the CAPITOL - Washington DC

June 10, 2010 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACOB - hope you enjoyed the pink flamingos all over the lawn when you woke up this morning.  30 years old!  Man I remember when I was 30, it was like it was only......

On June 10 we drove up to Washington DC and checked into Cherry Hill Park, and as their brochure says "A Monumental Experience", oh brother.  It is quite the park with over 300 sites, a restaurant, 2 pools, a transit station right on the property, a movie every night, a couple of lakes (ponds) with fountains; well you get the picture.  The next day we jumped on a bus that took us to the rail transit and we zoomed in to downtown Washington.  And I mean zoomed; the high speed rail went twice as fast as our rail transit in Vancouver.

We soon made our way to the National Mall which is about 2-3 miles long and you can see from one end to the other.  At one end is the US Capitol building and at the other is the Lincoln Memorial.

This green space is a beautiful park like setting with all kinds of monuments, museums, art galleries, food and souvenir kiosks...it is a happening place.  There are monuments to WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, John F. Kennedy, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt, and many more.  There are museums for Air & Space, American History Natural History, National Art Gallery, and many more.  The Smithsonian has a number of buildings with awesome displays, and they even have a castle there.  Directly behind the Capitol Building are the Library of Congress Jefferson Building and the Supreme Court Building.  All of the buildings are works of art themselves, mostly Roman-Greco with huge pillars and massive entrance stairs.

I am sure most people recognize this tall tower as the Washington Monument.  The amazing thing about the National Mall is that most of the popular tourist attractions are all located in one place.  We saw many school tours; what an awesome way to teach children about their history, nature, space, and other topics.

And of course the White House.

I know this may seem hard to believe but I had a chance encounter with the President.  While I was on a bike ride I stopped at a store to get a bottle of cold water.  All of a sudden about 5 black SUVs came to a screetching halt in front of the store; these dudes in dark suits and dark sunglasses jump out of the SUVs and start tearing around the store, checking things out.  After about 3 minutes of this intense scruntiny, the front door of the store opens and in walks President Obama.  I was at the cash register paying for my water and the President walks up and asks the clerk for a package of Camel cigarettes.  He said "Hi, where are you from".  I explained that I was Canadian eh and he asked me if we could sit and chat for a while because he would appreciate a Canadian point of view.  He told his body guards to give us some space and we talked about some major issues; the War in Iraq, and the Gulf oil spill to name a few.

He said that he only smokes when he is away from Michelle and the kids, and from media scrutiny.  He asked me to call him Barack.  We became quite friendly during our 1/2 hour conversation and he thanked me for my input.  We exchange phone numbers and he said he would look me up during his next visit to Vancouver.  What a nice guy!!