Good morning from Washington DC we started today back where we're
staying in the suburb of eckington and we had two choices to get into
the city the first was to take the DC Metro from Brentwood orrr
I think we made the right choice let's get some coffee
Now that we've gotten ourselves a morning coffee it's time to explore all of the things to do in
Washington DC from our research it seems like everything is in a relatively small area we
have made ourselves a list of all the top things to do here and we're just going to spend the day
Crossing off as many as we can starting with the Capitol building this is where Congress and other
parts of government come together it was actually built in the year 1800 and the cast iron Dome on
the roof is 8.9 million pounds we actually went downstairs that's where we got our coffee and
it's a full Museum as well I think it can be shown around and see like all the important
documents and things that were done here but the architecture is insane it is so big and so Greek
like I think that's a common theme around here there's a lot of Greek columns really impressive
this did actually used to host the Library of Congress which is where you go and get all your
documents you need for debates and things like that but they got so big and there were so many
different books and maps in there that they had to move location and that's our second spot just
across the street the Capitol building is huge like way bigger than I thought it was going to
be there is heaps of people obviously around but one thing I found super interesting was the
amount of black SUVs with like blacked out windows standing out the front it's important people yeah
I have no idea who they would be but they must be important stop number two is actually joined by
secret tunnels underneath our feet right where we are now is it yeah really cool so we are going to
the Library of Congress effectively that is where all the books that were in the Capitol Building
had to go to but people that are debating still need those books so instead of sending people
running across the road all the time they built an underground tunnel that would have an electronic
tray that would whiz from building to building to get the books they needed so you can just be like
I need the dictionary or whatever and they send it to you with an escalator kind of thing yeah
that's really cool Library of Congress is really cool because it has these underground tunnels
linking it but there are a few other facts that we thought were just awesome and that is that this is
the biggest library in the world and has over 175 million items books Maps manuscripts all sorts of
stuff 175 million crazy and it's always going to be the biggest because they've got a copyright
law in here so anything that is copyrighted in all of the United States has to have at least
one copy sent here how cool is that what a way to cheat the system obviously it's also a very
very intricate and beautiful building as I think we're gonna kind of get used to in Washington DC
we are getting through this list pretty quickly today the Library of Congress you can actually
go in it's only open to the public Tuesday to Friday 10 till 5 I believe and we're here on
a Monday being that we are in the country's capital we are surrounded by epic buildings
monuments sites museums but if you want to get out of the hustle and bustle you don't have to go far
this feels like we have been immediately transported back to Southeast Asia it is
so humid in here like rainforest rainforest humor and totally different from outside
it is kind of crazy how quickly the weather is changing today so it's so nice to come inside and
get away from the wind what's nuts is that this is completely free there are over 60,000 species
of plants including rare and endangered ones and you can just come in and enjoy it for free
About 20 years after the botanical gardens was built here Congress voted to create the
Smithsonian Institute which started with a $500,000 donation from James Smithson who
wanted to increase and diffuse knowledge it's now one of the most world-renowned
biggest names Smithsonian museums are all over the place and that's our next up
this is one of the largest and most visited natural history museums in the entire world
it has so many different exhibits and specimens including a 45 carat blue
diamond called the Hope Diamond that is one of the largest and most expensive diamonds in the
entire world it is also yet another thing in Washington DC that is completely free
so we're going to spend a few hours here exploring all of the different exhibits
Natural History Museum was as cool as we thought it was going to be but we
are getting so hungry so we're going to go to a very specific spot on our list
When we were researching today trying to decide where we were going to eat for lunch basically
you cannot search the internet Washington DC food without coming across Ben's chili
bowls it has been a Washington institution since 1958 and to give you some context of
how important it is to the community during the DC riots everywhere was required to have
a curfew but Ben's chili bowl was allowed to stay open you come in here and there's just
photos upon photos on the walls newspaper clippings you can just tell there's so much
love in this place and it's actually home to Washington's signature dish the half smoke
I don't even know what's on it I just said with the lot with everything
that is delicious oh you get a little bit of a tingle from the
spice too a half smoke is a chili dog that's half pork half beef
it's all delicious so that's really the big thing that matters the spice as well quite
often you have chili that doesn't have any spice but I've got the lip tingles from this it's good
I'm not a big hot dog person so it's fine but I got chili cheese fries
