The last few days we've been doing day trips in DC from Nick's place and have checked out a lot of the National Mall and the Smithsonian Museums. When we arrived on Tuesday we walked from the beautiful Union Station to the Capitol Building and walked all around it before continuing down through the start of the National Mall seeing the Grant Memorial and the Washington Monument. From here we headed up to the Whitehouse, unfortunately we didn't see Obama! After a brilliant Malaysian lunch near Dupont Circle we headed back to check out the rest of the National Mall. Unfortunately the WWII and reflecting pool were getting work done on them, but we saw the stately Lincoln Memorial and poignant Vietnam Memorial, which lists all the names of US soldiers lost during the war. We then headed down to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. The collection of museums is vast, fascinating and amazingly free! The Air and Space Museum is a little boys dream (and older kids like mine). On display is historic planes such as the Spirit of St Louis, the Wright Brother's Flyer and Glittering Glennis as well as NASA relics such as the Viking Mar's Rover. Excellent! Later on we headed off to cousins off Miki's not far in the station, Mannon, Michael, their new child Odetta and mother Helen. Had a nice relaxing night chatting with them.

The next day we headed for the Holocaust Museum, which was extremely saddening, but well worth seeing. They had lots of relics from the concentration camps and emotive exhibits. After a pretty heavy morning there we headed to a Ethiopian restaurant recommended to us on the trendy U street. The food was different- spicy dips and meats that you eat by rolling up with bread. It was delicious, I don't think we'll find it back in NZ! So now it's off to the next stop, flying to New Orleans!