mybigadventures.com

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!   

It was another early start today to catch our bus to Philadelphia. The Greyhound bus was leaving Boston at 10.15 so we left the hotel just after 9. We had decided to walk over to the bus station as it was close to where we'd been yesterday. We stopped on enroute to pickup a Subway for lunch as the bus was due to take nearly 7 hours to get to Philadelphia. We didn't have to wait too long at the bus statioj before it was time to board. The coach was fairly comfortable with onboard wifi and power points should you need them. The journey itself was fairly starightforward, with a short 10 minute stop in Hartford and a slightly longer stop in New York, though we couldn't leave the bus in either case. We eventually arrived in Philadelphia just after 5pm and quickly found our hotel which was only a short walk away. We didn't do much with the evening after our long journey ordering pizza online for tea and watching a bit of TV before calling it a night. 

Wow, how time flies when you're having fun. We've officially been back a month although it seems pretty hard to believe. We've mostly been zipping between Coventry and Sheffield for the last month with a small camping stint in Swansea last week and a couple of weekends in Nottingham. I guess when put like that its easier to see where the time has gone, but it really has flown. We have to go flat/house/small cheap hole hunting in London next week to find something for mid September when my couse is due to start. I think its going to be pretty hard to get used to the prices!! Any recommendations of good areas to live?

In other Welsh news, I was pleased to see the roadworks are still going on, enroute to Swansea including the two cone-a-bouts (perfectly constructed roundabouts including slip lanes made entirely from cones - awesome!) I was however rather dismayed to find carparking in Cardif at 80p per 15 minutes!! Is that the most expensive parking in the UK - or does anyone else know worse? Finally, and probably most importantly, the uplands diner is still in business and serving the most awesome fry up ever!

I think that will have to do for today, there is much to be doing and what not, nobody told me the life of an unemployed layabout bum would be so busy! Cheerio ta ta, I really have no idea if anyone will read this, but here's hoping!