Washington DC

Wednesday 7 May 2008

One last sight I had to see in Washington was the FDR Memorial. Jill and I shuttled over to the somewhat out of the way location and were impressed with the thought put into the display. It also has the only sculpture of Franklin Roosevelt obviously sitting in a wheelchair. This was a late addition, as another, earlier sculpture shows a more common image of him sitting with a cape draped around the chair. Following on from our Warm Springs experience, we felt that visiting this Memorial rounded off our experience of FDR’s contribution to the polio cause.

After finding our way back to the main drag of the National Mall, Jill and I parted company to do our own sightseeing. Having pushed Jill from the Memorial for about 1½ miles in some pretty warm midday weather, I was keen find a place to sit and eat. This I did at the American Indian Museum that Jill had been to a couple of days earlier. Although it was clearly a wonderful museum with lots of interesting displays, I really felt a bit washed out and continued walking towards Union Station to pick up the shuttle back to the Hotel. All in all, I had walked about 10 kms and was daydreaming about extra chocolate cake again . . . No doubt, Jill will tell you all about her day in “Jill’s Jottings”.

So, the airport shuttle service is booked for around 9.00am tomorrow - even though we don’t fly until 1.20pm – but being a shuttle, it needs to pick up more people along the way. Then it will be time to say goodbye to Washington. I can honestly say I enjoyed my stay and the people I met. I have even learned a bit of sign language staying in the grounds of the Gallaudet University campus for deaf students.

Tomorrow we’re off Johnstown via Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. Another hire car, another city . . .