Hello!!

So we made it to Washington DC the Countries Capital (or as it is spelt here 'Capitol'). After Leaving NYC we all got in the van and had a welcome meeting at a Dunkin Doughnuts!! Everyone seems really nice and our tour guide James seems like a lot of fun. We had a two hour drive to Philadelphia.. here we got the classic Philly cheese steak.. it was sooooo yummy even if it was about 100000 calories hehe. After the lunch stop we carried on driving until we got to the Cherry Hill cam site.. It is lovely.. with lots of huge camper vans that look more like small houses. However we don't have this type of luxury.. we are in tents.. so we had t unpack the van and learn how to put our tents up (fairly easy).

We all had dinner together and got to know each other better before turning in for the night in prep for Washington DC the next day.

A.. fairly comfortable nights sleep later it was 6.30am and we were getting ready to leave for Washington. We had to get our own way there as the guide was out for the day but he left us instructions and maps so we couldn't get it wrong...however we did, and got off at the wrong bus stop by a strange shopping mall. After some research we found a new bus and stayed on until the right stop.. phew!

Washington DC... one word. WET!!!!!!! It is warm here but the rain was something else. So with that in mind and waterproofs on we all proceeded to the Smithsonian museum. First the natural history museum. As well as being dry and free this was amazing they had expo's of every creature that has ever lived. The facts and the displays were out of this world with so many interactive areas. Our personal fave was the T-Rex in the main hall ( Ben and I still believe it all comes alive at night). The Ocean room was also amazing with a huge whale in the center. However My personal favorite was the Gem room, this held the Hope Diamond. The worlds biggest Blue diamond. I dont think ben was comfortable with me looking at the huge diamonds as he could see my expectations raising as we moved around, the gem section ended with a new bit on the Chilean miners, which was really interesting as I never knew just how small the shaft was that they had to fit up!

From there we went to the Air and Space museum. As expected this was another amazing expo. There were planes and shuttles everywhere with detail into the Wright brothers and moon landings. Some of the guys went on a flight simulator whilst some of the girls went and looked and some more of the space expo. All in all the museum was wonderful and so well laid out. Considering they are free the Smithsonian's are incredible and we would happily go back to them all again.

Braving the rain we headed towards the Capital building, every building in Washington DC has a sense of grandeur, and this building was not a let down, even in the rain it showed it's historical power and importance. After a long wet walk (past the FBI building and Secret service building) we eventually found the White House, pouring with rain we all stood and took pic's of one of the most famous house's on the planet. The gardens and surroundings were picture perfect, however the weather was not so we moved on to the Lincoln memorial. This was my personal favorite landmark of the day, the statue itself was out of this world.. the setting and the meaning behind it made it perfect. We will try and upload photo's soon!! What made it even better was that it was inside out of the rain.

We ended the day at the Washington Memorial, however we couldn't get close to it due to the recent storms and earthquake it was closed off due to structural risk. Then a very sleepy wet group of people made our way back to the campsite were it was also wet. But o well.. a amazing day in the Capital and something we will always remember.

From Washington DC with Love

Nikki and Ben