First settlements

One thing that keeps making Christina and I cringe is when the tour guide or video reminds us all how the English torched Washington DC in 1812. To be fair they were very careful to burn only the government buildings, but still that included the White House, the Capitol and Library of Congress.

We are staying close to the 'Historic Williamsburg' area which was one of the ver first places settled by the English around 1700. Many of the buildings were 'reconstructed' which i guess means they built it from a drawing, but still it gives an amazing impression of the colonial settlement. It feels quite English, but the white picket fence feel very American.

Jefferson's house Monticello(last photo) was great to go and visit- he had about 11 grandchildren living there who were banned from his 'Sanctum' on one side of the house, when he was in his 70s. I would definitely do the same. It gets a little muddled around the slavery issue though- he had over 100 slaves on his tobacco plantations but was a fervent abolitionist.

During the Civil war, it seems very strange that the Confederate capital was in Richmond, Virginia only 108miles from the Union capital at Washington DC. No wonder most of the Civil war was in Virginia!

A Walk in the Woods

I am slightly concerned about the deer around here- they are way too friendly to people. If the economy ever collapses, i'm coming here for steak.
I was just sat in reception of the hotel and overheard a man asking if he could leave his dog outside his cabin overnight. The lady replied 'We don't advise that sir, the bears tend to eat them'.



The Shenandoah itself is lovely, the temperature is 25-30C and with the vegetation it feels quite like Europe. The hills roll off in mist into the distance. We're a little spoilt by the canyons of Utah where it was completely clear for 50miles!

The Appalachian Trail passes very close to our cabin and we walked along a tiny section of the 2100mile length (all the way from Georgia to Maine). A few hundred people walk the entire length in one season- i'd be impressed if i did 100miles!

Capitol

I guess the toughest security line in the world is probably the queue to the Capitol building. You're not even allowed to take in an empty water bottle, let alone 50ml of insect repellent. But you have to be impressed that they can let 1000+ people an hour into the main Capitol building at all really!

I'm amazed the senate room is so small- it houses just 100 senators. And each state sends two, regardless of population which seems silly- California has 36m people and Wyoming only 540k.

And in the basement there was an excellent exhibition filled with original letters and documents from the short political history, to present day. Amazing how slavery tore the nation apart from 1790 until the 1860 Civil War- i had no idea how long and deep the debate ran.

..a few Washington additions

Appears Christina neglected to include any photos of the air and space museum, so i thought i'd add some! We have the Wright brother's original 'Flyer', the Bell X-1 the first plane to break the sound barrier, and a test model of the Hubble telescope.

Capital Capitol

We arrived in Washington DC yesterday evening and seem to have packed a lot in in the last 24 hours. It was raining torrentially as we came out of the airport - and still 96 degrees! Apparently they had their hottest July ever, and heatwave is still going strong.

We went to see the White House yesterday evening, which was very impressive...and made me hum the tune to The West Wing. It felt like President Bartlett...sorry, Obama, might just wander out of the Oval Office looking thoughtful and presidential. After we got back to the hotel we checked the White House website, and it turns out that the President was due to land on the South Lawn in his helicopter about 10 minutes after we'd been there. Major darn!

Today we went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (like I could have kept Pete away). They have some amazing exhibits, including the original Wright brothers plane which made the first flight in 1903. Lindberg's 'Spirit of Saint Louis' and the Apollo 11 command module were also drawing some crowds! We also got a glimpse of the Hope Diamond in the Natural History Museum (not a patch on my engagement ring), along with some 50,000 year old skulls.

The Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and the WW2 Memorial were all stunning in their own way. With the Capitol at one end and the Lincoln Memorial at the other, the Mall certainly seemed iconic.

The tortoise and the hare

Spent the last night in Chicago kayaking down the river right through the centre and out almost on the lake- they run bi-weekly fireworks for us to watch on the pier.

Of the 50+ kayaks that started out, Christina was powering along in first place, i was bobbing along in the pack. By the time the fireworks were done and we turned around, her arms were shot and she was slowly poodling along at the back... oh well. Pain is temporary, glory is forever.

Everyone started off so friendly, apologising for every bump and splash, and after about half an hour, all the friendliness had faded massively...
And the police boat came past at speed leaving a 4ft wake- enough to throw some people outa the kayaks! I think i prefer cycling :-)

Chicago Chicago

Chicago is truly the original home of the skyscrapper- they were invented and first built here in 1890 and now have some of the biggest in the world.

We took a tour this morning and the most interesting buildings were some of the brick-built blocks that were the tallest in the world at the time. To hold up a 17story brick building the walls were 8ft thick and took up 20% of the ground floor space- less than ideal! But when people got comfortable with using a steel frame, it was cheaper, twice as fast and you could build as high as you like.

And i guess the conclusion to that is the Willis (Sears) Tower- one of the tallest buildings in the world, and probably the only one with a glass overhand to stand out over! That's about 440m, Canary Wharf is about 230m high..