Today was the final day of
our tour. The best part I found about the tour was that it took us to so many
places that we couldn't have probably covered on our own. However, the only
challenge we faced everyday was getting up very early in the morning, packing,
dragging sleeping kids, checking out and hitting the bus.
So here we were tired and
groggy getting into our bus to Washington DC. First stop was The White House.
Our itinerary had so many places to cover that we did not have the time to go
in, hence we just clicked our pics and moved on. On the opposite side of The
White House was the Washington Monument. The fascinating thing about Washington
Monument is that the obelisk is the tallest
stone structure in the world as well as the world’s tallest obelisk. From there we were hushed away to the
Thomas Jefferson Monument. At the Thomas Jefferson Memorial the view of the
tidal basin and the obelisk made our shots perfect. Later we were lucky to find
one of the few remaining Cherry blossom trees that bloom during April. The
whole view is spectacular as 1700 Cherry blossom trees surround the tidal basin
with a beautiful display of floral fireworks.
Our next stop was the Korean
War Veterans Memorial where on the Mural Wall the soldier’s photographs have
been etched. We saw the 19 statues depicting Army, Marine, Navy and Air Force
officers beautifully carved out of stainless steel marching in the battle
ground of Korean paddy field. There were more memorials like the Vietnam War
Memorial, World War II memorial but again due to time constraint and a little
lack of interest and knowledge we headed towards The Abraham Lincoln Memorial.
It is a magnificent 19 feet tall statue of Abraham Lincoln facing the
reflecting pool. There is also an engraving of “I have a Dream”; the
revolutionary speech delivered by Martin Luther King on the steps of the
Lincoln Memorial.
From there we headed to the
National Air and Space Museum. It is the 5th most visited museum in the world
and has a lot of original exhibits like the wright brother’s original plane,
space suit worn in Apollo 13, the first aircraft to fly around the world and
amazingly so, you can also touch a moon rock. Then we headed to the Capitol
Hill which is the largest residential historic district in DC. On our way to
Madam Tussauds we saw the National Archive Building where all the original
documents like Declaration of Independence, Bill of rights and the Constitution
of United States are stored.
We have been to Madam
Tussauds in London and I personally preferred the one in London; we all still
had a blast clicking pics with so many Presidents and celebrities. I sat with
Abraham Lincoln, gave the “I have a dream” speech with Martin Luther King.
Kennedy’s, Clinton’s, George Bush and the Obama’s got pics clicked with us.
George Cloony wanted to hold my hand so I let him, Brangelina were there too,
Tom Cruise was elated to see me and Oprah took my interview, I might have
missed out a few more. This was our last
stop at DC and we headed towards Philadelphia.
Although our tour was
supposed to take us back to New York, we decided to get off at Philadelphia
since Aakaash’s nephew was staying there. The first place that we went to see
was the Liberty Bell which weighs over 900 Kgs. Outside the Liberty Bell
Pavilion was a beautiful garden of tulips. From there we took our luggage out
of the bus and met up with Dhawal. We drove around and saw the Independence
National Historic Park, Independence Hall which is also a World Heritage Site
and the City Centre. He took us to the Irish Famine Memorial where they have
put a 30 foot bronze statue with more than 2 dozen statues that represents the
pain and suffering that Irish suffered due to Great Hunger in 1840 and suffered
death and disease in their country as well as during migrating to America. We walked down to the Penn Landing area where the Delaware River and the
Benjamin Franklin Bridge was our backdrop. Aan was super excited to meet his cousin brother. We have a huge extended
family and Dhawal and Aan are the only Sehgal brothers who are around 20 years apart.
Later Dhawal took us to his
university and showed us the oldest computer in the world ENIAC which is
Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. We also clicked quite a few pics
at the Penn University Love Sign. Did a little bit of shopping and then we went
for Mexican food. That was the best Mexican food we have ever had till date.
Later on, all around US we did try so many restaurants but nothing could beat
El Vez’s delicious slurrptious food and I seriously don’t mind going back to
Philly just to dig into that mouthwatering tantalizing food. The day had come
to an end and Dhawal took all the trouble to drive us back to New York and went
back to Philadelphia. This was the perfect ending to our east coast bus tour.
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