mybigadventures.com

Well perhaps not everybody loves Lego. There's bound to be a few people that have stood bare feet on those little plastic bricks and those parents that curse at just how expensive it is, but c'mmon people - Lego!!! So I am definitely what I think they now term as an AFOL; an Adult Fan Of Lego. Dani and I have quite a collection and have actually built a few big models this summer that we bought a while ago including the Lego Creator Ferris Wheel (10247) and the Ghostbusters Firehouse Headquarters (75827). They are awesome, the level of detail is amazing espescially in the firehouse, they've really put a lot of thought into making it as realistic as possible.

Just before we broke up for the summer, I had an envelope through the post from mum. She had collected lots of tokens out of the sun news paper and got two free adult tickets for Legoland for this bank holiday Monday - amazing! So we bought an extra ticket for a bit cheaper though NASWUT and the three of us went.

The weather was fantastic and so was Legoland. It was pretty busy, but I guess this was to be expected with the combination of nice weather and a bank holiday. We really liked Miniland with the lego models of key sights around the world and the new Lego Starwars exhibit with the massive Death Star made of about half a million bricks. All in all a great bank holiday! Enjoy the photos.   

Had a slightly more relaxed start to the day, as we didn’t have a timed ticket for anything. So, we were up at around 9 AM, showered and went down for breakfast. We made the most of the free breakfast - Ben had cereal and I had fruit and yoghurt, then we both had a toasted bagel. We got going shortly after that, aiming for the Smithsonian National Zoo, heading out a bit after 11 AM. Unfortunately, whilst getting ready, the hairdryer (the hotel’s - not mine!) blew up, and dented the bathroom sink, shorting the electric! Oops!

We walked to DuPont Circle, taking it quite steady as our bites were very irritated and irritating. We managed the Metro ticket machines better this time, allowing the extra dollar for the paper ticket. We got on the train and went merrily on our way. At the second stop, we realised we’d gone too far! We’ve been expecting a fair journey, but it was only actually one stop and it took less than a minute. So, caught the train back again, feeling surprised.

We followed the signs to the zoo - a 10 minute walk from the station. We were greeted by a man in a cubicle, who told us about the daily events and sold us a map/guide for one dollar - considering the actual zoo is free, this didn’t seem too excessive! The zoo is separated into different sections, so we followed it quite methodically. First, we went to see cheetahs - who were having a nap in the grass, so the view of them was only partial. But there were some huge frogs in the pond, sitting about on lily pads and frogging about. Then we saw a vulture in with some African deers, who are close to extinction in the wild. It was nice to see some of the animals mixed together in the enclosures, similar to how they may be in the wild. We also saw some zebras, although they seem shy, staying at the back of their enclosure.

We then moved on to the Panda Trail and then the Asia Trail. The female panda has been confined, as it were, due to pregnancy, and unfortunately the male panda seems to have gone out, as despite searching, he wasn’t to be seen. A shame, as I’ve never seen a panda. We moved on, wandering around. We saw some short clawed Asian otters - they were little youngling otters too! They were wiggling all over and through an old tree stump, some napping upside down and others simply piling up. At one point, they all wiggled over to the edge of their enclosure, peering over the wall into the passage and squeaking a lot. Then they went back to piling up! While we were watching them, a very vivid red bird was flying around - a little smaller than a blackbird and with tufted feathers on its head. Ben got a couple of photos, although he was very nippy (the bird that is!). We also saw a fishing cat and clouded leopard, which I particularly liked - especially the fishing cat kitten. Had some lunch at the Panda cafe.

We admired the elephants in their huge enclosure, and then followed the American Trail, watching a beaver snuffling about, an Eagle - a bald eagle, no less - and some sea lions. Unfortunately, the bears were having their afternoon nap, so we didn’t get to see them. We also saw lots of turtles, just after the big cat section - some huge and some tiny! So cute! We were really impressed overall by the zoo. The individual enclosures were all big and clearly a lot of thought has gone into the flora and fauna for the animals. It was all very green and was over a vast space.

Feeling very weary, we left about 6 PM, heading back to the subway. When we got back to DuPont Circle, we popped into a CVS pharmacy to get some drinks, as we felt very thirsty, and made our way back to the hotel. After a bit of a sit, we headed out for tea. We decided to go to ‘The Pig’, another hotel recommendation. There was going to be a 45 minute wait for a table, but there was room to sit at the bar, so we decided to do that. The barman recommended ordering a number of different dishes from the different sections of the menu, as they were designed for sharing. We decided upon two of the small appetizer dishes and two of the larger courses. We had mac and cheese with a crumb top, and ‘spoon’ bread which was bacon, courgette and onion, baked with chunks of bread. Both very nice. The larger courses were spicy pork masala and pork Spaghetti Pomodoro. For dessert, Dani had chocolate pudding and I had two scoops of chocolate ice cream (which came in two separate bowls). It was all very nice and altogether cost about $90, including tip. Feeling very full, we tottered back to the hotel and watched some TV before heading to bed.

So today is our last proper day in Washington, we fly home tomorrow. We had some breakfast and headed out just before 10. We had decided to start at the Licoln memorial as there were a few other memorials nerby that we hadn't seen the other day. We caught the free circulator bus to Union Station and then changed to the circulator to Lincoln Memorial. We got off a stop earlier to have a look at the Martin Luther King Jnr memorial a 30 foot statue emerging from the mountains of dispair, represented as two large boulders in the background. Many of the words from his speeches and sermons are etched into the surrounding inscription wall, with the words "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope" taken from his 'I have a dream' speech carved directly into the side of the statue itself.

We moved on visiting the Korean war memorial which is represented by a series of statues of soldiers wading through undergrowth. The memorial is really poingnant with each of the statues looking out in a different direction just as the troops would move in a platoon. The statues are surrounded by a polished mural wall with pictures taken from the archives of other forces that suppored the Korean war including Army, Navy Marine corps and Air Force etched into the surface. We continued on past the Lincoln memorial but not stopping this time and instead continuing to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This consisted of the names of over 58000 men that gave their lives engraved in the memorial wall. The wall is sunk into the ground rather than have a raised profile, so it's difficult to see until you reach it. 

We continued on past the reflecting pool that sits between the Lincoln memorial and the Washington monument, and stopping at the WWII memorial. Dani had a paddle in the water and we sat for a while before moving on. Our last two stops of the day were at the American museum where we grabbed some lunch but didn't stay long and then at the African American museum which had some really interesting exhibits. Feeling a bit tired we headed back to the hotel for a break as we were planning to head out later for photos. We ended up going to a place between the hotel and the National Mall for tea called Matchbox - we went to another Matchbox restaurant last time we were in Washington, part of the same chain. Tea was very nice with us both having pizza and sharing cheescake for dessert. We left the restaurant and headed down to the mall to take few night photos of the Capitol Building and the Monument. Got back to the hotel quite late and packed up ready for tomorrow.