For me, a big part of travelling in the USA was to be able to visit family; Shirley and crew in St. Louis now Bill and family in Maryland.

After picking us up, Bill showed us around the harbour area of Annapolis. We visited the Naval Academy and discussed what we wanted to do during our week in the Baltimore/Washington DC area.

The next day we used as a chill out day; Laundry had built up and we needed some time to just relax and catch up with people back home. Now we were all fresh and rejuvenated it was time to hit Baltimore. Bill had to work but his daughter Jamie was kind enough to give us a lift to the nearest Metro station. Liann and I spent the day walking around the Inner harbour area of Baltimore, we visited the Museum of Visionary Art and had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (another American chain ticked off the list). It may not sound like the most packed of days but its amazing where time goes!

On the Saturday Bill was free of work and able to give us his grand tour of Washington DC. We started off in Union Station and headed towards the Library of Congress, House of Representatives and then to the Capitol building. From there we headed down towards the Mall. Unfortunately they are in the process of re-doing the lawn at the Mall so it was not quite as perfect as we had hoped. The dozen or so Smithsonian museums that surround the Mall were going to have to wait for today. We headed past the Washington monument which is under construction due to damage caused by an earthquake. In between the Washington monument and the reflection pool lays the amazing World War Two memorial. Liann and I walked around that before meeting back up with Bill and walking along the (empty) reflection pool to the Lincoln memorial building. From here we went to the Vietnam and Korea memorials and we wrapped up the day with a visit to the waterfront and fish market.

It was a long day of memorials with lots of walking but Bill was a great tour guide and we got a good overview of the city in just one day. Liann and I were now prepared to come back on our own to do the Smithsonian.

On the Monday we had an early start and got to DC before the museums opened. First on my list was the Air and Space Museum. We had planned to get the whole thing done in a couple of hours before we had our ticketed tour of the capitol building but we ran out of time before we had even completed the ground floor.

The tour of the capitol building was really interesting and it was quite entertaining how many times 'The British' came up in conversation. Normally burning something down! We tried to stay under cover but our American accents failed us!

During the rest of the week we managed to complete the Air and Space museum, visit the Natural History and American History museums where we saw the original Star Spangled Banner and the enormous Hope Diamond. We visited the Beaurau of Engraving and Printing, the Arlington Cemetery, Iwo Jima memorial and had an expensive beer in the roof top bar at the Washington Hotel.

DC is a big city with a lot to see, plus with it all being free it fitted nicely with our budget. We may not have seen it at its best due to lots of construction/repair work but we had a fantastic time and it was great to spend time with more family.

Saying goodbye to Bill and family we looked forward to boarding a bus to New York City and to seeing some familiar faces from back home.