First full day in DC, went to the Mall via Eastern Market. Bloody hell it's big! National Museum of Natural History excellent, more dinosaurs than you could shake a fibula at, and great exhibition on forensic anthropology too. Saw a giant squid and a double tusked narwhal in the Oceans section. Hope Diamond a bit of a disappointment, didn't even know Bob Hope liked jewellery. All Smithsonian museums are free on Mall, and there are lots of them (11?) reminded me of perhaps the greatest positive legacy of New Labour and the fact that lots of London's, and throughout the UK too, fabulous museums are free too. It has to be said though that the breadth and depth of the holdings at these US museums and galleries has to be seen to be believed.
Following museum a potter round the Washington Monument, an ice cream on the way home and back to Capitol Hill.