America is Huge!

I fear this title could be a recurring one.

On Friday, I took a 5 hour bus trip from New York to the American capital – Washington DC.

And one of the things that dawned on me is that America is Huge! I will put up a map with the comparisons on it – I travelled 233miles, a tiny percentage of the American coastline, but equivalent to half the way across Kenya, and all the way across England and Wales. We have our work cut out!

The Capital is an interesting place – with an absurd number of American flags – it seems that patriotism is measured by the size and quantity of them – round the Washington monument, there is a flag every 3 metres. I walked with my cousin around the Washington mall – from the White house to the Houses of Congress to Abe Lincoln’s memorial throne. The other thing that sprung out at me was the size of the war memorials. The Americans love their armed forces (and get in quite a few wars). This love for the forces was confirmed at a baseball match that we accidentally ended up at today.

We were on our way down to the Potomac River to see some ships, when we saw crowds headed to a baseball game. On the off chance of some cheap tickets, we popped in and got lucky!
The baseball was interesting – I’d love to play. The underdogs and home team won 8-0 in a massive shock victory, but the biggest cheer and a very moving standing ovation was saved for some returning soldiers getting drunk in the VIP box.

Back to New York tomorrow, to await Alex’s arrival.