Day 8 - The Capitol, Smithsonians and Arlington

 I start the day by heading over to the Capitol building which holds Congress, made up of two groups, the first being the House of Representatives having numbers matching to the populations of states and the Senate where all states are equal and get two representatives not dis-similar to Australia.

I went on a tour of the building and as a foreigner had the chance to walk up and get a ticket to view the Senate chamber much to the dis-taste of the local next to me (Citizens have to contact their House member's office in advance).

Later in the morning I visited the Smithsonian Institute - National Museum of Natural History which was awesome and then headed to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum which was brutal and yet fascinating as I don't claim to know much about the history of Nazi Germany so before I knew it I'd spent several hours looking around.

Late afternoon I headed over to Arlington National Cemetery for a tour around the grounds.

The rows and rows of like white headstones are of those who were killed but the bodies not recovered so these are memorials to the individuals who gave the ultimate sacrifice but they are not buried here.

I had the chance to witness a changing of the guard. There is a member of the military here guarding Arlington at all times and they hold a change over ceremony every half hour 24 hours a day rain, hail or shine.