Water Water Everywhere...

(due to lack of internet connectivity in Pennsylvania, I'm now 'behind' schedule on the blogs! This entry takes us from NY to Washington, with news as written from the hardcopy a few days ago. Another update tomorrow to cover the last few days!)

Another whirlwind few days... I left our account last time just about to leave for dinner at Times Square. Quite a way to leave New York - all lights and flashy hyperactivity! Train from Penn Station to DC only of interest to 6 year old boys but painless and fairly simple. DC station itself utterly amazing - a taste of the solid and impressive-looking buildings all over the city. Dinner in a very pleasant Italian in Dupont Circle then bed.

Hot sticky day spent trying to find water to drink, fountains to bathe our feet in and any other methods of keeping cool as we wended our way down the very famous 'Mall' between The Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial. (soooo not Mall of the Emirates!) Trip to the amazing Air & Space Museum and the Capitol in the morning (Jemima and Ted doing roly polys down Capitol Hill while Iain went to take photographs of the Supreme Court). Then more Smithsonian delights at the Natural History Museum for the afternoon. By the time we left, the skies had opened and we leapt through (and sometimes in!) puddles to get home. Tapas supper at a very noisy bistro round the corner before sinking gratefully into comfy beds.

More fountains and pools to mock us the next day as we sweated in 90 degrees of sultry DC weather. ('Mock' because for obvious reasons we thought it best not to let the children dangle their feet in the impressive WW2 Memorial fountains). While in the vicinity, we also checked out the Washington Monument, The Korean War and Vietnam War memorial and of course the Lincoln Memorial. We all loved this: "I have a dream"; Forrest Gump, Nights at the Museum... a great jumble of various cultural references! No water in the reflecting lake though as it's being renovated! More moving experiences in the afternoon as we visited the Holocaust museum - brilliantly done, and chilling in more ways than one - which made the blasting heat outside and the subsequent dramatic rainstorm with thunder and lightning even more of a suprise. Drenched to the skin, it was time to recuperate back at base, get some washing done and then head out for a very nice sups with a LARGE glass of wine for me and a beer for Iain (and plenty more water for everyone - despite the rain, it still felt hot and humid enough to be Dubai in April / May, so we all felt permanently thirsty!

As I write (wrote!) the map of America on SatNav is being reloaded (don't ask - much cursing!), the kids are playing top trumps and Iain in on his way to us from picking up the car that will take us on to the next part of our journey. The bags are packed and by the door, car snacks are ready - and I've remembered plenty of water for the journey! Pennsylvania, here we come...