Often there are moments in life that at the time seem so naturally innocent and hold no potential for problems or misunderstandings, but when looking back on those moments (usually with the benefit not only of hindsight but additional or alternative perspectives) we can see just how crazy we were and how close we actually came to being in some sort of trouble.
While revisiting some of our USA holiday pictures, I came across a couple that immediately upon first glance made me think of something a little deviant from the original "momentary context" of the pictures.
When you look at these pictures, keep in mind our momentary context - it was freezing cold (like below zero), we were tired and excited tourists, and we were in the USA's capitol. What we forgot at the time was that fewer than two weeks earlier an attempted Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist tried to destroy a commercial passenger aircraft and subsequently the nation's DHS was on high alert.
I'm quite surprised that we didn't land up in any trouble at the time, or at the very least, get some strange enquiries from the security forces around the capitol, but the pictures below reveal how suspicious we must have looked at the time...
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Infiltrating Washington DC with our "gear".
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Bryan-balah and Kat-zbalah in front of one of their targets, the Washington Monument.
(note the backpack with "gear" strapped over my right shoulder)
