We left around 10:10 AM on Thursday morning (had to rent the car and load it). It's been an easy drive so far. Blue skies, open road. Driving can get tedious. When I 16 years old, Americo and I couldn't wait to drive out to the States and see what we can find and do. The first time we went to down to the States we got turned back at the border because I didn't have official papers. Next time, I made sure I got my passport and a few months later we tried again. This time we were through and we crossed the border sometime in the morning. It was an interesting experience at the time (as you could imagine). We crossed Peace Bridge and then you were in downtown Buffalo. Downtown Buffalo isn't too pretty. So I remember we were eager not to spend too much time there, we didn't want to find any trouble. But that trip ended with us spending 2 hours at the border (coming back) as they took some time stripping down our car looking for drugs. It's funny in hindsight but at the time it was a little nervewracking. They interrogated us separately. We were guilty of trying to cross the border without declaring our purchases. Kids.
Old memories. We crossed the border easily yesterday. Followed Americo's GPS and we were driving along I-79 South route towards Pittsburgh. Somewhere before Pittsburgh I took over the driving and I drove the rest of the way. Poor Americo, I took a washroom pitstop, but Americo didn't need to go. I took over the driving at around 3:30 PM and I drove the next 4.5 hours. Americo was hurting by the time we got to Washington DC. :)
If you check out google maps you can see our route. We had a few missteps along the way. We had to get off the I-76 (exit 57) to get some gas but when we tried to get back onto the highway (trying to avoid the toll of the I-76) we found ourselves going westbound on the I-376 heading towards Pittsburgh! We lost maybe 30 minutes on this venture. It pushed back our projected time of arrival to 8:23 PM. Steadily we made the time back. We arrived in Washington DC at 7:53 PM. All-in-all it was a 9 hour drive plus the 1 hour for washroom, food and gas break.
From 8 PM onward it was a rush to take in the National Mall before it got dark. Americo preferred to stay with the car, so I jumped out and took in the sights. I walked toward the centre of the park, orienting myself to the pier of the Washington monument. The first thing I found was the White house christmas tree. It was undecorated (of course) with a plague containing a picture of President F.D. Roosevelt and his christmas tree. It situated the tree to the White house. So I turned around and there it was.
At this distance the impression is the same impression you would get from a postcard (or from television). The view wasn't so impressive as it was secure. We were separated from the building by a road way which cordons off the building from uninvited visitors. Surrounded by the national mall (with no vehicular access) means that security is high with visibility from all directions (from the vantage point of those protecting the site).
I took my few pictures and then I started off in the direction of the Lincoln memorial. Given that the White house and the Washington memorial makes up 2 of the triad I knew that the Lincoln memorial had to be to left of the White house. I walked to the west street and spoke to a southern gentleman who directed me to Constitution Ave. and a walk toward 22nd St. I jogged there.
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