Daniel: There is a lot to see in Washington DC. When we got there it was scorching. About 34°c. I didn't like the idea of walking In that hot sun. Luckily, We went to union station (that's a train station). But it also has a cafe and lots of shops and stuff. They also have bikes there... There are ones that can fit two people, and single bikes with trailer bikes as well. So we went for a ride around the city. We went to the giant pencil building thingy ...I think it's called the Washington monument... We didn't go up the tower, but we had a few Oreos at the bottom instead. Then we moved on to the spy museum. First we had to watch a video about how to be a spy. Then we climbed through the air conditioner duct. We had to be super quiet in thee because if the sound sensor went over the green you would be caught! I managed it...three or four times in fact. We got to design our own car, I chose mine to have bullet proof shield. We saw the James Bond car do its tricks. It had boot machine guns and headlight machine guns, a rotating license plate, and tyre slashers as well. It was AWESOME! Then we rode around some more monuments in the national mall. That's not a mall like we know it...there are no shops! This had lots of eating areas, but they are mostly green grass next to water pools and fountains. And there are lots of statues and memorials. We filled in some of our ranger book about American History. From my trailer bike I spotted heaps of cute little squirrels hopping about all over the place. One went up a tree and I played hide and seek with him. I poked my head around the tree, and so did he...then he ran up the tree a bit more. It was very funny! I really like squirrels because they are so cute and fluffy and friendly. They have a lot of skill for climbing up fences and trees. I wish I could take one home. Gemma: Today we explored Washington D.C. America is strange, we had milkshakes for breakfast, which were DELICIOUS! We hired bikes. Mum and I got to go on a tandem, and Daniel and Dad were on a bike+trailer bike. After a wobbly and a bit hair-raising starting the bike lane we found our balance and we were off. We rode down to the Washington monument, where we found out the material that was being used at the start of the construction was to expensive, so they stopped building it, and later started building it again, with a different material. After that, we started off towards the International Spy Museum! Dad told us he knew where he was going, but we weren't so sure. Dad is well known for his "shortcuts". Inside, we got assigned a family spy mission, which led us through the museum. Some of the things we did there included: climbing through an air conditioning vent, cracking codes using the enigma machine, and a James Bond bomb deactivation challenge, plus learning a whole heap of facts! We didn't emerge from the spy museum until 4.30pm (yikes!). But after a quick snack we got back on our bikes and headed to the Lincoln Memorial. We climbed up the steps to see his statue. I noticed the name of each of the states were carved on the top of the building ( which is huge). The we headed over to the Vietnam memorial which is a massive wall with the names of all the people who died in the war over all the years. There are around 58,000 names, and the war spanned nearly 20 years. Then we hopped back on our bikes and rode back to the railway station...we were getting pretty good at this whole tandem biking business by now! We finished the day with an ice cream from Häagen Dazs. I had deep chocolate peanut butter - and it was delicious! Dad had his usual rum and raisin, and Daniel went all sophisticated and had mango sorbet. We washed it down with blueberry leomonade...yum! A nice way to end the day. We covered a lot of miles today and we're glad to collapse back in our hotel. I think we had a pretty great day...tandem biking is AWESOME!