On our way back to New York, we made a small pit stop in Washington DC.

The plan was to walk up and down the National Mall, see all the important buildings and maybe pop into a museum or two on the way.

But the weather had decided otherwise and when we arrived downtown, it was raining cats and dogs.

So we did the only sensible thing there is to do in such situations and treated ourselves to one of those fast food feasts America is famous for. Luckily enough, we stumbbled on Shake Shack, which we had been told was a must-visit when in the US. We ducked inside and got our hands on some of the most epic-looking burgers I had seen in quite a while.After reading about it for MONTH, I finally got my hands on Shake Shack’s Shroom burger…While my Mr settled for the Smoke Stack and its layers of cheese and chopped chilies.With cheese fries all round, obviously. Isn’t that what rainy days are for?

Fuelled up and with the storm seeming to have stopped, we came back to our initial exploration plans……only to see them defeated a few minutes after by the return of the rain, so we took shelter in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.Holding the largest collection of aircraft and spacecraft in the world, it’s a must-visit for any plane aficionado.
…Which might explain why somebody was a very happy bunny! We strolled through the museum, marvelling at weird flying machines and war planes’ perfect designs alike. The Wright Flyer (which is the ancestor of all planes) is also on display at the museum and well worth taking a look at. I still can’t quite get my head around the fact that this enormous assembly of wood and cloth can actually fly. The same obviously goes for the Mongolfier first hot air balloon, but I might have been to busy admiring the delicate prints to think about it at the time…Having seen pretty much everything the Air & Space museum had to offer, we headed next door to the Natural History museum… where every single tourist in Washington seemed to have decided to meet that day. … which is why we decided to shorten our visit to the diplodocus and jump in a cab to pay one to Albert instead.

Only afterwards did we realise that we could have used the Circulator and save money… ahem…

We raced in the rain to take a quick look at the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam War Memorial before we decided to call it a day and head to dinner at one of the city’s institutions.

… but more on that tomorrow! Come hungry!