We left New York with heavy hearts....and got on the crazy New Jersey Turnpike.....OMG!!! Never ever again....This was the most crazy, mixed up, toll-road we have ever been on.  We changed the settings on the GPS and got off the Toll Road and back onto calmer roads on our way to Washington DC. We will most likely be receiving a "welcome to Jersey...you didn't pay your toll" card in the mail...not sure we want to open it...

Went through some nice towns and stayed outside of DC at Prince William Forest Park. Our plan was for two nights in DC but loved it so much we extended that to three nights.

Got up early and headed into DC...What a place!!! I would have to say I wasn't really all that enthused about going to Washington DC...kinda here nor there....until we got there.  You can park and basically see everything in walking distance, a long walk mind you, but really well laid out.

So of course here is the White House....

But check out the action on the top of the White House ...

We were in the park outside of the White House when we were all told to clear out of the area. There were about ten or so Police Officers that  made everyone clear out of the large park across from the White House and they kept it clear for several hours. We heard that Obama was back in Washington to deal with the Syria issue, so not sure if that had anything to do with it.

So we decided to ride to the other side of the White House, and happened upon this...

Loved this Lady.....

We stayed for a while and watched until they moved their protest to the Capitol Building.

The architecture was amazing, as it is in many of the older US towns and cities, so much history here.

Then off to the US Capitol Building where we took a tour ....

This picture shows the dome part of the Capitol Building..the paintings and sculptures were impressive

And this is a painting of Pocahontas as she marries John Rolfe, beautiful

Sometimes it's hard to capture the detail of what you are seeing in a picture..

Each State is represented by two sculptures which are placed throughout the Capitol Building, they were all  very impressive.

Now this place was really amazing, it was the Library of Congress....It was so large and again the architecture was amazing.

We were hoping to gain access to this place...to keep the gas tank full for another week or so...

We visited many war memorials, almost too many to list, so many lives lost....

Then we spent an entire afternoon in the Holocaust Memorial Museum www.ushmm.org
There really are no words to describe what we saw and heard there.  We all learned about this in school, but we have never seen or heard it in this way....never has it impacted us so deeply...approximately 6 million jewish people were murdered....as well as countless others who were targeted because they had disabilities, were gypsies or for racial, ethnic or national reasons. We both found it very hard to tear ourselves away from this but knew we had many things we needed to see...so on our way we went...

We also spent some time in the National Air and Space Museum. It was getting late so didn't have quite enough time there, but made the most of what we had.  We both really enjoyed the  Wright Brothers Exhibit.  Wilbur and Orville started with  a  bicycle repair shop followed by the manufacture of bikes.  It was a respectable livelihood,  but lucky for us that wasn't quite enough for them,  and the rest is history...

And here is the  "moon buggy", pretty cool to see

Just so many things to see,

And in DC is the Arlington National Cemetery, where John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy Onassis  are both buried as well as many historic figures.

And in biking around DC, we discovered they had the best bike lanes we had seen anywhere.  The bike lanes were in the centre of the road, we never had to worry about car doors opening, cars in the turning lanes, nothing, it was so well done..

Well after two full days of checking out Washington DC, we were on the move again....