mybigadventures.com

Got up particularly late today - not surprising given our late nights! Took quite a long time to get ourselves organised and out. I felt quite hungry so we went into Starbucks - I’ve possibly forgotten to mention the number of Starbucks here - there are three within the actual hotel! Very nearly a Starbucks on every corner! This particular franchise had a limited supply of goods - Ben ended up with a bottle of orange juice and I got a turkey sandwich -  a little overfilled where the turkey was concerned but okay, if expensive. Sat in the corridor for a bit - sounds weird, but it seems to be the only place to access the free Wi-Fi in this so-called ‘luxury’ hotel. Checked bank accounts and totted up the money so far, and I e-mailed mum and dad as we haven’t been able to chat on Skype for a while. Not the comfiest place in the world to sit however, so kept it brief.

Then went in search of some ice cream - some quite elusive ice-cream, as it turned out! On Sunday, we had seen a Haagen-Daaz counter (Ben’s favourite chocolate ice-cream brand) and we wanted to get some. We thought it was in the Disney Palace, so checked literally every corner, in search of it. Had a go on the slot machines en route, but otherwise spent a good hour searching! Were on the verge of giving up in Disney Palace, and we were about to go next door to the New York New York hotel - when lo and behold, there it was! Success! To celebrate our achievement, we both had ice-cream - Ben had his favourite Belgian chocolate and I had peanut butter and chocolate. Well worth it! Sat and ate them in the very small seating area, before moving on.

Went across the pedestrian walkway to the MGM Grand hotel, one of the bigger and more well-known resorts. Have been struck by how much more interesting the other hotels are than ours; this one, for no apparent reason, had a rainforest-themed restaurant as you went in - I guess it adds a slightly unique touch. We went down into the casino and managed to win some money on the roulette machine. Result.

From there, we went back to the Disney Palace, to try our luck on the machines there, but had only limited success, with a bit more failure. So, decided to head back to our hotel and the trusty blackjack machines. Lost a little, but then seemed to pick up, doubling our money on roulette. I also accidentally bet $10 on one hand of blackjack, but it came through, virtually trebling our money!! Amazing! Cashed out and left it there. Went to the hotel’s public house, the same place we went to on Sunday, but this time with a two-for-one voucher, so the prices of the drinks didn’t make us wince quite so much!

From there, went to dinner. We had decided to go to Buca Di Bepo, an Italian restaurant, mainly because Ben liked the name. We had to wait about 10 min per table, but it wasn’t bad. It was designed for families - the dishes were designed to be shared rather than ordered separately, so we took the plunge and ordered an appetiser to share and then a main. Our bruschetta starter came with a large bowl of tomato and mozzarella topping, enough for the 12 pieces of bread that came with it. We then had a huge chunk of lasagne - rather dominated by ricotta cheese so it wasn’t quite what we had hoped for. Needless to say, we didn’t eat it all! It was okay in terms of price, but the portions were too big! We decided to call it a night after this, as we’d have a long drive tomorrow. Grand Canyon!

We had the National Archives booked for 12 today so set off a bit later, having some of the fruit and juice for breakfast that we had bought from Safeway. We also took sandwiches that we had bought from Safeway to have a bit later for lunch. We arrived at the archives about 10 minutes early as advised, to allow time to get through security. Once in, there seemed to be much more to see than the last time we were here. Downstairs there was a large exhibition covering the different amendments that had been made to the constitution over time, with a special exhibit, 'Rightfully Hers', that looked at the struggle for the women's vote which was eventually introduced under the 19th amendment. They also had an original copy of the 1297 Magna Carta, whose premise to guarantee proceedings according to the "law of the land" was the foundation for the 5th amendment to the Constitution: "no person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law". We did spend quite a long time walking through; there was a huge amount of information, historic documents, letters and photographs to look at and it was all very interesting.

Moving on, we headed for the public vaults, starting with the Rotunda which houses the original copies of the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and Constitution. There was a lot of information to provide context to each of the documents including some details about the men that signed the Declaration of Independence, whose signatures although faded can still be made out at the bottom. There was a section where you could select videos from WWII that form part of the military archives that are also stored here.

Eventually leaving the archive, we headed across the road to the sculpture garden, sitting around the fountain to eat our sandwiches by way of lunch. Our next stop was the Air and Space museum; we'd really liked this one last time, so thought it was due a revisit. There was a bit of a queue, to get inside, through security but it moved pretty quickly and then we were in. Seemingly the museum is undergoing a large refurbishment meaning approximately half of it was closed to the public which was a shame, but we carried on to see what there was. Although there were some familiar exhibits some of the others seemed to have changed, I think there were a number of different planes hanging from the ceiling this time, but can't remember for sure. We walked through the exhibits on early flight looking at the Wright brothers' original 'Flyer' plane - the first successful powered airplane. We also spent time walking around the space exhibits including lunar modules and space suits including the one worn by Neil Armstrong.

We were feeling pretty tired by the time we came out of the Air and Space museum, and after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing we decided to walk on to the Lincoln Memorial; it was still very warm and sunny, and we thought it was as good a time to go as any. It's just under 2 miles and took about 40 minutes to walk across, stopping a couple of times en route for photos. There is a large reflecting pool between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial but given the time of day, the memorial was in shadow, however once we'd climbed the steps, we were able to appreciate the monument reflecting brilliantly in the sun. We stayed for a little while, taking some photos and having a rest before heading back towards the National Mall past the WWII memorial. We were careful not to walk next to the water as last time we were here we were bitten a lot and we're only just getting rid of the bites we picked up in Philadelphia.

Before heading back to the hotel, we stopped in the sculpture park again as they were hosting a Jazz festival; we listened to the music for a little while before heading back. We went to a nearby Italian restaurant for a late tea called Tortino. It was very nice, we both ate from the specials menu before finally calling it a night - Capital Building tomorrow!   

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.