gallery of Art. I really didn’t expect to stop here at all, but once I was in, I was hooked. It’s a fantastic gallery of Asian artifacts and design. Being the egg that I am, I am always on the look-out for anything Asian and here it was, right in DC. I think I was the only person in some of those galleries at the time, but nonetheless the calligraphy and everything else was amazing.

It is little stops like that which make me happy to be traveling independently again. If I was in a tour group, there would have been little chance that we would have stopped at the Freer Gallery, let alone spent time there to see the whole museum. I really enjoy going at my own pace again!