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We had the National Archives booked for 12 today so set off a bit later, having some of the fruit and juice for breakfast that we had bought from Safeway. We also took sandwiches that we had bought from Safeway to have a bit later for lunch. We arrived at the archives about 10 minutes early as advised, to allow time to get through security. Once in, there seemed to be much more to see than the last time we were here. Downstairs there was a large exhibition covering the different amendments that had been made to the constitution over time, with a special exhibit, 'Rightfully Hers', that looked at the struggle for the women's vote which was eventually introduced under the 19th amendment. They also had an original copy of the 1297 Magna Carta, whose premise to guarantee proceedings according to the "law of the land" was the foundation for the 5th amendment to the Constitution: "no person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law". We did spend quite a long time walking through; there was a huge amount of information, historic documents, letters and photographs to look at and it was all very interesting.

Moving on, we headed for the public vaults, starting with the Rotunda which houses the original copies of the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and Constitution. There was a lot of information to provide context to each of the documents including some details about the men that signed the Declaration of Independence, whose signatures although faded can still be made out at the bottom. There was a section where you could select videos from WWII that form part of the military archives that are also stored here.

Eventually leaving the archive, we headed across the road to the sculpture garden, sitting around the fountain to eat our sandwiches by way of lunch. Our next stop was the Air and Space museum; we'd really liked this one last time, so thought it was due a revisit. There was a bit of a queue, to get inside, through security but it moved pretty quickly and then we were in. Seemingly the museum is undergoing a large refurbishment meaning approximately half of it was closed to the public which was a shame, but we carried on to see what there was. Although there were some familiar exhibits some of the others seemed to have changed, I think there were a number of different planes hanging from the ceiling this time, but can't remember for sure. We walked through the exhibits on early flight looking at the Wright brothers' original 'Flyer' plane - the first successful powered airplane. We also spent time walking around the space exhibits including lunar modules and space suits including the one worn by Neil Armstrong.

We were feeling pretty tired by the time we came out of the Air and Space museum, and after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing we decided to walk on to the Lincoln Memorial; it was still very warm and sunny, and we thought it was as good a time to go as any. It's just under 2 miles and took about 40 minutes to walk across, stopping a couple of times en route for photos. There is a large reflecting pool between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial but given the time of day, the memorial was in shadow, however once we'd climbed the steps, we were able to appreciate the monument reflecting brilliantly in the sun. We stayed for a little while, taking some photos and having a rest before heading back towards the National Mall past the WWII memorial. We were careful not to walk next to the water as last time we were here we were bitten a lot and we're only just getting rid of the bites we picked up in Philadelphia.

Before heading back to the hotel, we stopped in the sculpture park again as they were hosting a Jazz festival; we listened to the music for a little while before heading back. We went to a nearby Italian restaurant for a late tea called Tortino. It was very nice, we both ate from the specials menu before finally calling it a night - Capital Building tomorrow!   

It was an early start today, we had alarms set for 7am and were up soon after as tickets were booked 9. After checking directions again in the morning, we found that there was a partial closure on the metro so we were going to have to walk a bit further when we arrived. With this in mind, we decided to get going and grab some breakfast enroute. We took the metro from Arlington station which is close to the hotel and got off the stop before Fenway as the rest of the route was replaced by bus. We decided to walk the rest of the way as it was only supposed to take 10 minutes and we had plenty of time. We stopped at Starbucks and grabbed some Pain au chocolat's for breakfast and then headed on to Fenway park to pickup our tickets for the 9am tour. 

The tour was interesting even though some of the sports talk went over our heads, the ground has quite a bt of history and is the oldest ball park still in use dating back to 1912. The tour took us all over the ground giving us a chance to see the view from the different areas including in the media box. The whole stadium is much smaller than you might think, and you could sit pretty much anywhere and still have a good view of the game. I took quite a few photos of the ground, but unfortunately it was a bit cloudy so the sky looked a bit washed out. The tour finished up in the museum where there is lots of memorabilia including signed baseballs from each of the world series games including signatures of well known players including Babe Ruth.

Following Fenway Park, we stopped for a drink and ice-cream in McDonalds, they're running a promotion at the moment so all sizes of soft drinks are $1. After a bit of refreshment, we caught the metro over to the aquarium. We had toyed with getting the combination ticket for the whale saightseeing tours and the aquarium but the only tour tickets left were leaving at 5 and wouldn't be back until dark at 9 so we decided to stick with just the aquarium this time. The queue was pretty long, but we managed to connect to the WiFi and buy tickets online instead so skipped the queue. We came here last time we were in Boston and despite being very busy, it didn't disappoint. The highlight again had to be the penguins and the giant turtles, we managed to hit both areas during feeding, so with the giant turtles it meant they were swimming around the top of the big tank.

Feeling tired we caught the metro back past the hotel to the Cheesecake factory for dinner. It was very filling although service was a bit hit and miss. After a long day, we made it back to the hotel just after 8pm for a bit of rest. 

We've been trying to make the most of the rest of the school holidays before September rolls around so have made a couple more trips out. We visited Buckingham Palace in the first week of September last year, and if you sign the back and keep the tickets, you can revisit as many times as you like within the year. It suggests on the website to book in advance but we thought we'd wing it, and, in a worse case scenario, get tickets for another day. Dani had found some city walks on the TFL website (tfl.gov.uk/modes/walking/top-walking-routes) which looked good so either way we had a plan. As it happened, when we got to the palace we were given tickets for about an hour later, so we decided to wait. 

This time, there was an exhibition celebrating the Queen at 90, so several of the state rooms were set out differently to last year. There were 3 rooms showcasing some of the Queen's many outfits including christening, wedding and coronation dresses, in addition to outfits from several foreign tours. For each outfit, with matching hat, there was a short description of where it had been worn and who had designed it. It was very interesting. 

It was a nice day, although by the late afternoon it was a little cloudy. There's a few photos, but only from the outside as no photography is allowed inside the palace. Not that it stopped some people...grumble grumble... Enjoy!