The District of Columbia

After returning from the concrete jungle of NY, Washington comes off as a very pleasant change. It has wide roads, plenty of trees, and the traffic isn't too fierce; much like Canberra. Unlike Canberra however, it is great to visit, has heaps to see and has a decent public transport system.
Walking around town it is hard to believe that it used to be the murder capital of the world (might still be no.1 in the US). Apparently there have been 150 homicides to date this year, but we didn't get shot once, so we should celebrate i guess. So although the city and many of the suburbs are quite pleasant it is a good idea not to go too far into the outskirts.

Anyway, the good bits we saw were many and varied. The museum sector (the Smithsonians) has plenty to see, although we did think that some of the museums needed a bit of updating and were not as good as the equivalent museums on London. For example, from the exhibits in the digital aviation section of the air and space museum looked to have been developed in the late 80s. The Zoo was pretty good and free, but after you have a wild monkey jump on your head, animals in cages seem kind of passe.

The Holocaust museum is a must see. Very depressing to be sure, but it fleshes out many of the historical aspects of the events surrounding the rise of Nazism, WW2 and the events themselves that you might not be aware of. It is also a stark reminder of the inhumanity that can be wrought by men with the wrong motivations.

The really good bits were the cultural sites like Arlington cemetary, the Lincoln memorial and the National Cathedral which reminds you of all the good things America has done in the past so you can kind of get past all the bad things George Bush has done. It gave us hope that the next president might be able to put some of it right anyway.

All in all we enjoyed visiting DC very much and heartily recommend it to fellow travellers.

Also a big thanks to Jenna and Jay for letting us stay. You guys are top hosts and it was great to catch up!