Visiting the Obama's

Hi Folks,

Well after enjoying our short time in Seattle (which was only slightly hampered by the rain), we headed to Washington DC on the overnight flight via JFK. With hindsight, it maybe wasn't the best of ideas - despite being possibly the cheapest way to fly across the States.

After surviving the flight, we then endured a torturous ride in an airport shuttle bus where not only the driver was blatantly new to driving in DC, but also that he struggled to follow the simple directions from the sat nav. I lost count of the number of times the polite but firm woman said "recalculating route". 2 hours later, we arrive at our hotel feeling slightly worse for wear.

After a Dad-like power nap, we were up and about exploring DC. Unfortunately we didn't get far as it was possibly one of the warmest days of the year and with humidity levels reaching almost 100%. So we headed for a bite to eat and then to the hotel bar for a wee night cap (at $24 for two G&T's it was always going to be short and sweat).

Feeling more refreshed the next morning, we headed out to explore some of DC's main attractions: the Washington Monument, the Mall, Lincoln Memorial, the White House (which yes it is smaller in real life) and Capitol Hill. All of these were amazing and gave DC very much a London/Paris feel to it. Very un-American.

After all that walking, we went to our first ever baseball game: the Washington Nationals vs Philadelphia Phillies. We were thoroughly enjoying our first experience of baseball before DC's changeable weather struck again and the heavens opened, eventually leading to the game being abandoned. Mind you, that may have been a blessing for Washington Nationals as they giving an Aberdeen-like performance and were heading for a heavy defeat.

Having walked what felt like every square metre of central DC the previous day, we decided to head for the Arlington Cemetery which isn't too far from our hotel. It seemed very apt to visit on a Sunday and it was indeed a very moving place. It is certainly the largest graveyard I have ever seen, with gravestones appearing as far as the eye can see in every direction. The really sad thing was that there are still huge areas set aside for future graves.

Afterwards we headed in to Georgetown to stroll round possibly one the nicest areas in town. We then obviously headed to a very well thought-after restaurant as there were a few BBC journalists munching some pizza. Emma was remarkably subtle at pointing and going "Isn't that .....".

So we leave DC tomorrow morning on an early train headed from Providence. Lasting more than 7 hours, it should give us plenty of time to enjoy the scenery of the east coast. At Providence we pick up a hire car and head for a place called Truro in Cape Cod. There we've booked a wee cottage/shed for a week. Having spent a lot of time in various cities over the past week or so, we're looking forward to chilling out beside the seaside. This should provide the perfect tonic before heading back home and to the reality of work. Given the recent scandal over MPs expenses, maybe I won't be able to claim back for some our travel....

You may not hear from us for a while as I don't think our place in Truro has wifi (or electricity for that matter), but I'm sure Emma will update the blog from our final stop - New York New York!

Now I'd better get packing that case again - speak to you later.

Ricky

P.S. Jim - I hope the head has recovered from celebrating Man U's title success.