US Trip 2017 – Day 5 – The city of monuments

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This was the only day on the trip that we didn’t touch the rental car at all. We spent the entire day walking around D.C. The weather was nice and hot, and our feet didn’t like walking that much on concrete and asphalt, but it was worth it!

Approximate time on road/out caching: 12 hours
Total miles walked: 16 mi / 26 km
Total cahes found: 35
Total DNF: 0
States visited: Virginia, Washington D.C.
Famous places visited: Lincoln Memorial, Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, National Mall, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, United States Capitol, White House, United States Botanic Garden and others
Most memorable cache: GCEB2 The view of an “Honest Man”
Biggest surprise: How muggle-free some places were
Weather: Sunny
Highest temperature: Hot
Lowest temperature: Hot
Roadwork: Yes

Hello Lincoln

After getting some breakfast, and finding a taxi, we arrived at the  Lincoln Memorial. When planning this trip, we read that the Lincoln Memorial was quite popular, and could get crowded. The best time to visit, was early. So we made the Lincoln Memorial our first stop and the start of our D.C. adventure.

As with many memorials in D.C., this one also had two caches at it. One earthcache, and one virtual. And since we got here early, the place wasn’t crowded. A perfect start on a long day in D.C.!

Just being here was special. We’ve seen so many movies, read so much and seen so many pictures that it almost felt like we’ve been here before. Even though we never have. It’s a very strange, but also a nice feeling.

More memorials

From Lincoln, we continued to the Korean War Veterans Memorial. There are so many monuments and memorials in D.C., and we are lucky that the caches bring us to so many of them.

From the Korean War Veterans Memorial, we continued to the DC War Memorial. This was the first place today that we were completely alone. No muggles around. We did a short stop at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial (no cache??), before we continued to GCF2A6 Jenny’s Cache.

All alone

We never thought we would experience this in D.C., but in this big city, we found ourselves all alone in quiet and peaceful surroundings.

After finding the cache, we headed toward the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial. After doing some shopping at the visitor center, we found both the caches there.

I guess getting up early and starting early was a good thing, still not much people around.

Another president

From Franklin D. Roosevelt, we continued toward Thomas Jefferson Memorial. We stopped at the earthcache along the way, and hopefully took enough photos to be able to answer the questions…

The Jefferson Memorial was a lot more crowded, and that is how every memorial an monument was from here and the rest of the day.

While reading the questions and studying the monument, we got several questions what we were doing and if “they made us do homework”. Since there’s no container to muggle, we happily explained everything. And we even got some help studying the monument 😛 You do meet the nicest people geocaching, but I guess they’re not all geocachers…

Along the Mall

While at the Jefferson Memorial, we noticed a lot of people in paddle boats out on the lake. We considered renting one, but when we found out that you had to give them your entire life story before they would rent you one, we decided not to. Things like that are definitely a lot easier in Norway… So we continued with our plan instead, which took us to several caches along the Mall.

By the time we got to the Botanic Garden, the pain in our feet were so intense that we had to take a break. So we sat down for a few minutes (we did have to sit down several places along the Mall before this also), visited the garden and just relaxed for a bit.

Around the Capitol

Since we had a cache behind the US Capitol planned, we walked up on the south side, up to the Library of Congress (to find the cache there, of course).

We did want to visit the Visitor Center, but since we had too much prohibited items (like water and sun screen), we decided to just continue around on the north side. *We do realize that security is important, and we have no issues with that. It’s just that this is something we’re not used to in Norway at all. But then our politicians don’t need body guards either.

This is also one of those places we’re it’s fun to be able to say “I’ve been there” whenever you see it on the news, in movies etc. So we made sure to take plenty of pictures! And find the caches around, of course.

Studying the Canadian Embassy

The next cache on the list, was at the Canadian Embassy. And it required us to find two pieces of information. The first one was easy, but the second, not so much. At least not for us. We spent quite some time walking around, trying to find the info we needed.

We almost considered giving up, but let’s be honest, that was never an option. And eventually, we found the spot we were looking for. A place we just had to walk past a few times before we noticed it…

Back to the Mall

After visiting the Canadian Embassy, and a statue of a lone sailor in the Navy Memorial Plaza, we continued along the north side of the Mall.

We found a traditional, which we felt was a bit strange in D.C., especially this type of container. And we found a couple earthcaches along the row of museums.

The famous house

We couldn’t really visit D.C. without also “visiting” the most famous house in the world. And we were not alone in thinking that. This side of the White House was kinda crowded. But we still managed to get some nice pictures, and find one of the caches there.

This is another one of those places that it’s fun to have seen in real life.

Some easy caches nearby

We continued to the east of the White House, stopping at a couple virtuals and another traditional cache. With so many virtual caches around, it was a bit fun that one of the few traditional caches around, are this close to the White House. We also did some shopping at one of the gift shops.

It had been a long day, so we sat down for some needed rest, and ice cream.

The long way up

We wanted to do the webcam, but it was a long walk to get there. And we had to walk all the way back as well. Our feet was hurting, but we decided to go for it anyway.

It was a very long way up there, but we eventually made it. And after figuring out which side of the huge roundabout we needed to be on, we also got the webcam photo we needed. Awesome!

Now we just had to walk all the way back…

We did see a lot of squirrels around in D.C., as we often do in large cities.

The other side of the house

We eventually made it back to the White House, with hurtig feet. This side was a lot less crowded, but with much higher security (at least higher visible security). We took some more pictures, before we decided that our feet didn’t hurt enough to not do a short detour to get another virtual cache.

Construction

This is construction season. We’ve seen road work or construction work every single day, and today it was blocking one of the virtual caches we wanted to find. Lucikly for us, we were still able to find all the info we needed to answer the questions.

We only had a couple stops left on our plan now, and it was starting to get late. After a visit to the World War 2 Memorial, we got a glimpse of the Lincoln Memorial at the other end of the Reflecting Pool. And it was crowded now.

The end of a long day

When we found the virtual at the Memorial to the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence (where we actually once again were completely alone), we started hearing sirens – lots of them. Shortly after, a convoy of police motorcycles, police cars, other cars and what we guess was some politician, drove by.

We ended the day at the Albert Einstein Memorial. A nice way to end a long day in D.C.

We took a taxi back to the hotel, and decided to check out the room service. Our feet was hurting so badly, that we really didn’t want to get back out to get food.

It was a long day, but it was definitely worth it. We got to see a lot, not all of it, but as much as we could in the time we had. The next time, we can concentrate on the tings we didn’t get to see.

Pictures


We have made a trip template of this day on cachetur.no. If you would like to try the same, you can use our template.

Visit “A busy day in Washington D.C.” on cachetur.no

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Torill
Torill
6 years ago

It is so nice to read your diary, and this one actually made me want to go to Washington. And I don’t really like large cities! But you make it sound like there are places with enough space for me as well.