Hi guys,

Just got back from Washington after an incredible 7 hour drive...it took soooo long! But it was an awesome weekend!

We left at 5pm on Friday arriving in Washington around midnight. After settling into the place we were saying it was straight to bed! After eating breakfast at 8am we started off on a busy day. We walked to the Capitol building (stopping many times for photos along the way!) to get tickets for our tour later that day.

Then Emily and I headed off to the White House. We walked up the mall ( the grassy areas beween the Capitol building and the Washington Memorial) and then up to the White House which is so much smaller that you think!!!! But is was still pretty cool. Then we walked to the WWII memorial which was really beautiful, makes ours in Perth look like nothing! Then it was to the Washington Monument which seems rather pointless but cool anyhow!

Next it was the tour of the Capitol Building. It was really short...it took us longer to get through security and get started! But it was a amazing building with all its statues and all that!

Then Emily and I hit the Smithsonian museums. The natural history one was ok but the air and space one was quite interesting!! We didnt have that much time so we just had a quick look at them all.

At 5pm we piled into the buses and headed off to Alexandria a small old town in Virginia. We had dinner on the waterfront and then walked up and down the main street.

Before we got back to the hostel place we went to see the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials at night. They are absolutely massive, you would never build something like that today! Then we sat in the vans for like half an hour coz they thought we had lost someone...the number of people in a van dont change if someone doesnt get in or out! Kinda frustrating when its past midnight and you've been going since 8am. And we hadnt actually lost anyone to top it all off.

The next morning was another early start. We had a couple of hours so we went to the Holocaust Museum. It was the best museum that I have ever been too!! It was so well done and they had put so much effort into it all! They had three different floors that went through the different time periods of the Holocaust period and they had actual artefacts, photos and videos from the time. So it was well worth it!!

We were supposed to meet our vans on the opposite street to the White House and we were about to cross the street when all these police officers were like stop, you are not allowed to cross the street! Stay on the sidewalk and dont move...and we like ok...they stopped all the traffic and made our vans drive away.

About a minute later all these black SUV's and cops on motorcyles and a black limo drove past into the White House...we dont know who it was but we vote it was George Bush :P

After finding our vans it was a long drive all the way back to North Carolina...very tiring all of us cramped into a van.

And that is all...enjoy the photos!

xx