Washington DC, day 1

Got an early start and headed up to the National Mall. The only plan for the day was to get oriented and do a "Duck tour" to get an overview of the city and monuments.

Hotel is the Residence Inn on E St SW at 3rd St, so we walked straight up 3rd st which brought us our at the Botanical Gardens.

Headed to congress/capitol hill first, as we could see it. Did the tour of congress and looked around the visitor centre until about noon.

Headed over to Union station for the Duck ride, which wasn't available until 4pm, so we had a few hours to kill.

Had lunch then went down to the National Mall to see the National Archives (magna carta, declaration of independence, constitution). They also had an exhibition on entitled "Big"...


Duck tour was fun. Captain Briton was an excellent narrator/guide. He let the kids on the boat drive a little as we sailed down the Potomac.

After the tour, back at union station we stopped for a couple of beers and light dinner at the "Capitol City Brewing Co" to end up the day.

Back to the hotel at about 8pm, ben and I went for an hour in the pool.