"A Tale of Two Cities" DC/Florida September 2016 - Day 4 (The White House & all the museums!)

[soraia]

Day 3 is here.

"A Tale of Two Cities" DC/Florida
Day 4 - Tuesday 6th September 2016

Just as I was starting to get on to US time I was woken up at 06:20 with a phonecall. I didn't answer but I Googled the number afterwards and found out it was one of those cold calls from British Gas. Ugh. I put it on my blocked numbers list. (good thing too as I recently checked and that number has been calling me every day since then :angry: )

I met up with the boys in the lobby and we headed for breakfast at the Corner Street Bakery. Bernie had another hilarious encounter at the till. The lady serving him was just the MOST uninterested monotone person I have ever seen. We still laugh about it now! He really is not having much luck with service in DC...

I had the YUMMIEST cinnamon muffin. I definitely remember taking pictures of it but I can't seem to find them anywhere so maybe I'm just imagining them!

We had originally pencilled this morning in for the White House Tour we had applied for but sadly we never heard anything back which means we weren't successful. I would have loved to go on the tour! Oh well, maybe next time!

We still headed over to the White House for the obligatory shots!

As we walked over we saw quite a big queue of people with confirmations for the tour. *Sob*

Today was museum day! We were looking forward to exploring all the Smithsonian museums and the first on the list was the Natural History Museum.

There was lots to see in here and we all enjoyed it but did comment that it is probably more geared towards children. It's a great place for a school trip!

After that we went to the Air & Space Museum which was absolutely fantastic! We all loved it and spent quite a bit of time here looking at everything.

By now it was lunch time and we decided to head over to Chinatown. I seem to not have any pictures of lunch so maybe those are in the black hole that houses my cinnamon muffin pictures from this morning? We went to a restaurant called China Garden which was very good value - $15 lunch menu including wonton soup, spring roll, drink and an entree. I went for beef with broccoli. The portion was huge. We did comment how it is interesting that Chinese food in the US does taste different to Chinese food in the UK and Portugal. They obviously must have to cater to local tastes.

The last museum of the day was going to be the International Spy Museum – we fancied something a little different! When you walk in they make you pick a cover story to memorise and then you get asked questions on a computer intermittently as you walk along. This was mine!

This place definitely has an interesting concept and had some cool areas but overall it wasn't worth the $23 price tag. We were in there for about an hour and felt like we had seen everything. Maybe we had just been spoiled by going to all the Smithsonian Museums which are free.

After that we stopped for a drink and refuel at Potbelly and decided to go to Ford Theatre where Abraham Lincoln was shot. This was also free and was super interesting. We also went next door to the house where he actually died and there was a museum about his life/death and presidency in there. I honestly learned so much about American History during my 4 days in DC!

By now it was starting to get late so we walked back to the hotel and got changed for dinner which was going to be at Old Ebbit Grill, the oldest bar in Washington DC. This was a short walk from the hotel and we were seated straight away.

We liked the atmosphere in here but it was very dark again so I'm afraid the pictures are all grainy again! We ordered a couple of cocktails and then I had the french dip sandwich, Bernie went for the trout parmesan (yum) and Tig had a salad.

Our server was friendly and efficient and the food was good and reasonably priced. The place was packed though so I would definitely recommend booking if you want to eat here!

When we got back to the hotel it was time to pack! The last 4 days went by so quickly and I couldn't believe it was time to go to Florida. I was so excited!

We all really enjoyed our time in Washington DC – it was full of culture, was very easy to get around and we all learned so much. The weather had been fantastic and we had eaten some good food, although service was probably the only negative. Maybe we were just unlucky! It certainly provided us with some hilarious stories though

Step count: 17,334

Day 5 is here.