Day 22 - 24. White house confusion

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On our last day in Florida we decided we did NOT want to be caught in a freak storm again and so spent the day in the biggest mall in Florida (the rain held off until we got back of course). Sawgrass mall is a must for anybody in the area who likes a bargin - I got a pair of jeans that should have been $17:99 for $5, and Liz managed to get 3 pairs of shoes for less than $70. Our only issue was baggage allowance on the plane, but with some rearranging of items (from the suitcase to the bin) we fit everything in =D

Yesterday we came to Washington DC, it's amazing! It's hot in the sun but nice and cool in the shade which makes a lovely change from the humid places we've been recently. And our hostel is only a few blocks from the White House!! When we got here we had a few hours to sightsee before we were going out so we walked to the Washington Monument - which is even bigger in real life and just reminds me of Forest Gump, except the water feature is unfortunately being dug up at the moment which was a shame. From the monument you can see the Lincon Memorial on 1 side, and the famous Capitol building on the other. At this point we had some serious confusion as we were convinced that the capitol was the white house and that google maps was just wrong!! Idiots!! So we went to see the big statue of Lincon and read his famous ''Four score Seven ...'' speech. In the evening the hostel had a free walking tour of Georgetown which is an area where a lot of politicians and other rich people live (I want to live there!) and we saw JFK's old house and some other multi-million $ houses. In this area are also the ''Exorcist Stairs'' (where the exorcist was filmed!) which are not as creepy as I'd hoped and is actually now commonly used by joggers and other healthy / crazy people. After the tour the whole group went to a bar and got quite drunk, made some friends and generally had loads of fun!

Today, having figured out that the White House is not what we thought it was, we went to see that and also see the Capitol upclose and personal. We both were much more impressed by the Capitol which is absolutely huge and blindingly white in the sun. The rest of the day we spent in museums - the National History museum and the Natural History museum. Both very impressive! We've seen a lot of sites on our trip but mostly didn't really understnad the significance of them but having seen the museum I feel as if I've learnt a bit about American history. It even has a room where all of the first ladies have donated a famous dress, and a room about hollywood with the ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz! So I might not be that enlightened but it was very cool =) Liz loved the Natural history museum, especially as it had an IMAX showing a film about getting into the middle of a tornado which was very impressive to watch - she's a storm chaser in the making!

This evening we are just relaxing as we're exhausted from our night out yesterday! Off to New York tomorrow, the last leg of our journey before we go home on Wednesday.

Nosheen & Liz

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