Day 10 - DC

As much as our intentions were good and we wanted to wake up early enough to get to the museums when they opened, we couldn't seem to get ourselves out of bed!

Our 7:30am wake-up snoozed until 9:30am, when we slowly rose and geared ourselves up for the day. It would seem that an entire day of walking can be rather tiring!!

So, throwing away our mightily crafted plans of waking up early, heading to the information centre, and then arriving at the NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY at opening time, we opted for plan B - get there as soon as we felt able to!

Knowing what to expect about no food in the museum, we bought a bagel each for breakfast - I had a sausage / egg / cheese muffin (basically like a McMuffin = bleh), and Kat had a bagel with swiss cheese. $4 total.

Taking the metro to the SMITHSONIAN stop this time, we paid a visit to the information centre first. Although it's not much to see it was a valuable visit nonetheless, and the video with Ben Stiller was both funny and informative. From there we went to the NMNH and did a whole bunch of (exhausting) exhibits.

The place is huge! It doesn't seem all that big, but we did the exhibits for Africa, South America, the Ocean, Dinosaurs, Insects, Gem stones; pretty much EVERYTHING that was open!! We skipped IMAX, even though we'd have qualified for discounted tickets from our Air & Space Museum visit the previous day.

We had lunch in the cafe, with Kat nabbing macaroni cheese and I got beef chilli soup. $8.50 but the soup was divine!!

DC TRAVEL TIP: why order soda when the water's free? Always ask for water and you can save yourself +-$2 (R16) a meal! And if you MUST have soda, grab the smallest one since you can always top up anyhow!

The museum took us pretty much five or six hours and we weren't even nearly finished. Kat was fading rapidly, and I found her sleeping beneath the watchful eye of a bracchiosaurus, so we decided to wrap it up. I have to note that there were lots of dinkum artefacts and exhibits there, including a real life giant squid, dinosaur fossils, and COCKROACHES. I braved the fear I possess of these beasties and got up close and personal with the screeching variety.

DC TIP OF THE DAY: remember to make use of the free lockers in the museums to stow away your belongings so you don't have to go through the same security checks at each museum!

This museum is really big but worth the price of admission... FREE! We had several schoolkids racing around with checklists etc. so it's also a valuable asset for nearby schools.

(Note: if people are easily offended by the theory of evolution, don't risk the museum because it wouldn't sit right with you seeing everything being premised on Darwin's theory)

We headed over to a 24-hour CVS nearby to buy some snacks and a cellphone, with me also trying out "original" flavoured frito's. Our basket of goods included chips, ice cream (to share), oats, airtime, cellphone, and a shopping bag (in DC they charge 5c for a bag) totalled $42. Ouch!!

We committed ourselves to seeing Abe's memorial today, and trekked for half an hour to get there, even though for most of the journey we could see the memorial in front of us (it's quite demoralising to know it's within sight but still so far away).

We enjoyed the 2004-erected WW2 memorial on the outskirts of the reflecting pool (there's a Pacific and Atlantic side, each with placards depicting the states involved in the conflicts as well as murals of WW2 events); it's not a massive display but is still moving and very good.

The reflecting pool - to our surprise - was frozen solid! We even put our legs on it and tried to crack the ice but couldn't; it was amazing! We noticed patches here or there where the ice had thawed, but the majority of the pool was solid ice. We could just as easily have walked across the pool as along it!

The Abe memorial is really big, and unlike the movies, has about five cops crawling around inside. We did the usual stuff inside and then discovered a bookshop and an underground section, which we promptly visited to observe some history. Who would have thought the memorial was an actual building! We had a ranger give us a brief history of the place (his last act of the night; 7pm - poor guy must have had a long day) scheduled as part of the memorial's services every hour or so.

From there we crossed the White House again and back to Chipotle's for supper (this time we had soft cooked taco's ... $9).

Returning to the hotel we took the night easy and caught up on some rest time!

A few things we've noticed about DC during our stay:

1. There are lots of squirrels! Kat managed to get quite close to an albino one today... I was more cautious, suspicious of a potential rabies outbreak that would ignite the zombie apocalypse!

2. People in DC talk to themselves... A LOT!

3. We've not had a day go by that someone hasn't begged us for metro fare, food, or money. Lots of beggars in DC!

Interestingly, cellphones here don't have simcards if they're prepaid, and it's a pain to activate them. I've failed three times to activate the phone so I'm not sure what's going on (I'm following all the steps correctly), but we'll go back to CVS tomorrow to get some help!

 

Some strange people in these meseums!!

That's an expensive salad ... R70+!!!

There be NO SMOKIN' NO FOOD, sucka!

The Pointy Thing isn't all that big.

Damn you Natural History Museum! You cut me! You cut me deep!!

I met this guy in the bones section. He was great fun.

(he has a funny bone)

Something about this picture feels cliche'd.

These exhibits grow on you!

There's something in my ear...

Woooooo... World War 2 Memorial!!

Everything in the US is disabled-friendly...

even the writing for the sight-impaired.

I took this shot with night-shot mode on our crappy camera. It worked out well :)

Those special protection devices for motorways by the White House.

The secret is out, methinks...

Google it! Taxation without Representation!