The Long Road to Washington

Arriving in Jacksonville, minus one car - plus two bus tickets, we found the Greyhound Bus Station more easily than we thought after ditching Nancy. It was 5pm when we boarded the full Greyhound and found some seats sandwiched between a relatively psycho looking man to the back off us and a mother and young daughter to the front.

Luckily, as it was a 'night' bus - the lights went out and everybody was quiet. Listening to a bit of Kings of Leon I tapped along as the bus set off on the long 15 hour road.

Everything seemed to be going okay - the sun had gone down, babies were sleeping and the bus driver wasn't afraid of putting his foot down. 40 minutes in - barely having left Florida for the next fair state and the unspeakable happens - mummy in front of me put her seat back and gives me little room to breathe, let alone move... for 12 hours...

We changed buses in Virginia and had a relatively comfortable trip to D.C. 15 Hours, no sleep, checked into our motel - fell into bed at 9am - woke up at 6.30pm. Oops! I felt tres guilty as Cal had only slept for about 4 hours, so we went out in search of food. Our neighbourhood reminded me of a modern Maycomb, Boo Radley's house on the corner scared us as if we ourselves were Jem and Scout.

Dark and cold (It's dropped 30 degrees.) we made it through to McDonalds and had a traditional American meal - medium size. Heading back I hung my head as I knew I wouldn't sleep due to my day time slumber. Wrong! My alarm woke us both at 9am - another 9 hours I felt more than rested as we embarked on our quest to find the White House.

Our bus took us right down to Constitution Avenue and kicked us out at the National Archives where they keep the Declaration of Independance - pretty cool really. We made our way down Constitution, after consulting our trusty map (Yes, Nancy - we can do it even if you're switched off and stuffed in my bag!) and found the Washington Memorial, again - pretty neat.

Trundling up 15th Street we finally found Obama's future dwellings. And to be honest, to me it was a bit like Buckingham palace - a bit smaller than you expect and you've seen it that often on TV that it's kind of an anti climax.

Still - they were building two massive stands for Inauguration Day, so that was pretty cool to be a part of, we took a bunch of photos and headed for warmth and found our first cup of tea in two months!

Completely satisfied with our charged furnesses we walked down to the Lincoln Memorial which is very special - especially as you walk along the 'Reflective Pool' with Robin Wright Penn screaming 'Foooorrrrrreeessssstt!!!!!!!!!!!!' in your head and Tom Hanks stammering out 'I Love you, Jenny!' - I wanted to run right into that pool to re enact the Gump scene, but I didn't because it was super cold and the water looked dirty.

Heading back, after another batch of photos, the sun was ready to bid his farewells and threw the most beautiful colours up into the sky. A productive day with a stunning finale. I quite like D.C.

We had a day of doing pretty much nothing after that, except blogging for you beauties. Then found ourselves back down on Constitution Ave; heading, this time, for the Jefferson Memorial. I wasn't all that clued up on this place - and certainly didn't expect the effort and love that had gone into the rememberance of the U.S's presidents. We had a lovely day, walking around the pool that encompasses Jefferson's eternal lodgings; met President Hoover and his dog and headed back to find another cup of tea!

Just as we'd left the tea selling - much loved by me - cafe, we took a stroll back along Bush's front drive to be greeted by 27 million police motorbikes, S.U.V's and police cars - flashing their blues and twos - escorting Georgie himself down the road ----

En route to our bus, we came across a small park, belonging to the American Art Gallery, in the centre of which was an ice-rink. As the lights twinkled, the jolly folk skated and Christmas songs were played out for us all to hear, I felt my first pang of Christmas Spirit.

---- And it really was just down the road, because 15 minutes later, Georgie Boy was with his entourage making his way back home - lazy bugger.

We have one more night left in D.C and then we're of to N.Y.C. There's been a slight change of plan...

Callum's mum, sister and friends are heading over for a pre-Christmas jaunt to the Big Apple, so we'll meet them there then move on to Philidelphia. I'm tres excited for the Gibson family reunion - most of all because I'll get a surrogate mum hug! Something I have more than missed about home!

Jen