Don't have your expectations too high: I could not bring much new to the National Mall area. And it's one of those rare case when I would not like to.
And again, I have to resort to photo-based narration because there would be too much to tell otherwise.
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| Looks like a postcard. |
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| The United States Capitol. My mom tried to break in, despite my claims that people still work there. |
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| Mom near one of the pools. |
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| SEI's cousin, serving as a space and aeronautics museum. |
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| View on the Washington Monument from afar. |
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| Squirrels there feel like peers with birds and humans. |
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| An arrogant rooster. Very insistent. |
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| In front of Washington Monument. Which is closed because of earthquake hazard. As if it wasn't tall enough to squash people in far just outside it. |
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| The Reflective Pool was drained! Sorry about it, Forrest Gump, I couldn't pretend that I were you. Another time. |
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| Lincoln Mausoleum and us. Uh sorry, I mean Memorial. Never get it right. |
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| The White House! My mom again couldn't accept that they don't let us into the Yellow Oval Room. |
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| Smithsonian, HQ |
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| The WWII monument is quite neat there, actually. It has two parts, for the Atlantic and Pacific theatres. Main battles, known from the Call of Duty, are all mentioned. Good job architects. |
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| A useless fountain: you cannot drop coins into it. They're saying that this would dishonor the veterans. I bet the veterans wouldn't agree to that. |
We decided to get a short tour through Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (it's free anyway, and a true Russian never misses anything free). It turned out to be similar to Carnegie Museum of Natural History. I guess that the reason is that we all had the same natural history...
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| Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. |
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| Taking his precious. |
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| !! |
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| A castle, imported from Europe. It took them over half a century to bring all pieces there and reassemble them. |
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| In the subway of DC. This guy didn't like me too much. |
The end! Conclusion: the National Mall does exist -- it's not just Hollywood's scenery, but also a huge monumental complex.
Update from May 2014: I stopped by DC again, this time on my way to a French consulate. The stuff is still there.
Arlington, VA. Rosslyn area looks fancy, but doesn't feel like home: it's mostly hotels and office buildings.
The major structures of the National Mall didn't change: the Capitol, Washington's monument, and Lincoln's memorial are still there.
The reflecting pool attracts families of ducks:
Several other building chose to stay anonymous:
Finally, two museums are noteworthy. The crime and punishment museum showcases history of crimes and punishments from identity frauds to mass murders, from medieval guillotines to modern DNA forensics.
The holocaust memorial museum has awesome grueling exhibits in the main section, from Hitler's speeches to concentration camps. Unfortunately, photos are prohibited, but it's absolutely worth visiting.
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| The holocaust museum. |
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