Washington DC

Me and that fallic thing
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(Before reading this story please see the overview)

In Washington DC we stayed with our friends in Forest Glen, a picturesque middle class area with idyllic all American, wood panelled homes, a forest on its perimeter and snow covering everything. Upon the night of our arrival our hosts thought it would be entertaining to drive us a few blocks from their home to the biggest Mormon Church in the know universe. With it being Christmas the whole of the church compound, from the biggest tree to the smallest twig was illuminated with pink, green, bright blue, purple and more standard coloured neon lights (Joseph Smith, I understand, was very much in to technicolour). To add to this we had the pleasure of witnessing, in the artic temperatures of a Washington Christmas, a live nativity scene. Real life Joseph and Mary actors in nothing but a few shawls did there thing as I, with 6 layers of thermal clothing, despite being very much entertained, begged that we return to the relative warmth of the cars interior.

a picturesque middle class area

DC's 60's style space age subway
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With our friends working during the day, we were able to sleep in and relax in their beautiful home the following morning before going out to visit the White House, the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, The Capital Building, and a few of the Smithsonians before meeting them later at an Ethiopian restaurant.

I have never experienced Ethiopian food and would not have guessed it to be such a popular phenomenon in Washington DC, let alone the states. It was delicious. Traditional music was played and dances performed as we ate and were treated to some of the tasty locally brewed beers recommended by our hosts. We were then driven to the very cool Black Cat bar owned by Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters where we drank some more.