What an educational day! Today was the first day of rain so far on the trip, we woke to it pouring down so got a cab to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum where we took a free 1:30 tour which was great as we got to learn about all the old planes and also the space shuttles. It's incredible how many original artifacts they have including most of the Wright brothers first plane and the real space shuttles landing pods from Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, really amazing to see and do many massive old planes. Next we dashed across to the National Musrum of the American Indian where we had some local Indian food for lunch (salmon, rice, beans etc) then checked out the museum. Some of the exhibits were interesting especially as we were familiar with some of the Canadian and South American art and traditions, but I think the building itself was the most impressive, made of curved sand stone with no corners as the Indians believe bad spirits hide in corners. Next we trekked across to the National Archives which is another amazing building of stone and marble columns. Inside we saw the declaration of independence, the constitution and the bill of rights and the magna carta, lots of old documents very meaningful to the American people. I felt a little like we were in the National Treasure film and wanted to check the back of the declaration but the copious amounts of security guards wouldn't let me open the cabinet :(. We had to go through security screening with metal detectors and bag checks at the entry of every museum or public place, although the security guards are always really friendly and up for a laugh. Last stop on the excursion was the Museum of Natural History aka Museum from Night at the Museum. We spend about 2:30 here seeing all the dinosaur bones and fossils, life size models of many anals, exhibits on bones and mummies, a live insect display and a gem display including the Hope Diamond, which Jamie promised me for my birthday this year (sigh). I didn't manage to spot Robin Williams or the annoying monkey from the movie, however I did see T-Rex and the Neanderthal people around the fire. I think they constantly move stuff around and change the exhibits to keep it interesting. This museum was housed in another amazing building with external columns and a big dome in the centre, felt a bit like being back in Rome! By now it was beer o'clock so we headed to a tap house a tries a few more local brews (gonna have a fair beer gut by the time I get back!) then had dinner at an Italian place called Carmine's. The menu had pasta dishes for around $22-$32 which seemed a little on the expensive side for here, but then our waiter told us each dish served about three people! Once we ordered our pasta it came on a platter and would have served about five Aussies, we still cannot get over the portion sizes here. After dinner our little legs were telling us it was time to go, and it was pissing down with rain again, so we cabbed it back and now I'm going to crash. New York New York tomorrow, so lovely they named it twice!!!