Finally we arrived at a busy bus terminal. In the capital, Washington DC. After meeting our host for this trip, a professor at George Washington University, Ed and I set off for The White House. Someone passed us on a Segway, that ridiculous looking contraption for people with enough energy to stand up but not quite enough to put one leg in front of the other. Then a whole group of them went by, all wearing helmets. I had never heard of a Segway gang before. On closer inspection it seemed they were part of a group offering Segway tours of Washington. This made it all less ridiculous. Slightly.
Ed and I were both amazed by how small the White House seemed. We had expected it to tower over us with an grand enormity that typifies the American style. But it just seemed like a normal suburban house owned by a well to do family. Apart from the police presence and the various political commentators (read nut-jobs) trying to make a point to Obama and the other passers-by. Well, when in Rome...my political adviser was of a Tea Party persuasion.
A Tea Party fan whose eyes lit up when we mentioned we were British, how ironic. She had a sign with Obama defaced to look like Heath Ledger's Joker, and a stereoplayer playing eerie music. She would later tell me that this is the music that is playing in heaven right now. Dear reader, I would love to be able to tell you where you could find the soundtrack to Heaven's background, but I didn't think to ask, so you shall have to make do with your Lady Gaga CD/download for now.
Ed left the conversation early on, when Obama was referred to as a socialist and communist. I can understand that frustration, American critics of socialism almost always seem to have a huge support of the US military, one of the largest social institutions in the world, implying that they either don't fully understand the meaning of socialism, or that the word has been so politicised that it has in fact changed meaning in American English. However, I was interested to hear what the woman had to say. I knew very little about the Tea Party agenda and was interested to learn more. Plus we didn't have much else planned. Explaining that I didn't share her Christian faith was no barrier to her enthusiasm, nor did it stop her rationalising everything thing through a Christian doctrine. A very limited Christian doctrine, focusing on the Book of Revelations, which I have never read but have been told it is filled with horrifying images. She asked me if I had a Bible, which I did, planning to read it on our bus journeys. She told me I should start at the back, with Revelations. But, as I explained to her, I didn't want to spoil the ending. Before leaving she decided to pray for me. That probably wasn't such a bad idea.
Ed wanted us to buy "Obama is the New Hope" t-shirts just so we could walk back past the poor woman trying to save my soul from communism.
After that, we decided to check out the Clinton monument. Obviously it is the Washington monument but remembering a joke from Ahmed the dead terrorist sketch where it is suggested a better name is the Clinton monument I kept accidentally referring to it that way.
We saw more of the sights that DC has to offer, a beautiful lake by the Capitol Building, we walked to where we thought the Supreme Court was but I can't say we really found it. Damn iphone. We only found the Library of Congress, completely useless without a DC library card.
Finally everyone had told us to go to the Smithsonian, so we decided to do that. What people didn't tell us, probably assuming it was common knowledge, was that the Smithsonian is a collection of about 19 different museums. Also, no-one mentioned that they were all free entry until it was too late. So we decided to see the main Smithsonian building. But the main Smithsonian building, or the centre, is more like an information point. Not really very interesting, but after all our walking we were in no mood to go looking for another museum.
I loved the architecture in DC. The buildings were older than most American buildings, but they were still modern in comparison to old European architecture. They mark the beginning of a new country, a new society, but the beginning of a place that began very late.
We seriously considered staying an extra day in the capital. It certainly would have been nice to see more of the Smithsonian and we had scheduled extra time on the West Coast to allow for extra days. However, I didn't want to use up all that extra time too early, and I had already confirmed with the part of my extended family who were hosting us in North Carolina that we were coming the next day.
