DAY 32 We got up at about 7.15am and headed down to the deli next door for breakfast. We both got bagels and juice. I just got plain cream cheese, Scott got his with Salmon. It was pretty good. We then grabbed a coffee from Starbacks before heading over to the nbc studios to watch the Today show being taped. We were pretty lucky as when we rocked up Matt Lauer and his co-host (not his usual one Meredith Vierra) were out the front interviewing Zach Galifakas from the hangover. There weren’t really that many people around and it was cool to see. Think we will be back another morning to see it filmed again. The good thing is you can see inside the studio as well and they have TV’s outside so you can see ... read more

DAY 29 We got up this morning to the alarm at about 6am. We headed down for buffet breakfast shortly thereafter and it wasn’t half bad. After finishing brekky we headed out to take some photos of the monuments in the National Mall and surrounds. We stopped off at the Washington Monument, White House, Lafayette Park, World War II Monument, Franklin Roosevelt Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial. Once it hit 10am we started our tours of the Smithsonian Museums. The best thing about all the museums of the Smithsonian are that they are all free!! You can walk in and walk out as many times as you like and all you need to do is pass security. Our first stop was the American History Museum. We started on the second floor and looked at the star ... read more

DAY 27 We got up around 8am, ate breakfast and headed down to pick up the car. We drove out to Key Largo, via a scenic route in Miami. We drove through Coconut Grove, Coral Gables and some other local neighbourhoods. The streets were really pretty and were lined with big beautiful trees. It was a bit hard going driving through downtown Miami in peak hour but Scott did a great job! Eventually we got back on to US1 which is the highway that took us into the Florida Keys. After about 45 minutes of boring driving, we started to see Biscayne National Park to the left and Everglades to the right. We then soon started to enter the Keys and see water on either side of us. It was really beautiful. It would have been ... read more

DAY 25 Woke up around 8am, had breakfast then showered and headed out for a bout of shopping. We started off down Lincoln Road Mall, where we discovered a lot of shops didn’t open until 10 or 11am, but there was enough open to keep us occupied. Once we’d walked the length of Lincoln Road Mall and back we headed down Collins street for some more shopping. I managed to buy 2 dresses and 2 singlets, Scott managed to buy 2 pairs of shorts, 1 pair boardshorts and a pair of jeans. We then crossed over a street to Washington where we went into Kid Robot, which is like a toy store that Scott has been waiting to go to for ages. He bought 6 little figurines, that are really cool. He was quite restrained in ... read more

DAY 23 Got up, finished packing, put bags in the car and headed down to the lobby to meet Colin and Shona at 8.30 for breakfast. We walked around for a little bit before finding a Cafe at the top of Jackson Square opposite Cafe Du Monte. We all ordered omelettes, which are served with Toast and Grits. I have never had grits before, but they are somewhat similar to Oatmeal just “grittier”. They came out plain, but would have been nice with honey or golden syrup or something like that. We walked back towards the hotel, stopping in at a little coffee shop for some coffee. Scott and I got the chickory coffee as apparently this is the traditional way to have coffee in New Orleans - tasted pretty similar to normal coffee to me. ... read more