Running around the Reflecting Pool, again.

[00:00:00]Going a little posh for lunch today.

[00:00:04]Liquette up in Glover Park getting ready for the France game.

[00:00:20]Here come the decoys.

[00:00:40]See which ones are which.

[00:00:56]This could be him taking another ballroom look.

[00:01:44]>> [screaming] >> Hey guys, good morning. It's Monday.

[00:01:54]It's about 7:45. We're on our morning walk around the reflecting pool and something popped up last night. The National Military Monument. I don't know what that is. America 250 thing. Is it temporary, permanent?

[00:02:10]H. We'll figure this out.

[00:02:14]Need some pictures. They don't want us to see the repairs. So, they've covered it all up, so we can't look in at the damage. Oh, they've they've cleaned it, though. Hang on. I wonder if I can find some of that damage. Reflecting pool has been cleaned. They got all the dead algae up. You can see all the sweeper trucks came through here over the weekend, I guess.

[00:02:36]Now just a little bit of water left in the middle.

[00:02:42]Pumping out the last little bit of the reflected pool.

[00:02:47]Another loop. That's the National Military Memorial that's going up. Those guys are peeling up sections of the reflecting pool. See if we can get a better picture. Look at that. They're peeling up a huge section, guys.

[00:03:07]Well, they were just peeling it up.

[00:03:12]I need this photo better. We got to get a better angle. Okay, guys. Let's get this day started properly. First things first. 6 miles, 7 miles, 10 m, 31 miles.

[00:03:25]We have a winner. We're going to take this bike. It's got the most full battery.

[00:03:30]And uh let's scan our little key.

[00:03:35]Bing bing. Bicycle is going to be mine.

[00:03:38]Okay. The downsides of this bicycle with 31 miles is that it has almost no brakes. [laughter] So if you hear me screaming or banging into a tree to stop from hitting a person, that's why. I think actually the front brakes work, but uh I'm kind of a little backwards here on the hands and the and the thing. Let's see if we can figure this out.

[00:04:05]Green light.

[00:04:07]Okay, not my preferred position, but I got the left hand on the uh handlebars and the right hand holding the camera.

[00:04:14]Uh today we've got our largest lens with us. This is the 100 to 400 mm lens.

[00:04:21]There's a right on there somewhere. And it's a tank. It's an absolute tank. I don't like biking with it on me, but we've got to go to the reflecting pool where we had a really good photo this morning. Ruined by the fact I didn't have the big lens. I was out for a hike with my wife. I take a mediumsiz camera on my hikes and I needed the big one.

[00:04:45]So, we're going to head back there, see if we can recreate the photo, see if they're doing what they were doing earlier because it was really cool. And if we can score, and if not, well, at least we got what we got this morning.

[00:04:58]We're on the campus of GW right now.

[00:05:00]It's pretty quiet. Pretty quiet. There's a lot of tourists coming around though.

[00:05:04]A lot of like, "Hey kids, come to our school and spend $100,000 a year on tuition and fees." That's pretty much what it is now. I think GW is one of the most expensive schools in the country.

[00:05:15]And I do think it's just about $100,000 a year. Come on. Light change. Oh, it's green. That's cool. It's green this way, too. Let's go this way.

[00:05:25]That used to be a farmy. That's Quigley's Pharmacy. Now it's like a little campus hangout. It's not bad. I prefer Duke's Hamburgers, but sometimes I go to Quigley's. You know what? I haven't been to Quigley's in a couple months. We should go there this week.

[00:05:38]This is a red light for sure. Let's use the magic power. I worked green.

[00:05:44]Okay, we're going to head down this road. Reflecting pool is about a half a mile ahead.

[00:05:51]And I'm just really nervous with these brakes.

[00:05:55]I mean, like the rear brake is completely worthless. It just makes noise.

[00:06:01]It's kind of like imitation brakes. Oh, there's the Federal Reserve under renovation.

[00:06:08]All right, we're basically on full brakes right now. It's taking us about 100 ft with the rear brakes. I think I think we're going to change bikes. We'll find another electric even if it has less juice and we'll use that one.

[00:06:34]Light changed. All righty.

[00:06:38]So, we're down by the We're down by the Vietnam wall, and there's a new wall back in the background there. Big red privacy wall, so we can't see what they're doing at the reflecting pool.

[00:06:50]Kind of annoying.

