Exploring the world of Fallout 3

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So for those of you not with the knowledge of the gaming Fallout 3 is an amazing post-nuclear war game set in DC, one which Joe and I have played a lot!

Today I had planned to go to downtown DC with Joe and see the Mall with the monuments and museums. However first i had agreed to go with Matt to the gym at 7am!!! It was good to do some exercise and gave me the opportunity to see how my fitness had faired over the summer. My rugby captain has set a fitness test this year which you need to pass to play. It involves doing three lengths of the pitch in a minute, a minutes rest and then repeat 3 times. I gave it a go and am glad to say was able to do it! WIN!!

When we got back Joe was up so we got dressed and took the metro downtown. As I had been here before I took the tour guide role. We got off at Union Station and wondered down to Capitol Hill. As you may have noticed today was 9/11 so there was a small memorial on the steps of congress with all the politicians for the victims of that terrible day 11 years ago. The flags all over the capitol were at half mast for the Lybian ambassador who had been killed that week.

We then went to the Library of Congress which has amazing murals painted all over the inside. It also had a great exhibit about the pre-colonial times in Central and Southern America. Next we went to the Smithsonian Botanical Gardens, a place I had skipped out before, as Joe is a very keen gardener. The plants here were extraordinary and varied so we spent the time wondering and catching up. We went to the Air and Space Museum next where we got some highly priced lunch, but we didn't care as we were famished!

After lunch we cross the Mall to the National Archives where we saw the original Declaration of Independence and US Constitution. We then had a wander around the National History Museum, but by then we were pretty museumed out!! We then spent a while wandering around the Mall: down to the White House where the Presidential helicopter was taking off, the Washington Monument and around the river to the Jefferson Memorial. These are all main locations in Fallout 3 so we pretended that we were fighting super mutants!

We walked back around through the Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr memorials and up to the Lincoln Memorial. It was a scorching day and very humid so we decided to head back home but the nearest Metro station was halfway back along the Mall! Eventually we caught the metro home and played Chestnut football on the walk back to the house. A long but enjoyable day in the company of my little bro!

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