(continued from part I)

5:45 PM : We are out of the Museum, but we(Rahul and I) found ourselves on the other side of the museum. So, we ask others to meet us as Washington Memorial and we start for that. By this time we were hungry and looking for some food, but everywhere around there was only Non-vegetarian food, the only fuel that was powering me was diet coke.

We could see Washington memorial since the arrival at Smithsonian, but we found out how big it was when we reached there(Funny that even knowing that it is the world’s tallest stone structure I was thinking of this as small). We were extremely tired and had no energy to go any further. I wanted to see more places, so I asked Rahul to wait and relax and went ahead.

Washington Monument

I could see the big pool, and I remembered I had seen it in few movies. That was the World War II memorial. This was the most beautiful place I have seen in Washington, a big pool where you can see reflection of Lincoln Memorial as well as Washington Memorial (from two different sides).

World War II Memorial

I did not have much time, so I moved to Lincoln memorial. This was a very beautiful place too. Over so many years, I have read a lot of Lincoln stories and that was main reason this place holds a lot of importance for me. I wanted to stay more and then go ahead towards Potomac River, but all my friends have already reached White house. So I started back.

View of Lincoln View from WW II Memorial

Taking a perpendicular path to what I have been taking all day, we can easily reach White House – home of the most powerful person on earth. I had expected a lot of security, but there wasn’t any (visible to me). It was pretty crowded place and everyone was busy taking a snap in front of White House.

White House

I clicked few more pictures of surrounding area and then we stared walking toward Metro Station. From Metro we went to Du Pont Circle, we met a friend’s relative there and went with them for dinner. India Heritage is the name of the place, after a long time I had great quality Indian food. As everyone would expect a lot of Indians in that restaurant, it wasn’t the case, the place was full of Americans.

Du Pont Circle

Around 9:30 we finished our dinner, we started back for our place to stay (back to Virginia State). It took us about 90 mins to reach back. We were so tired, but still interacted with new friends, copied photos to laptop(Yeah, I had finished 1 GB of quota on my camera) and then slept like a log. 

Next morning, everyone was tired and didn’t want to go anyplace to early. Once again it was Rahul and I who planned to leave. We went to the Zoo (Washington Zoo Photoset) and to our surprise we met Tania and Vuko. We weren’t lucky to see many animals but could catch glimpses of Giant Panda, Elephant, Hippopotamus and few more animals on the way. Our aim was 11:30 show of feeding of Giant Octopus. When we reached that place we found out that, Octopus wasn’t hungry and was hiding behind a rock. After a long wait, it came out but I was surprised to find out that octopus was not as giant as I had thought. We were discussing same but that time a volunteer told us that this was a baby octopus, now we could imagine how big the adult would be. [Interesting piece of info, Octopus are usually named after the place where they are born, this one was called Vancouver].

We saw few more animals (Tigers, Deer, Crocodile) and then planned to move out, but then we saw Orangutan in action. It was jumping across cages, walking on the ropes and was very mobile. Was great fun watching it. We rested for another half an hour and then left the zoo. We had planned to go to Madam Tussaud’s museum too, but did not have time.

Reached back West falls church by 1:30, had lunch at Subway and started back for VT. Return journey was fun too, played few games and slept. Overall it was an excellent trip. Thanks to GSA, specially Lindsay and Krishna without whom it wouldn’t have been possible.

This trip is over, I hope over the period of two years I would be visiting more places too. Its late now and am feeling sleepy, want to write about the metro system in DC and few more things I noticed but that would be sometime later. (DC Trip Photoset)

(This blog post from Smithsonian Zoological Garden)

6:20 AM : Up and ready to leave Blacksburg.

7:00 AM : Reached Graduate Life Center. Met Lindsay and Krishna, they will be taking us to DC. We are joined byTatania and Vuko from Macedonia, Studying Agro Economics, Sadia from Pakistan, studying Architecture and the usual gang of Rahul, Hiren, Sagar and Jigar. DC is four and half hours journey from Blacksburg. Journey was fun, learnt Napoleon(card game) and mastered it.

Noon : Reached Western Virginia, met Saurabh and Vasanth, these are the guys we will be staying with. Kept our luggage at there place and bought a full day pass for Washington Metro. We started  from West Falls Church to Smithsonian. On the way, we learnt about the metro, how Blue, Red, Orange tacks work, where do that meet. All set to launch ourselves into the magic world of Museums.

Smithsonian Station, DC 

1:30 PM : Reached Smithsonian, now everyone else would be heading there own way. Main purpose of the trip was to watch Football game as Bailey’s but we would be skipping that to check out few museums.  Got information from the Smithsonian Information Center, planned a route that we should be following to cover all the places and started.

Smithsonian Information Center

2:00 PM : Checked out places around and decided to go to Air and Space Museum.

2:15 PM : Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, one of the best museums I have visited in my life. This is one place where one must visit. This museum had amount of information about air and space science that I have read till today. If one spends a full day (one might take more time) here then he will have all generic information about airplanes, space ships, shuttles, fighter planes and lot more. This museum is just not for science it tells you about history, future and many aspects that we have not thought of. Real size models, simulators, planetarium and IMAX movies make the environment so  interactive that a person remotely related to science will  be able to appreciate science. Lets say, we have read many times about a semiconductor chip and how One Lakh (Hundred Thousand) transistors can be accommodated in one small chip, but once you see a heap of a lakh transistors and a chip compared in size and in real, you will see what we have achieved. At one point, I had tears in my eyes thinking about what human kind has achieved.

There was the propeller from the first plane that Wright brothers flew, a real cockpit, console of aircraft carrier, Gyroscope, Oxygen Filter, E Aldrin’s dress, Model of Skylab (Which we can get in and see) and many pieces of equipments that are used in air and space travel. We do not understand the magnitude of effort that has gone behind the development, but after visiting this museum one realizes science behind a lot of things.

To sum for me this experience was like a kid left in Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. 

Mars Rover’s Model @ Air and Space Museum, DC

Full set of photos from Air and Space Museum 

3:50 PM : Visited US Capitol Building. Only guided tours are allowed to get in, so we clicked few photos from outside.

4:00 PM : Smithsonian Museum of Natural History was our next destination. We did not expect much from the museum, but Saurav insisted that we visit the place. Then he told about ‘Hope Diamond’ and that changed out mind. Entrance to museum was not so great, there were a set of stuffed birds and a souvenir shop, but scene changed at first floor. There was a giant Asian Elephant at display in central hall, it was spectacular. There were a lot of corridors from that hall, leading to different things. We started with the fossils, they was pretty impressive. Then came the amazing life size skeletons of Dinosaurs. There were all kind of dinosaurs at display, took a lot of photos. We moved to next hall and first thing we saw was Hope Diamond, it was beautiful. I am not sure I have ever seen a diamond before (I really don’t care) so I can safely say, Hope Diamond was the first diamond I ever saw. Then there were a series of other kind of diamonds and ornaments. Lots of necklaces, crowns and rings from all over the world were on display.   

Dinosaurs Model @ Natural History Museum

Full set of photos from Natural History museum

We visited butterfly park too, but it was closed for maintenance.  Then there were set of wildlife models, they looked almost real. We wanted to see more stuff but it was 5:30 and museum closed.

Lot to write about Washington Memorial, White House and National Zoological Park, but times up at Zoo. Continuing post will be from Blacksburg. 

(Part II to follow)