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LEGACY - Page 1
Washington DC is like parts of London and other major cities. I was also reminded of Cardiff and Glasgow especially. The Mall in the middle is actually a huge long strip of parkland (grass and trees) which runs several miles from the Capitol (the place the aliens exploded in 'Independance Day'!) right up to the top of Arlington Cemetery. On either side of the Mall are the buildings of the Smithsonian institute and other monumental-type architecture. Mostly 'Grecian' in style, with some modern and one Victorian/gothic 'castle'!
I got to the hotel after a long flight about 5.30 p.m. on the Thursday. Greeted with a hug from Jette and several others (including Paul 'Smoking Pen' Edmonds, who I'd first met at Homeland). Unpacked, registered. Went just across the street to an Irish themed pub/restaurant. Managed to stay vaguely awake till 9.45-ish, accompanied by a salad, Coke and a rather loud folk singer! About then, my system was very, very ready for bed. So, having invested in a HUGE container of grapefruit juice, a small milk and some snack bars I crashed into bed.
FRIDAY
Went into town with Cindy, LZ (both American!) and Paul. Checked out the Washington Monument (closed for repairs), Lincoln's memorial (very moving) and The Wall (likewise). So many names. I quit trying to find/not find a T. Beckett (from Sam's brother in Quantum Leap), after the fourth panel. There were nearly forty of them, some 10 feet high, all covered in names. (See picture below).
We happy four repaired to the outside of the White House for some snaps, then the FBI building which is UGLY, UGLY, UGLY!! It looks like a multi-storey car-park! We then mooched around in search of lunch which turned out to be extremely cheap Chinese noodles with sauce and travelled back to the hotel. That evening, a Texan group called The Rogues played and man..... 2 bagpipes, drums, bodhran and LOUD. We did 'Scottish' dancing and jigging up and down enthusiastically! They were all wearing kilts, 'poofy' shirts (or leather vests) and tam o' shanters. Looked wonderful. The music was great - but when they spoke....the accent didn't quite fit with the rest of the picture! I bought one of their tapes and got a hug from each of the guys which was most pleasurable!
Jim Byrnes and Peter Wingfield turned up briefly at the bash. Now LZ was wearing his Bronze Age Methos outfit and receiving many admiring glances. I told him Peter was over in the corner, so he walked slowly and carefully over and hovered politely. Peter turned, did a wonderful double-take, then went on chatting to someone else. In due course, Peter had a full encounter with LZ and they had a substantial interchange. LZ came away on cloud nine! As Peter passed me I said "Sh'mae" to him. Most of what we said I'm keeping private, but we did talk about Wales and Cardiff. I discovered that if I'd stayed put, our paths would have crossed, as he went to the same secondary school that I would have gone to. Small world.
