Mapping our directions to get to Washington caused some confusion for a few minutes, this due to the fact the planner picked up Washington not Washington DC which is where we wanted to be. It didn't take long to sort though as we clearly knew it wasn't on the west coast of the US.

Driving round Washington DC was a lot easier than we had expected it would be to get around a capital city. On top of this we found free parking! Definitely something the UK needs to learn. We had parked 2 blocks from the Whitehouse visitor centre so only had a 5 minute walk to get there. The visitor centre was a bit of a let down as we had expected a pretty good display/informative self tour/ or something pretty special seen as it was for the Whitehouse, what was actually in here was what would be described as the cast offs the Whitehouse no longer wants, along with some very dull old paintings and a video done in drawings so not to give away the plans of the Whitehouse lay out ( but they had a model on display)!!!! No we didn't get it either.

The only interesting thing was about the various pets of the Whitehouse over the years, which had included pigs, chickens, pandas, you name it they have had it. Aside from that though there was not a lot else, so it didn't take long to cover off.

We took the best pictures we could of the Whitehouse from the railings at the bottom of the lawn, but this is pretty far away and a lot of it is covered in trees. It was good to see the Whitehouse but from this distance it looks much smaller than on the tv.

While we were walking around near one of the Whitehouse entrance roads we came across a road block, the type that raises up from the ground just like the ones we have at work only bigger, and with armed guards and dogs! While we were there a sudden flash of lights and whiz of sirens from the other side of the cross roads caught our attention. As we turned around the barrier was down and a black car with tinted windows sped across the road and through the barrier area, closely followed by a huge black jeep. The jeep also with tinted windows but the rear ones were wound down, four men resembling agent Smiths' from the Matix were sat looking out with one hand in jacket! These were obviously the armed security, but for who we don't know.

We passed by the Vietnam war memorial which forms 2 sloping walls into the ground in a park, the black walls have the names of all the Americans that died there along with a statue or two. All the names are in two big books at the top of the walls so they can be located by the families. Nearby is the Washington Monument on Monument hill, which looks like a solid large stone tower but is actually hollow with a few look out points. A few hundred yards from the foot of the tower sit's a fountain and stone structures representing the states of America that fought in its wars.

We took plenty of pictures of these things and spent some time reading bits and bats of the info and even managed to get a picture of the presidents helicopter landing then taking off from the Whitehouse, which could have linked to the black vehicles we had seen earlier!?!

This was pretty much our visit to Washington in a nut shell, we had hoped we could tour the Whitehouse itself as we had at the government buildings and homes in other countries, but as with everything in America they are way too twitchy to allow this. So instead we left the capital behind bypassing Capitol hill on our way out for a quick look.

It was nice to have seen the Whitehouse and its surrounds, but unless you ae passing through here don't make a special visit as its pretty average.