Washington DC Day 3

We got an early start today, getting on the shuttle to the metro at 730 today. The new driver wasn't as good. I think we were spoiled. As it was first day we have gone during the work week, it was MUCH more crowded. Everyone was in a rush and the train was filled to capacity. It was funny being stuck in a train full of people that are all dressed up and bundled up as if a storm was coming while I was in shorts and a t shirt. California people....

We got into DC actually earlier than we needed to be so we stopped and got some Starbucks right after we got off the subway. After that, we saw these guys having their breakfast too:

Who doesn't like fruit loops? We started off the day with a scheduled tour of the National Archives. This is where they keep important documents in our nation's history. Below is the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence in all their original glory. And for good measure, there is also one of the copies of the Magna Carta even though it is an English document instead:

The pictures aren't super clear because the documents were held practically in the dark to preserve them and you couldn't use any flash. No flash in the dark = blurry pics w/o a tripod. Anyways, it was cool to see all these documents and we got to see a bunch of other neat things such as Amendments, Presidential letters, immigration papers of famous people, homestead documents of people like Wyatt Earp, etc, etc. It really was a very interesting place and very informative 90 minute tour.

After that, it was lunch and Jess and I stopped at a very cool Mexican restaurant. This restaurant was super authentic and I get the feeling many people look at the menu and leave because it doesn't have basic things like simple burritos, enchiladas, and fajitas. No, this place had tacos made of......grasshoppers. I kid you not. There were also a bunch of other things I have never seen on a menu at any Mexican restaurant I had been to. We decided on a few things and loved them all. We had papas al mole which were fried covered in a chocolate almond mole sauce with Mexican cream and cotija cheese. It rocked. Jess had a carnitas taco with guacamole and pork rinds. I had chiliaquiles with green tomatillo sauce and Chihuahua and Oaxaca cheese. Everything was wonderful!

After that, Jess and I went to the Crime and Punishment museum. This was cool place as it had tons of information on the history of crime and well....punishment. It started with the early torture devices, on to pirates, to the Wild West, the Roaring 20s, and on to the present. It covered the criminals, the good guys, and everything in between. It discussed serial killers, cyber criminals, and everything you could imagine. It had a lot of interactive quizzes, games, and photo opportunities. It had a full on CSI investigation process crme for you to follow along with complete with a huge lab to see how work is done. Bascially, anything having to do with crime was on display and talked about : jails, contraband, death sentence devices, lie detectors, safe cracking, the list went on and on and we were there nearly 3 hours. My favorite part was near the end when I got to drive a police car simulator and even more fun, I got to do a police shooting simulator. Those were a ton of fun.

From there, we went to the House of Representatives building so we could pick up some tour tickets from our congressman and confirm some later tours in the week. We didn't quite make it to the Capitol but stopped to take a few pictures as it was down the street.

It was about 5 at this time, but not ready to call it a day, we looked the map and decided to take a trip to a shopping area we saw on the map. Unfortunately, once we got there we saw that the stores they had there were few and far between with a Radio Shack being the most interesting store. Yeah, it sucked. So, we hopped on the train to head home, but decided to stop halfway home at another shopping area. Now this place was nice. It reminded me once we got outside of a really upscale part of San Francisco or NYC or something like that with upscale stores, fancy clothes everywhere, and an aura of cleanliness not seen on this trip yet. We decided to eat at an Italian rsetaurant that turned out to be wonderful and very authentic. I had some wonderful gnocci while Jess had one of her favorites, butternut squash raviolis. We ended with an apple crisp a la mode which also was wonderful.

Overall, we are having a WONDERFUL time. The onlyside so far has been my feet are KILLING me, I woke up this morning with an ear infection(I have had enough in my life to know exactlyu why my ear is killing me), and I have some kind of spider or bug bite on my left cheeck which is pretty gross. Guess with all the fun we are having, I can't complain too much...