Spent last night at a Holiday Inn on the outskirts of Washington. Dinner at the Outback Steakhouse next door. Had fantastic hamburgers - the menu had lots of items which attempted to appear as Aussie fare like 'shrimps on the barbie'. Got a fairly early start this morning and headed straight to Arlinton National Cemetery. This is one of the most sacred sites in the USA. As well as 16,000 war dead from the American Civil War, soldiers from all the wars as well as Supreme Court judges are buried here. Of course the most famous graves are those of the Kennedy brothers. JF Kennedy and his wife Jackie are buried in a grave which has an eternal flame. Just a short distance away is brother Robert (assassinated in 1968) with just a simple wooden cross. A little further away again is brother Ted who died last year. The cemetery covers a huge area of green wooded lawns and has thousands and thousands of graves. On a hill overooking the cemetery is Arington House which once belonged to George Washington and prior to the Civil War belonged to Robert E Lee. It is currently being restored to its former glory.
In the evening we walked around the Capitol Building with is the US equivalent of our Parliament House. Althogether a very solemn but marvellous day. Tomorrow we head off to the Sminthsonian Museum of Space and Flight and whatever else we can fit in.
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