Sam's Your Uncle: An American Road Trip: Day 8

Our only full day spent in Washington was spent much more efficiently than our first. After a much needed lie-in, however brief, we hurried into town to catch another duck tour. Captain Franklin, it suffices to say had a radically different style to our Boston guide Disco Dan (see Post Four: Day 2), but he made up for his 'conventional' captain's garb with his desire and ability to navigate the streets and narratives of D.C.

The roads and waterways gave way to bountiful history that, as we had found in Boston, would elude the average tourist. For example, the term 'lobbyist' comes from a time during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, during which Grant would frequent a Washington hotel's bar so often that people would wait for him in the lobby in order to engage him. We also learnt that 26,000 people work in the Pentagon, that Mary Surratt - a woman convicted of conspiring in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln - was a cousin of author F. Scott Fitzgerald, and that the largest denomination of currency ever in public circulation is the $10,000 bill. And we got to take photos driving the boat.

I got my flippy-floppies

Following this grandfather figure's enthusiastic recommendation, once the tour ended, we headed to the National Archives, which house the three most important documents in American history: the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. It was certainly a tremendous sight, but perhaps an experience more close to the hearts of Americans rather than stinky imperialists.

Then we headed towards the general direction of 'the things we didn't see yesterday'. The Lincoln Memorial was at the top of this list, but along the way, we managed to see the war memorials for the Vietnam and Korean Wars, the Reflection Pool, and an island dedicated to the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. At the foot of the memorial, facing the pool and Washington Monument in the distance, is a plaque that remembers the famous March on Washington of 1963 where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his 'I Have A Dream' speech. It suddenly struck me that the 50th anniversary of that momentous day is fast approaching: August 28th 2013.

Hi Abe

Korean War Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial was as grand as I remember, while the Korean War Memorial had escaped my memory slightly, so it was great to revisit and reflect a bit on the magnitude, significance, and contemporary relevance of the conflict, as a bus full of South Koreans disembarked at the site.

Homeward bound again, I had arranged with two other friends to meet for dinner. JD, a pal from my first trip to China in 2009, is now living in Baltimore, Maryland, about an hour from D.C. Anna (Davies) is a recent friend from college who I met this year as part of a rigorous and comprehensive friend-finding campaign. She was in town working to promote naval history for the US government.

JD and Anna

Anna and Matt

We all converged on Dupont Circle, a popular district for wining and dining, and shared the usual chatter, gossip, sonnets, and laughter as well as grab some food. Dinner at a tasty Paris bistro was followed by disconcertingly cheap drinks ($3 a 'pint') at a favourite haunt of Anna's. Between the boozing and the naval history popularizing, I don't know how the girl has time to do anything else...