Washington DC

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Although we flew into Washington DC, and have used it as a hub for our trips to Boston and New York, it is only now that we have started to explore the Capital properly.

The evening we came back from New York (after a 5 our horrible greyhound trip), we met Dad G at his hotel for the weekend. He spoilt us all weekend and we had a wonderful time. We got to eat real food (even for Alex the salad was extremely popular!) and some gorgeous seafood. On Saturday we took the car down to colonial beach and George Washington's birthplace and had a blissfully peaceful day in the warm winter sunshine.

What a stark contrast to Friday! Dad had an early meeting at the embassy, but Alex and I had a more leisurely start, ending up exploring Alexandria Old Town in the late morning. Unfortunately we explored it during a huge downpour, and had to practically swim the 19 blocks to the metro! We ended up soaked to the skin and rather grumpy. Not that we gave in- we took the metro to the air and space museum and (despite the only choice of food being McDonalds or McCafe) had a wonderful time exploring the exhibits and watching 'To Fly!' an IMAX show- the first we have seen. We even got to see the original space suits from the Apollo 11 trip- complete with moondust- and items such as their toothbrushes. Only the Americans would have freeze dried M&Ms and brownies, and have special capped cans of coke on board a space shuttle!

The people of Washington seem a lot nicer than New Yorkers- I have yet to be kicked viciously in the subway as I was in Central Station in NY, and they go out of their way to help us and point us in the right direction. We are looking forward to exploring some more this week before heading on to the Cook Islands on Thursday.

Poor old Allie has had flu this weekend, so has been unable to join Dad, Alex and I on our weekend of adventures which has been a real shame. However she has been well looked after- we have had big shopping trips to buy enticing food (the diner food she has to eat is vomit-inducing!) and other essentials for her room such as a fridge as she has no cooking or kitchen facilities at all here. Hopefully she will be well enough this week to join us in some sightseeing.

It was very sad to say goodbye to dad today as he flew on to Los Alamos, and that we shall miss mum's arrival by a day, but that is life, and at least we have a few more days with Allie before we move on.

(More photos to follow when I have taken them off the camera!)

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Comments

[Dad M]

Safe Journey
Have a safe journey tomorrow - bring some sunshine with you because it's p***ing down here!

[MUM M]

When in Japan!
Think you could have stood a bit further away from the camera, we can still see you!