[00:06:52]That's the National Academy of Sciences over there on the right with the big Einstein statue down there.

[00:06:59]We're going to have to switch cameras again. Hang on. There we go. Left hand, right hand.

[00:07:12]Oh, guess who's out here? Nadine is out here with her algae protesters. Team algae the frog is back now. She was over at the courthouse earlier because what's his name? Had his hearing today. The canoe guy had his first hearing.

[00:07:30]But, uh, she's out here dressed as a frog, cheering on the algae.

[00:07:40]prison.

[00:08:00]>> Okay, fun stuff. So, this is the National Military Monument. This is being built. uh will open next week.

[00:08:08]It's a tribute to I believe all the major conflicts the US has taken part in. I'm not really sure. Uh that's what I read online.

[00:08:17]And uh they started erecting this uh last night, this morning. So, it's going to take about 8 days to get this thing put up.

[00:08:26]>> We'll see. Cops are here.

[00:08:30]>> Let's see if we can get a better bike.

[00:08:31]There's the piece that we saw them peel up earlier.

[00:08:35]You can see all the spots there.

[00:08:38]>> I think those are drains though. Those aren't all the rips, are they?

[00:08:41]>> Felony conviction.

[00:08:43]>> Got a Navy guy there now. What's he doing?

[00:08:46]That's pretty freaky. Why is a Navy guy in the pool? Okay, we got some pretty good footage there. We got a motorcade cutting through here. Looks like a diplomatic, though. I don't even know who's in town right now.

[00:08:58]Police car, principal, couple press vehicles.

[00:09:02]Yeah, it's got a rental limousine.

[00:09:04]That's got to be a diplomatic. I don't even think they're running the red lights for this guy. Could be like a foreign head of state.

[00:09:14]Oh no, he's getting out. Whoever the hell he is.

[00:09:19]Okay, so he's paying his respects to the World War II memorial. Whoever this is, some foreign head of state, I think. I don't think it's Rubio. There it is.

[00:09:34]Okay, that's the ambassador of the Solomon Islands to the United Nations.

[00:09:39]So, it's the United Nations ambassador from the Solomon Islands paying his respect at the World War II memorial.

[00:09:46]He's over at the Pacific section where, of course, the Solomon Islands are located.

[00:09:52]Uh, let's head out. Not a major photo.

[00:09:54]Not worth much.

[00:09:57]All right, we're out here now on the Washington Monument grounds. This is where the stage was for the 4th of July.

[00:10:04]It's going to need some major grass work. And then uh over here, this is where the big 8647 was located. It also is going to get some major grass work cuz I think like where they put it in, it's like damaged. They use like a pesticide or something.

[00:10:25]Uh let's see what else is going on in the big city. Not a whole lot of anything right now.

[00:10:32]There's the broken uh light stansion.

[00:10:34]Nobody's really reported on that.

[00:10:37]It's kind of uh the park service isn't making any comment on it. My suspicion is a truck hit it because it didn't look like the wind blew it over. It was like a snap. So, either it was really crappy material and it just snapped or a truck hit it and gave it a big big thunk and it got knocked over.

[00:11:00]All right, where should we go? Let's go down this way. I'm kind of thirsty. Set up by the White House.

[00:11:08]So, yeah, there's the light pole that got knocked over and it it cracked. Right at the base is where it cracked. It didn't like bend.

[00:11:18]Like if it was a slow getting blown over in the wind, you'd kind of expect it to bend, but it like snapped and went right over. Like something forceful hit it.

[00:11:27]But I couldn't see any marks on the pole. Like a truck had hit it. Like a bumper mark. Oh god. Brakes. Brakes.

[00:11:35]My kingdom for brakes.

[00:11:38]This is full brakes, guys. Ah, there we go. We got slow enough to like not die as we went a quarter. Now the brakes won't shut up. Oh god, this fountain's busted. What the heck? This is one of the fountains and it's broken.

[00:11:54]I don't know why.

[00:11:59]That's weird.

[00:12:01]Good lord. That's a massive amount of stuff that's broken in there. You see that?

[00:12:07]Did someone drive over this with a truck or something? I don't think this could support a truck. Can support people. But look how long this gash is. I mean, jumping people wouldn't have done this unless it was like a bunch of them.

