Visiting Arlington |
 On the left is the world’s largest office building, the pentagon, which is the headquarters of the US governments Department of Defense. The pentagon also suffered in the attack of 9/11 but has since been repaired and the damage is no longer visible. During the attacks of 9/11 I was in the US Marines, but just happened to be home on leave. Many famous places such as the pentagon or the Iwo Jima memorial are thought to be in Washington DC but are actually located right across the Potomac river in Virginia. |
 While many Americans typically see Virginia as rural southern state with a country like atmosphere, northern Virginia is actually one of the most diverse places in the country. There are large populations from countries like Korea, Vietnam, El Salvador, Afghanistan and other random places in the world. One Sunday I was casually hanging out at home when one of my Afghan friends called me and asked if I wanted to meet the Vice President of Afghanistan. Opportunities like this don’t come very often so we drove 20 minutes up to Arlington Virginia and I was able to have tea with 2nd VP Abdul Karim Khalili. Abdul Karim Khalili was visiting the area to attend a peace conference with Dick Cheney and Condaleeza Rice at the time. |
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| The northern Virginia population is in the millions, so many people use the subway to commute to DC and around other parts of Virginia as well. On the left is a photo of one of the subway stops in Virginia that actually directly connects to the shopping mall on the right. The mall on the right is called Pentagon City, located in Arlington, Virginia. |
  Above are some examples of typical homes in northern Virginia. Townhouses and apartment buildings are very common in the area, but there are many single family home communities as well. |
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| Here are two more photos from the city of Arlington. Arlington is split up into different districts such as Crystal City or Rosslyn. The downtown area of Rosslyn is seen on the upper left. On the right is a photo of a company building that is contracted with the US government. Many people living in Arlington either commute to Washington DC, or work in Arlington itself with government jobs. |
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 With Washington DC being only a 15 minute drive from Northern Virginia, almost everyone visits the National Mall when they want to go see museums. I think the best museum that I know about in northern Virginia is the Air & Space Museum, which is actually just an annex of the Air & Space museum in DC. It is located outside the main population areas so has a lot more room than one of the museums would in the capital. The museum has everything from early aircraft to space shuttles and satellites. On the upper right is the SR-71 Blackbird, once holding records for fastest speed and highest altitude during its career. During its 30 plus years of service, not a single SR-71 was lost due to enemy fire. Above is a photo of some type of satellite that has returned from space. The highlight of this museum is easily the Enola Gay that is seen on the left. This is the actual aircraft that dropped the Atomic Bomb that ended World War II in Japan, one of the most controversial events in history. |