Washington, D.C
Another travel day today. Back to the airport. Our first flight is delayed, so we have to go back to Charlotte again. Then another short flight to Washington, D.C.
It's another shock going from the warmth of Miami to the cold of Washington. Gloves and beanie back on. We train it out to where we are staying.
Our hosts have left a key under their letter box. The only problem is that we aren't 100% sure what the address is. So we are snooping around people's front doors, generally looking dodgy when Jean, our host opens the door and scares Courts half to death. At least we found the place, I guess.
We settle in, get warm and get the low down from Jean and Beth. They are well travelled and we share some stories. They recommend a Salvadoran place not far away. We've never had Salvadoran before, so we are keen. Jeff drags Courts away from the cats and we're off. A short walk later and we've found the restaurant, a little hole in the wall, always the best kind of restaurant.
We order a couple of beers (they've got the good ones) and peruse the menu. I take Beth's recommendation and go with some traditional items - Pupusas (thick tortilla stuffed with pork and melted cheese) and Tamales (chickpeas and chicken wrapped and steamed in a starchy, corn based dough. Interesting texture). Jeff went for a Chimichanga, basically a deep fried burrito. All the dishes were served with refried beans and rice. Everything was full of flavour and really authentic.
Intersting to see the Central and South American influences still prevalent all the way up here.
We make our way back in the cold. Apparently it's gonna warm up over the next few days. We'll see.
Day 2
Ok, it's museum and monument central. Time to see them all. We are conscious of not museuming ourselves out though.
We head to "the mall", which is a large open space that has many of the Smithsonians. First stop is the Air and Space museum. First thing we see as we enter is a moon rock. Pretty cool. You even get to touch it.
We start on a guided tour, but quickly bail on that idea. Too slow for our time schedule and ADHD. We see the Wright brothers plane. About 95% original. Impressive.
We take in a show at the planetarium. Haven't been to one of those in years. It was awesome. A journey through the stars narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. How could we resist?
We quickly do a lap of the rest of the place and head towards the Captiol, that building you see all the time that's not the White House. Anyway, onwards to lunch at recommended Burger joint run by someone who was on Top Chef.
The burgers and fries and shake are about as American as you can get. Really good. Really fatty. We head off full and happy. The food coma is on its way though.
Ok, time for another museum. We head to the American Indian museum. Not quite as impressive as the last one. We don't spend long there.
We have a bunch of monuments/memorials to get through. No time like the present. Off to the Washington monument (the big pointy one). Yep. It's pointy.
We keep going past the reflecting pool and up to the Lincoln memorial. All must sees in Washington. Impressive. Some cool photos then over to the Korean war monument. That was cool. And finally the Martin Luther King statue. Ok, that's most of them. We're tired of walking now.
We wander close to the White House but dont ever actually see it. We walk past a bar which has games. All the games. Pool, shuffle board, table tennis and arcade games like that old school Simpsons game and basketball and an NFL arcade game where you throw balls. All great fun. I take on a local and get a lesson in basketball. He is too good. We leave with my tail between my legs.
We have Nandos for dinner. It's awesome. They don't really have Nandos here and this one is more like a proper restaurant rather than a fast food joint.
Back home. Dead on our feet. Looking forward to doing the rest of the museums and monuments tomorrow.
Day 3
Another day in Washington, more museums to tackle. It seems you could spend a year in Washington and still not see them all. Our first stop is the Natural History Museum. What a little winner it is. Our hosts told us upon arrival that you can't see everything, you just have to pick the highlights, otherwise you'll be there forever. Boy, were they right.
The Natural History Museum is apparently where Night at the Museum was filmed. I personally haven't seen it but I'd be more than happy to be locked in this museum. An abundance of mammals (the taxiderm-ed type), dinosaurs and mummies. And a big old diamond, of the Hope variety. And that's just what we saw. We struggled to tear ourselves away from the place.
Next we headed out to Pentagon city for lunch and a quick trip to Macy's. A short train ride later and we hit the zoo. Also free. Being winter most of the animals were hiding. Not the otters though. There was a family of 11 on show, a mum, dad and 9 kids. They were a lot of fun to watch. All the kids play fight and apparently the mum is the biggest of the whole family, just kicking back and eating while the dad takes care of the brood. The females are also on birth control as I guess they get a bit frisky.
Moving on we saw some cheetahs. We were not entirely convinced they couldn't jump what seemed like an inferior fence considering how fast these guys can run. Especially when a delicious looking toddler came along in her squeaky shoes.
The cheetah's ears perked up and he started moving like he was stalking prey. And then as the little girl ran past the cheetah chased her along the fence. Funny and scary at the same time.
Moving on we saw some vultures and sad looking apes. Mind blown on how human like they are. Next up is the reptiles. Snakes and lizards and such. We watched a snake eat a mouse. It was pretty cool. But mostly gross. The mouse was dead already but apparently this type of snake doesn't use it's venom to kill it's prey, it literally just swallows them to death alive. Delightful.
Feeling animaled out by this point it's time to leave. We walk back through the zoo and by now it's night time and the lights display has started. It's really cool and like the zoo has transformed into a circus.
Back in town we head to an international beer bar featuring Coopers and Fosters as the Aussies beers. We try the happy hour drinks and are not disappointed. We look on trip advisor for somewhere to go for dinner and decide on the Salvadoran place again. It's that good.
After dinner we head back to the apartment to pack which turns into poker with our host Jean and Jeff getting us a discount on accommodation by cleaning him out.
