Touring the Capitol

Joon and I were very excited to welcome Jinny and Johnny, Joon's sister and her husband to visit on our first full weekend here in DC.  They got in Thrusday evening, but unfortunately, Joon had to work on Friday.  Jinny, Johnny and I headed into the capitol to sightsee at the Federal Alley, but first we made a pit stop for some breakfast!!!  We started the day bright and early at the greasiest greasy spoon diner just around the corner from us.  We met one of the yokels, a slightly kooky woman who had been attending the Tastee Diner since the 70's.  She goes to eat nearly every day, and gave us loads of great advice on how to not get mugged in DC.  Don't listen to earbuds or ipods, and make sure to ALWAYS keep your wallet in your front pocket.  She also heckled Johnny on his breakfast choice of Liver and Onions, although truth be told, so did Jinny and I!  I have never met anyone other than my dad who likes Liver and Onions!  Blech..

After breakfast, we hopped on the Metro and headed to Federal Alley, in the heart of the Federal Triangle (White house, Captiol Hill, Washington Monument).  Nearly ALL of the museums, memorials, and Federal institutions in DC are located here.  The White House (which we didn't visit), the Washington Memorial, the Smithsonian, and the Air and Space Museum, are all FREE!!!  amoung many many others.  Our stop was the Air and Space Museum.  We were hoping to hit the Smithsonian also, but the size of the Air and Space Musuem needed a full afternoon devoted to it...

We walked right by the Washington Memorial, and stopped to take a few pictures...

The Washington Memorial- the famous reflecting pool is just over the hill...  Because of the excessive heat, we decided to forgo this stop...

We headed into the Air and Space Museum, which was FREE!!!  It's so great!  ALL the sights to see in DC are free... which is the way it SHOULD be...  I love that everything here is free!!!

The airplanes in the Air and Space Museum...

The outside of a 747...

The cockpit of the 747... this was huge... impressive to see everything the pilots need to do while in flight...

The airplane designed by the Wright brothers... this is the 100th year of flight, and so there was an exhibit about the Wright brother's contribution to flight...

We went to the Imax at the Air and Space Museum... We saw 3-D Sun... all about the sun... it was neat.  Our cool eye wear was the best...

Jinny and her patriotic popsicle!

We then headed out of Federal Alley as it was getting close to time to meet up with Joon... The area is very close to downtown DC, so we walked from the museums to check out downtown... we walked by Chinatown...

The Chinatown arch... Chinatown was actually really disappointing... this was the ONLY clue to indicate that we were in Chinatown... as you can see from the next  picture, chinese writing has just been added to all the signs!

We met up with Joon, and headed for Tapas for supper... it was a bit disapointing also, hence the lack of photos!!!  The DC area has loads of restaurants, but they haven't been the best...

Saturday and Sunday were great... stay posted for more adventures of our Labour Day weekend!!!

Hope you are all enjoying the long weekend,

L&J