Chalk & cheese

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Bzzzt bzzzt bzzzt

Another early alarm.....time to move on. A bleary eyed squad rose early to sign out at 7am & walk the short distance to Penn Station, bidding a fond farewell to beautiful New Yorker Hotel.

As always, the Captain (me...) made everyone move far too early - it really was only 2 minutes over the road to the station, and checkout took a further 2 minutes - so we had more than a little time in the Amtrak lounge to enjoy an early breakfast before heading on to the 08:10 train to Washington DC.

A very relaxed train, plenty of space, and by fortune our marvelous children, whilst fetching their choice of breakfast, had also picked up half a dozen Krispy Kreme healthy doughnut's to keep us going.....another fast food chain ticked off.....

We arrived bang on time to the Union Station......what a difference to the madness of NYC. Clean, calm, we hopped in a short cab ride through the heat of midday with a friendly local driver (okay, from Ethiopia....), we arrive at the Holiday Inn Capital.

A central location, a minor discussion with management (resolved) over their odd assumption that we might only want breakfast for 2 for our room booked for 4, and we headed over to the Smithsonian Museum.

Well, one of them: there are 17 to choose from!

We went with the American Indian one , just 2 blocks away....a fantastic building, we joined an introductory tour....only to discover the guide was less than knowledgable, and many exhibits appeared to be essentially about how they managed to survive despite the Government subjugating them, stealing land etc etc. A bit depressing!

Then we got further down and were buoyed by overhearing another tour with someone who was a "Native American Indian" and who was more upbeat about the whole thing.....

Wandered back and chilled out in our large room before deciding to have a swim in the pool....on the top floor of the hotel. A nice decision, although once the storm clouds began gathering and lightening was seen, the attendant was quite keen for us to leave! A shame: Ellie & I had made some little water volleyball friends in our short paddle:-)

Finally, after we convinced Stephen he could watch cartoons another day, we headed to the 21st Amendment Bar for a light dinner, to discover some kickin' Jazz - Weds & Thurs nights only, and a very nice end to the evening!

More later, when we hope to meet some friends unseen for over a decade....

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Comments

[Andrew]

American Indian Museum
I meant to recommend the traditional meals in that museum - the buffalo was absolutely superb. It's definitely worth a lunch visit if you're in the area again.

[MikeIOW]

We actually did have a light snack, but we're holding on until later for a real meal: eating is always a problem out here.....as in, not eating 5 square meals a day!