USA Holiday 3, October 02 (The National)

The morning started with a whole lot of rain, I got out of the underground metro and walked for about two minutes before my pants and shoes were soaked. A good tip for a holiday is not to wear Nike Free or other shoes which are not at all water proof or even water resistant, having wet feet all day is not much fun. A fashion trend that a lot of women seem to have adopted is wearing gumboots with business attire. Looks a little bit unusual, but they had some trendy designs on the boots and I guess it couldn't be any worse than wearing high heeled shoes.

The National Museum Of Natural History.

Heads on a stick.

Had to wait out the rain a bit, but still made it over to the Air And Space Museum just before it opened for the day. The best thing about most of the museums in Washington is they are free. That's the kind of price I like.

Probably spent most of the morning looking around, there is a lot of stuff about the history of aeroplanes and space, also some stuff about planets which was not too bad.

Some rockets in the foyer.

Some plane.

A stained glass representation of the light spectrum.

St. Louis Spirits.

Since the rain had died down I was able to walk across to the State Capitol, which also seemed to be undergoing construction. You have to register in advance for tours there anyway, so it didn't matter. While taking my own photos I got called up to take a group photo for about 50 European visitors. The lesson I have learned from this trip is if you have a camera in your hand, there's a good chance people will be asking you to take a photo with their camera too. Maybe if I had an ipad instead, this wouldn't have kept happening... One Asian girl was even trying to teach me how to use the zoom and focus on her SLR. Anyway, to get the whole group in the photo I had to backtrack and ended up right in a puddle. Did not drop the camera though, so that was something.

The State Capital Capitol building.

Came across a self serve frozen yoghurt for lunch! and they had some intriguing flavours. I had some of the Banana Cream, Cake Batter and Cheesecake, I think only one of them was really good but forget which one.

Across the other side of the National Mall was the National Archives building. The main feature in the rotunda is the three documents: Bill Of Rights, Constitution and Declaration Of Independence. They are all incredibly faded and have really crazy writing, so they are almost impossible to read. Some other rooms in the building had some cool exhibits and games and things too. Better than expected.

The National Archives.

Just a quick visit to the National Museum Of Natural History next, because these kind of museums (and aquariums) are often not much different to each other. They did have a very large rocks and minerals collection, including the Hope Diamond. Also some more standard stuff like dinosaurs, and some Ice Age room that was a bit disappointing.

The stuff that prevents tooth decay.

Le bleu de France.

A dinosaur or an elephant perhaps.

This one looks more familiar.

And this one too.

Finally the Holocaust Museum. Only arrived about an hour before closing, so I didn't get to read through everything. But it was a really well presented timeline of the holocaust and didn't seem too biased. You start on the upper floor and work your way through the events as you end up back down at the first floor, probably could have used another hour or two to look at everything.

The Smithsonian Castle.

The National Museum Of American History.

I probably would have liked another day to finish exploring DC, such as Arlington Cemetery, Pentagon and the areas around Chevy Chase, Dupont Circle and Georgetown.