The minuses was the order of the day with -1 degrees C being our high for the day. It started as a beautiful sunny day with a wind that was cutting to say the least. We have succumbed to breakfast at the hotel out of sheer convenience.

After breakfast we headed off to DuPont Circle Metro heading for the Smithsonian Institute and, in particular, The Museum of Air and Space. This has been recommended by just about every personal whom we have spoken. I am not much of a museum person myself but Adrian is. I am happy to wander around them but to read each and every word of everything - not me. Unfortunately, be it our fault as parents or society itself I am not sure ( but guess it can be attributed to both) our children are not overly keen on anything that is not interactive. There were some ride simulators which the kids and Adrian did ( too chicken as I get really motion sick really quickly) which was a hit with the kids. There was a very hands on exhibit about air that they loved and they tolerated the other bits and pieces. As usual the museum shop was a hit with the kids with lots of interesting science things. Lunch was overall disappointing as the brochures said food court and, frankly, I am not sure I would call McDonalds, Pizza and a BBQ chicken roll a food court. But we survived just! We did note that the medium fries here in US would be considered the large fries back home. From here we went up the National Mall to the Museum of Natural History where we spent time in the War of Independence and the Civil War and looking at The first ladies dresses for inauguration and their crockery . The kids were lost early. Adrian loved and the kids and I moved into other memorabilia such as Farrah Fawcett Major's red swimming consume, Dorothy's red shoes, Michael Jackson's hat etc. w also popped into the Star Spangled Banner exhibit and saw the original flag that inspired the National Anthem. Lots on. George Washington along the way as well. The Metro where we get in and off the train has an escalator to get down to it and I would hazard the guess of about 4 storeys and today it had an outage so we had to walk up it to get home. After a day if being on our feet I just made it. Jack and Kate tried to run it but it was peak hour so not easy to do. My quads sure got a workout and I suspect I will b a little tight in the morning. Jack continues to run down it every morning and then back up to us and down again and up and down till we get to the bottom. Boundless energy that boy!!!! Home for a rest ( well for everyone except me) . I started packing as we move on tomorrow. I have managed to fit everything int the same suitcases - snow boots still included due to another -1 day tomorrow. Three suitcases are now on their extension zippers and bulging!! Bring on Orlando, more suitcases and Outlet shopping! I have not really even looked or me.YET !!!! Tonight we went to Italian a couple of doors down .... Interesting. The walls were covered in Italian memorabilia and photos and it was very homely I guess. The food was okay and the waiter great. Their small sizes were meant to feed 3 people so he adapted the dinner menu to the lunch menu to cater for us Aussies who don't eat 3 portions of salmon ( I normally have 1/2 to 1 at home!!!) offered on the small sizing!! Kate was tired and Italian no really doing it for her due to the amount of pasta on offer!!! The non pasta choices were minimal so we were short one happy camper!!! Big day tomorrow - we are driving out if Washington. Let's hope we can keep our wits about us and keep right. Until then xxxxxxx