Washington DC

Posted on by Ian C.

Having now twice visited Washington DC and not really seen anything (once when stranded coming back from Florida, and again during MINI Takes The States), we decided to visit properly! We flew in to Reagan airport, just a few minutes from our hotel which was right in the middle of the city, and almost immediately next door to the White House!

Hotel Washington
Hotel Washington interior
Hotel Washington interior
View to White House
View to White House
View to White House close-up
View to White House very-close-up

Washington DC is very compact and full of great architecture, loads of monuments, and amazing museums – you’d need a week or more to see everything but we did quite well in 1-1/2 days!

Washington Memorial
Washington Memorial at night
Washington Memorial
The Ronald Reagan building
The Ronald Reagan building
The Old Post Office
The Old Post Office
The J.Edgar Hoover FBI building (not as nice as most)
Naval memorial
The National Archives building
The National Archives building
The National Archives building
“The Declaration Of Independence, The Constitution Of The United States Of America and the Bill Of Rights”
“We The People” – the Declaration Of Independence
Signatures on the Declaration Of Independence (a copy apparently)
The Constitution
Inside the National Archives building
The National Archives building, reflected
The National Archives building, reflected
The U.S. Capitol
The U.S. Capitol
Looking down the Mall from the Capitol to the Monument
Margaret at The U.S. Capitol
Union Station
A memorial to Christopher Columbus
Monday was Columbus Day – parade at the memorial
Text on Union Station: “Fire”, “Electricity”
Text on Union Station: “Imagination”
Text on Union Station: “Farm”, “Mechanic”
Inside Union Station
Inside Union Station
Tourmobile – quicker than walking!
The Lincoln Memorial
Margaret and the Washington Memorial

 

Also, a sculpture park:

This is built “in reverse” (where the two walls touch is the furthest back) …
… but your mind tries to correct it, so the walls “jump” in and out as you look!
This “kinetic” sculpture is wind blown

And a visit to the monument park to F.D.Roosevelt:

MTTS day 2 – Barstow pitstop and a long drive

Posted on by Ian C.

Today was a lot of driving, mostly on highway – 70mph speed limit but lacking scenery! And one way or another, my drive was also mostly lacking MINIs, other than the morning gathering:

Many thanks to SoCal MINI Maniacs for organizing the pitstop – it nicely broke up the journey, and it was great to meet up with people, grab some water & lunch …


On the road, some scenery and some MINIs, but lots of empty road too …

I love visiting Las Vegas, especially The Bellagio – so when I arrived I headed up to take photos of GPMINI at my favorite hotel 🙂