Last day in D.C. What to do? Go to the zoo! The Smithsonian Zoo was just 10 minutes walk up the road and I decided I would head up for the morning and see if I had time to do anything else in the afternoon. First stop, Asian animals. It was quite cold outside (glove weather if mine weren't still drying out in the bedroom) and many of the animals were hiding were it was a lot warmer. But the Red Pandas were out and about running around and climbing trees. And the ...

The day that shall not be spoken of: Let's just say that American football is the most pointless game I have ever had to watch. Also I really don't like rain, being wet and being so cold my toes feel like they are so painful they might drop off. No more to be said aside from worst day of the trip so far and probably the whole time.

So today started off with a great stack of blueberry pancakes. We got to the International Spy Museum a little early and their spy cafe next door had a special on! After a great breakfast (but some very bad coffee) we headed into the Spy Museum to do the interactive spy mission. The trigger for a nuclear device had been stolen and it was up to us to find the trigger before someone set of a dirty bomb. Apparently it was based on actual CIA mission files (the mus...

So it was an early start today to get ourselves up to Capitol Hill for our guided tour at 9:20am. I forgot my gloves again...they were in my other jacket pocket. We headed through security and Siobhan got pulled up for having food in her bag and had to dump her good English lollies. We then headed into Emancipation Hall to meet up with our group and guide. First off our group was led into a theatre to watch an introduction story. If ever you wanted an example o...

Today was a travel day from New York to Washington DC. I really like the trains between major cities. So much better than the trains between cities in Australia. So much more room and they lean back so far. I think I may have gotten over my loathing for long haul train rides that I acquired training from Perth to Adelaide. We got into DC in the early afternoon. It was easy enough to find the hotel...and what a hotel it was! I have no idea how we managed to sw...