Washington, DC - Saturday July 3

I forgot to mention - DC have had some really, really hot and humid weather the last few weeks, but we were prepared for that. After all, we live in Florida, so not much could be worse than that, right?

We were however pleasantly surprised by an unexpected dip in temperatures and humidity - unfortunately only for a few days, but still. The mornings have been refreshingly cool - but not so much towards midday... Later on we had a heat record and it was 103 F/40 C plus 80 % humidity... Not fun in a big city!

Saturday we had plans to visit our first National Museum, the National Air & Space Museum. This is the most visited of the great Smithsonian museums - in fact, it is the most visited museum in the world, with around 9 million visitors a year! Wow!

We hopped on the METRO and was waiting outside when they opened, in hopes to avoid the worst of the crowds. As with all the museums and some other sites in DC, you have to go through security and have your bags x-rayed before entering, almost like at the airport, so it can take a while to get in.

After getting in we explored the wast collections of air-crafts and other interesting, educational and historic air and space craft. Pretty amazing stuff, though I don't think anyone one of us is particularly interested in aviation.

The original Spirit of St Louis plane

We did however greatly enjoy a planetary show called "Journey to the Stars" and an awesome (brand new) IMAX movie in 3D about the Hubble telescope, very good. There was also an awesome photo collection from space of planets and things of that nature that was great.

After 5 hours at the National Air & Space Museum we walked over to the National Archives, were we had a pre-reserved self guided tour of the archives scheduled. I felt bad for those who did not, they had to stand in a very long line outside in the heat to get in...

The National Archives

This is a very beautiful, awesome building that holds some of the most revered American documents: The Bill of Rights, The Constitution and The Declaration of Independence, along with other important documents. It was very interesting to be just a few inches away from these, I think I especially liked the Declaration of Independence, even if it is pretty faded and worn at this point. They were all heavily protected under several layers of different kind of preservation measures, and the light was very dim in here to protect them as well.

There were other interesting things to see here as well, not just documents, but film recordings and voice recordings. Researchers can also study the records here, especially in regards to immigration and things of that sort. A very impressive building.

After our visit here we walked over to the Old Post Office Pavilion, and along the way we stopped by the Internal Revenue Service, IRS, which of course Ken had to check out, being a CPA and all.

Ken (and Sarah) show their "love" for the IRS

At the Old Post Office Pavilion we took the elevator up to the 12th floor, up in the clock tower to check out the view. We ended our visit here with a little Middle Eastern food before heading home on the METRO.

Friday, July 2
Saturday, July 3
Sunday, July 4
Monday, July 5
Tuesday, July 6
Wednesday, July 7