Washington D.C ...with the big guys!

It was quite exciting to leave the bright lights of NYC and arrive in Washington D.C. This was for a number of reasons...

1) I was meeting up with Emma who I'd met in Boston (yes, I made a friend!), which was nice as it meant seeing a familiar face.
2) I was getting to a quality hostel with laundry facilities (Woohoo! Clean clothes!)
3) Emma had booked me on a night time tour of the major Washington monuments.

This meant that I would save time, and I would have a knowledgeable brain to pick over questions that I have found inevitably arise for me around US political areas. My curiosity and interest has constantly been piqued by their legal / political system that continues to both baffle and amaze me.

The tour was pretty good. It started off worryingly with many more people than who had signed up (there's a process people!). This proved a problem logistically getting the whole group to cross the roads at once. (As a side note, the countdown on pedestrian crossings is starting to stress me out.... QUICK! I only have 55 seconds to cross the street!)

Fortuitously, we lost people along the way. Don't worry, they're not still wandering; dinner reservations took priority. So we could ask our lovely guide lots of questions as we walked the Mall, saw the Washington monument, the war memorials, The White House and countless other white, pillared buildings.

The best part was coming face-to-toe with the big guy. Good 'ol Abe. It was very cool to see him and the guides were full of interesting stories such as the two sides of Lincoln. My only qualm was that he didn't have any great wisdom to bestow upon me.

The next day I met some other big guys who were more animated (only slightly). We visited D.C zoo, which, because it's part of the Smithsonian was free to visit! It was a great collection of animals, gorillas, otters, elephants and I even saw a panda!

The best guys though were the giant tortoises and a weird, prehistoric looking, giant turtle thing. Nature is weird, but totally amazing. At the risk of turning this blog into a shell-athon, check out these big fellas!