Day 3 - Did I mention it was.....

......HOT

Hotter than Yesterday.

We visited a number of excellent places today starting with Arlington cemetery and Arlington House.

The cemetery was interesting especially the Kennedy's Graves. The size of the cemetery is impressive and they have on average 27 funerals there each day, all military. Presidents can be buried there as they are the Commander and chief of the Military but only 2 are.

Arlington House was great but had some earth quake damage so we could not see all of it. It was smaller than I thought it would be but fantastic views. The house and surroundings were designed by the Washington family and was passed to Robert E Lee's wife. The site was taken by the Government during the civil war for a Military cemetery. Robert E Lee never returned there after the war.

We also seem the changing of the Guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. The America's do this formal stuff very well. Everything is perfect.

There are memorials all over the place of course; you could spend many hours seeing them all.


We then went across town and walked in the heat (I did mention it was hot) to Frederick Douglass's house. I was really keen to go and see the house and take the tour and was it worth it. This was the highlight of the trip to date. Follow this Link if you don't know who Frederick Douglass is.


The house has been preserved very well and the tour that the National Park service do is done by people who know their history. They were a bit surprised that a Kiwi knew who Frederick Douglass was. But I had a great conversation with the guide (Branden I think).

The above picture is of 2 bottles of 1890 Chateau Margaux unopened as they were left when he died. all the stuff in the house was owned by Frederick Douglass and not reproductions like most displays. 


We then went back to the Mall to the Lincoln Memorial and  the Vietnam wall of remembrance. Both are impressive but to me the most impressive was the Lincoln Memorial. That is a big statue. No Vampires mentioned nor any monkey's though.

We were buggered by then and caught a taxi to the Metro station. There was a derailment caused by the heat (I'm sure I said it was hot). The Metro trains were packed.


Hope it cools down tomorrow for our trip to Harper's Ferry and Antietam.