Day 9 - DC

Lazy start to the day; I think all this running about is finally catching up with us now! We eventually got up and out of bed and braved the anticipated 11F cold (that's -12C for those that can't make the conversion). Our first stop was a CVS (it's kind of like a chainstore pharmacy / Spar) for some health water and a breakfast muffin to supplement our oats. That cost us a mere $3, thanks to the handy coupons lying around the shop. I've been pondering buying a simcard / cellphone for our stay so we can avoid the excessive phone bills in the hotel, as well as have some way of being reached (which will be especially helpful in SFO when I'm on my own while Kat's working). It's $11 for a cellphone and simcard ... And then airtime will be $20.

From there we took a metro ride into the Smithsonian area. We started at the NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM, but had to detour because they won't allow food into the museum. This next bit is a vital piece of information:

DC TRAVEL TIP: if you're going to be bounced for stuff in your bag, find an isolated bushy area and stuff your goodies into a hedge! We did this rather successfully despite the surveillance cameras around us - without going into detail we managed to shield our suspicious activities and stow our stash. Just remember to find an isolated spot!

Operation Hide-Your-Things-Away, phase one.

Operation "Find-Your-Things"...

we discovered a squirrel or something else had eaten our left-over Frito's,

but the drinks were fine, although a bit of a funny taste (almost like Ammonium)!

We then went into the museum (all of it is free) and took a free guided tour for 90 minutes. There's just so much to see, from Mercury modules to Lunar Landing modules to V2 rockets to real-life space capsules! So much fun!

LEFT: we touched a piece of the moon. Yes! We did! WE did! WE!! WE!! WE TOUCHED A PIECE OF THE MOON!!!

We had a lunch break at the cafeteria, where our McDonalds meal and Kat's 7" pizza cost us a combined $16! NOTE: I sacrificed my salad option for a McMeal so we could share a soda.

The burgers here are HUGE!

This is a real-life space thingamijig. Honest!!

US TRAVEL TIP: almost everywhere is free top-ups for soda, so get the smallest soda and share! Also, their small is the size of our LARGE back home, so it's really crazy! I feel like I'm stating the obvious here, but it took us a while to figure this stuff out.

The small soda is as big as Kat's pizza.

(The pizza was a rip-off)

We coughed up $18 for the space station 3D show in IMAX, and that was something special, but honestly I don't see the fuss about IMAX really. It's just a big screen!

We then did some more exploring until the museum closed.

I defiantly resisted the Star Wars merchandise.

We took a walk at night along the Mall, and got to see the National Monument (a big pencil with red eyes), the Treasury Building, Capitol Hill, and most anti-climactically, the White House!

Essentially, we were strolling along the area, fighting the bitter cold, and noticed sections with a few cops (in DC there appear to be a lot fewer visible cops than NYC). Kat asked if it was the White House but we decided it couldn't be, and proceed up the road a bit more to find The National Christmas Tree, and a left down Pennsylvania. We came to a small park area and decided we had best check a tourist information sign, when lo and behold, it read "WELCOME TO THE WHITE HOUSE". Woohoo!

Kind of like when Bill Gates came to Kat's work, the White House was fairly inconspicuous especially in terms of what it is meant to be. There were roads blocked from normal traffic, but only two police cars outside the front area. Around the back there was only one!! The lady cop at the back did instruct people to not cross the barrier onto the road, and also instructed us that no tripods were allowed either. The roads were cordoned off with a mixture of simple metal barriers, a few police vehicles, a couple of sections of retractable bollards, and most impressively for me, blast shield-like steel sheets that retract into the ground for cars that have access. Sadly, I had left my clean pair of underpants at home, and Kat didn't have the regulation style shoes, so we decided to turn around before entering the dinner party... besides, the party looked really official and boring and stuff, and we didn't want to have to smile politely to Barack all night and listen to the Ambassador to Cameroon go on and on about Burundi's latest attempts to steal his nation's cheese industry. It wasn't as much fun as we expected a White House party to be!

The whole scene was a little strange when compared to NYC on New Years Day. There were a lot fewer cops comparatively, but overall there were still a good number in positions around the White House. One thing about DC is there are a lot more cop cars moving around the White House area than I've seen elsewhere. We weren't dressed for dropping in, so we decided to head home, but I have to emphasise that the security is deceptively subtle and doesn't look all that imposing (hopefully the reality is it's just a friendly deception).

We popped into a book store called BORDERS where Kat secretly bought some Milk Duds (over-rated, especially at $2), and I used the absolutely free WIFI.

From there we had supper at Chipotle (Kat's new favorite spot; a burrito, chips, salsa and soda for $11 which we shared), discovered our camera's lost a piece of its face, and had a hot choc for the walk home from Dunkin' Donuts for $2.

We ended the evening playing SETTLERS OF CATAN card game and hoped for an early start the next day for me to return to the air & space museum while Kat takes on the National Gallery of Art.

See if you can spot the real Triceratops fossil, and which one is me...

Kat posing as a ninja with The Pointy Thing in the background.

Ninja Kat (it was VERY cold) with Abe behind her, from the base of The Pointy Thing.