Day 51 – Washington D.C.

Up and at them early! Nice long walk from downtown past the White House.

Smithsonian Castle

Before making it to Eastern Market for lunch at Market Lunch for Crab Cake Benny with a side of sausage patty and a coffee. The benny was good, but I think it was missing a little bit of ham. The sausage patty more than made up for it in my meal.

Part of the AIDs quilt.

Union Station

Funky ceiling above the mall inside Union Station.

Capitol Building

As the rain started to come down, I ducked into the Air and Space museum. Crazy amount of stuff in there.

Space toilet! Actually looks the same as the one in Big Bang Theory.

Realized I spent way too much time at the Air and Space Museum. I considered heading outside a few times, but seeing people running around with umbrellas stopped me. Plus it was rather interesting seeing the effect of the various wars on th the escalation of technology. It’s rather hard to see how the current war on terror is producing anything useful in terms of an arms race. Both World Wars and the Cold War pushed the envelope and forced involved countries to find solutions. Just not the same anymore.

Finally getting out of the Smithsonion, I attempted to balance things and go into one of the art galleries. People with backpacks had to go to a different entrance. Never found it and gave up.

Realized I spent way too much time at one place. Went back to the hotel to see if I could extend my stay for a 3rd night at a reasonable rate. Not much luck, but the clerk told me to try again the next day if there were any cancellations.

Heading out to find some dinner – not really sure what happened, but there were over a dozen police cars.