Day 12 - June 16

Another slow day, this time Liam is out of action. He woke with a bad fever and spent the day in bed trying to recover.

After lunch I took Isabel to the National Zoological Park. We managed to sidestep the crowds and saw a Panda chewing on some bamboo, something they spend 90% of their waking hours doing. The cheetahs, tigers and lions were all in excellent displays and the zoo also had some very good specialty displays. The Amazonian and bird displays were particularly good. Isabel crashed before the train had pulled away from the subway station and slept until carried into the hotel room.

Washinigton Memorial

WW II Memorial

Lincoln Memorial - viewed from the Reflecting Pool

Lincoln Memorial - viewed from the WWII Memorial

George's home at night

Space Shuttle Enterprise

The Enola Gay - carried that bomb to Hiroshima

Planes, planes and more planes

Spirit of St Louis

Wright Brothers 1903 Flyer - the original

Day 11 - June 15

The girls decided they needed a rest day and as Isabel so eloquently put it, "let the boys do boy things". So Liam and myself headed of to the National Air and Space Museum on The Mall. What started out as a small adventure turned into a whole day affair as we also traveled out to Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Centre (essentially a large, modern hangar that holds many more exhibits).

We saw many of the aircraft that have played some important role in history; the original Wright Brothers 1903 Flyer, the Spirit of St Louis, Bell X -1, Apollo 11 command module Columbia, the Enola Gay, the Space Shuttle Enterprise, and a Concorde. The most amazing thing is that technology has progressed from the Wright Borthers in 1903 to modern day, little over a hundred years.

An afternoon run took in the Vietnam Memorial, the World War II Memorial and also the Lincoln Memorial. I returned after sunset to get some night photos of these stunning sights.