[00:12:23]What the heck? Hi guys, it's a couple hours later. Let me just tell you what happened. Um, I put my photos up on Twitter. They went viral. I got a phone call from a news organization. I'll tell you in a few days. Uh, they're not writing the story today as far as I can tell. Uh, the story is going to come out a little bit later, so once it does, I'll tell you. Uh, but I sold all my photos. Um, I'm on a day rate for the day. So, I'm going to go back and see if there's anything else I can take a picture of just to give them value for their money. Uh, and maybe get something to eat or drink. Okay, guys. It's about 3:39, which means I got about 5 minutes to get on the Rock Creek Parkway before they turn it around and make it one way outbound. And then I'm stuck having to fight my way through the city. This is the vice president's house. I think the vice president's been busy. I got a report of them up at Walter Reed earlier today. Of course, the first lady had her uh new son, the fourth child, yesterday.

[00:13:18]It was delivered at Walter Reed. So, I think the vice president is still up there. Interesting. There's a Mercedes coming out of there. Must be a staff car, not a government car. Hey guys, we have stopped off here. Uh, a couple reasons. One, to grab the battery. Two, to grab something to drink. Three, just to check on the tarp. It's still there.

[00:13:40]Uh, not much going on. President is in the oval, it looks like, given the presence of the marine right back there.

[00:13:46]You see him? Uh, a lot of pencils out here. All the events today were closed.

[00:13:52]I don't know what they're all doing.

[00:13:54]Let's, uh, go inside, figure it out.

[00:13:57]Okay, we got our battery or two. I keep spare batteries at the White House along with a spare bottle of water if I'm ever thirsty.

[00:14:07]But uh for some reason orange juice never sells out in the vending machine.

[00:14:12]I mean you can have nothing left but like diet Mountain Dew barbecue flavor and orange juice. I don't know what it is with the press pool. They just don't like orange juice, which is good for me cuz I like orange juice.

[00:14:25]And that's how it is today.

[00:14:28]Okay, we're going to head out. Going to grab another camera and we're going to grab a bike and we're going to bike back to the pool just to see if anything's happened lately. Few more photos. Okay guys, once again we're down by the Federal Reserve renovation.

[00:14:45]There's the big glass atrium they're building and what used to be a empty atrium. Hang on. Okay, we have an emergency assignment from the people I'm working for and uh we have got to get back to where I took that picture earlier today. and see if we can check something. Okay, guys. We have pretty much finished with the reflecting pool for today. Thank god it's so hot. But I just got a bug in my eye.

[00:15:15]Scared away those squirrels, too. That guy's mad at me. He was feeding them.

[00:15:22]Okay, we're going to head back, grab my car, pick up my wife. Going for Vietnamese tonight. Should be pretty yummy. But uh first things first, I got to go get my car. It's back at the White House.

[00:15:37]Wonder if you can see anything on this side. Not really, I don't think. So, here we are at Constitution Gardens watching the ducks ducks.

[00:15:49]It's actually quite peaceful out here. I used to come out here and just feed the ducks bunch of Cheerios and stuff, which I know you're not supposed to do, but they were hungry.

[00:16:01]Down here we got geese and someone sunbathing in the shade. I guess that works.

[00:16:16]Oh, the serenity and sirens. [laughter] Oh, more heads up.

[00:16:25]Let's get rid of this bike. Reason for the sirens is down this road over there, Virginia Avenue, is the back entrance to George Washington University Hospital.

[00:16:36]So, ambulance is coming from pretty much all over the city. We'll come down the freeway, cut over here on Constitution, and then head down Virginia Avenue right there. That's what Senator McConnell and Senator Graham both went. That exact same route.

[00:16:52]That is medic 8. I think that's from Northeast maybe.

[00:16:57]I'm not sure where medic 8's from, but a medic is more severe than just a regular ambulance as you can probably figure out.

[00:17:07]All right, up this road. All right, >> faithful always come true.

[00:17:15]>> Okay, guys, it's now late at night and the first story has been published. I was for photographer for the New York Times today. Uh they've used one of my photos. I think they're going to use some more in the days to come, but if you grab a New York Times, you can see my picture. And they actually uh interviewed me for a bit. Kind of cool.

[00:17:34]Uh tomorrow, no idea what will happen, [laughter] but you can be sure I'm going to be out there doing whatever I do and we'll find something for you guys. All right, I'll see you guys then. Bye bye.