The alarm went off at 7.30, up and dressed and across the road for breakfast by 8am. Quick cheap and easy Maccas breakfast right next door to the metro. Although unfamiliar we worked it all out pretty easy buying metro cards and getting to the correct platform. The trains came frequently, the first was too full so we waited for the second which was a little less squishy. The announcements for stations made it easy to know where to change from the red line to the yellow and in little time we were at the Pentagon metro stop. A short walk took us to the check in point, ID, proof of tour booking and a scan of us and my bag took about 20 minutes. Another short walk and we were seated, waiting for ten am.
The tour started with an intro talk re rules etc and then we were off. The tour guide was great, very open to q's and walked backwards the whole way! We spent a few minutes in a room which was a monument to those lost on Sept 11 and were shown where the damaged section had been and had the rebuild explained including the fact that the 1000 construction workers earned $3million in overtime between them. They donated all of that to the fund for the memorial making possible the internal and external memorials. It would've been good to spend more time looking at the exhibits along the way but it is a working military base not a museum so it was a case of see what you can as you whizz by.
The tour lasted an hour and then we again used the metro to get back to the hotel, we registered for the conference and received our accreditation. Back in our room some of that awesome fruit we bought yesterday was an excellent lunch.
Off out again we again used the metro to get us to the Air and Space museum. We out another $5 on each of our cards and the first $5 got eaten by the machine never to be seen again, not happy.
Exiting the metro there were 8 or so colourful food truck dining the street, still full from lunch even the quesadillas didn't tempt us.
A short walk and we were there, lots of exhibits but having done the Udvar Hazy and the Ohio Science Museums not a lot that was new to us but still, given it was free we aren't complaining. We spent a couple of hours exploring the place before again hitting the metro back to the hotel.
After a couple of drinks in our room, a shower and change we went down to join those going for the MBI dinner. It was held in a very expensive French restaurant, not our style at all lol but great company so it was a good evening.
Back to the hotel for a few self supplied drinks in the bar and lots of chat with fellow reef nuts. A good night :-)