Trip to New York IV

The day before on 22th September, we went to ticket office in the station to get advanced tickets to Washington DC. We would leave New York early in the morning. So, we had to get advanced tickets by the day before, because the ticket office doesn't open early in the morning. I thought that taking the train was the easiest way to go to Washington DC from New York. There are the Smithsonian Museum, the White House, Washington Monument and famous sightseeing spots near Union station in Washington DC.

On 22th September, I and my friend went to Washington DC by train to go to Smithsonian Museum. We left New York early in the morning. It took us about three and a half hours to Washington DC. I enjoyed the view from the window seat. We got on the train called Amtrak. I heard that the train is a kind of Shinkansen in Japan. There were dining cars at the train. I was surprised that there were AC outlets on each seats. I saw some businessmen useing the outlets for their computers.

After three and a half hours, We arrived to Uniton station in Washington DC. The platform was like warehouse of trains. But, I saw a beautiful and huge atrium lobby beyond the ticket gate. The weather was clear sky. I thought Washington DC was quiet and beautiful city. There were large parks in the city. We went through the parks to the museums on foot. You can see small animals like squirrels under the trees. And you can also enjoy the artistic monuments, fountains and beautiful flower gardens in the parks. After that, we got to the first museum called National Air and Space Museum.

There were a lot of historical aircraft and space shuttles. I think that science and technology in America have been improving with aircraft and space technology. The Apollo 11 and the Wright Brothers Flyer in front of me made me feel dreams and efforts of people. Now, you can use planes and go abroad easily, but it was extremely hard to fly a plane about a hundred years ago. Ironically, the improving of aircraft technology made war technology improve. There were a lot of combat planes which were used in the World War II. I was surprised that there were not only American combat planes but also Japanese and German ones. Now people is into space technology. You can still hard to go to space, but people can use artificial satellites for broadcasting, communications systems and car navigation systems. The museum taught me how wonderful the American history of technology was.

When we left the museum, we realized that we had to leave Washington DC in a couple of hours. So, we went to Washington Monument, National museum of American History and U.S. Capitol in a hurry. We wished we had had more time. There were too many museums and sightseeing spots to visit all of them in a day. But I took a lot of pictures of them. I would enjoy continuance of this trip with the pictures in Japan.

After we came back to New York, we went to a jazz club called Village Vanguard. I heard that the club was the most historical one in Manhattan. When we got to the club, the performance was already started. The performer of the day was a trio consisted of a piano, drams and a double bass. Inside of the club had nice and historical mood. Historical jazz clubs like that go well with jazz music. I enjoyed the performance with American beer.