I'm almost Happy the weather changed now because this is perfect given the windy
temperature outside obviously chili isn't the most photogenic of foods but it is delicious
I think out of everywhere we've stopped so far that's probably my highest recommendation if
you are here in Washington DC you have to go there get a half smoke get the
chili cheese for us too because they were delicious we Let's cross it off
now that we have fixed our hunger problem the next stop is a lot more recognizable
this is where the president of the United States of America lives and that's about
all I know I know there's heaps of rooms in here including like a bowling alley and a film like
room I think the most fun fact I have about the White House is that the name doesn't actually
represent anything I thought after being through Asian stuff colors have such meaning behind them
like the white temple we went to in Chiang Rai the white represents Purity in Buddhism
so I thought the White House maybe white represents freedom and Justice in America
it was just the Sandstone needed to be whitewashed so now the building's white so we call it the
White House probably does everything I researched was like no it's just because it's made of
sandstone and Sandstone is really porous so you need a whitewasher to treat it and now it's white
so White House one thing I know for certain is that you used to be able to get a lot closer
than you can now I don't know whether it was because Trump was a bit scared or whatever but no
can't say that you used to be able to go up to the first fence like
i know the
vice president is visiting or doing vice presidency things in the white
house so whether or not this is just for today and you can normally go closer I'm
not sure true could be not permanent I don't know on to the next Monument
this is the Washington Monument it is 555 feet tall and at the time of its completion
was actually the tallest structure in the entire world until 1898 I think when the Eiffel Tower was
completed the outside is made of marble and as you can see like halfway up it kind of changes color
and that's because they started getting sourced from a different area one really interesting thing
is that somehow this huge structure was just held together by friction and gravity until
recently when they had to do some like fortifying on the inside you can actually go inside and up
to the top of the Washington Monument we are on a budget and sort of crunched for time so
we don't have the opportunity to do that today we are now back on the National Mall but we're
going to take a quick detour to the National Archive to see some pretty impressive things
one thing I really didn't expect in Washington is that everywhere
in the National Mall and everywhere that we've pretty much walked ice cream trucks
everywhere ice cream trucks ice cream trucks like food trucks in general and even clothing has been
sold out of some of them it's so bizarre I just don't understand the ice cream like there'll be
five in a row that are all there's one there's one there's one there's one back there it's insane
We are getting through this list we weren't allowed to take any photos inside of the
National Archives but we did get to see the Declaration of Independence the Bill
of Rights a good note is that you can reserve time tickets online but we only had to wait 10
minutes in the general admission area it is free to enter But if you buy a Time ticket
it's a dollar processing fee now we haven't really planned the day the best because we
wanted to get into The National Archives at the time we were here we are backtracking a
bit past the Washington Monument to get a nice view of the National Mall
So that was the Korean War Memorial it's a lot more solemn than a lot of the other places that
we're visiting today the soldiers represented are pretty big they're on purpose a bit larger than
life and I remember coming here when I was the first time I went to Washington and I went through
at night time they were all lit from the bottom so it kind of made them look a little bit scary
but the monument itself is very very striking and there's
etchings on the walls of all the names and there's even like portraits along another
one of the walls too from here we are skipping across the reflection pool to another Memorial
our second to last stop is the Vietnam War Memorial it's quite different to other War
memorials you'll see it doesn't really have the grandiose heroic figures and statues everywhere
and it actually had a little bit of controversy when it was first built because of that
it is still pretty haunting a big black wall with names of people who served
we've only got one stop left on this turns out to be massive Washington DC tour
last stop today for us is the Lincoln Memorial it's a Memorial built in the likeness of the 16th
president of the United States Abe Lincoln very important man they've given him a very very good
view of Washington here one of the coolest things is that they depicted him like they tried to get
his personality across so he is a bit older a bit worn but he's still like strong and determined
and to show that one of his hands is clenched to show his strength and determination and the
other one is more open to show his openness show his compassion that is the end of a monumental
tour of Washington DC that was pretty good actually
we didn't actually get to everything on the list we missed a couple georgetown's a little
bit far for us today and the Art Gallery we didn't get to either what a great time in
Washington DC this is such a unique City it is such a walkable City and you get to see all of
these cool monuments along the way very fun day this is the Washington mid that Ben's Chili's
Ben's Chili Sauce Ben's Chili's box this is the Washington Monument whoa excited to get there