Sorry folks, its been a busy couple of days in DC. Somany great free museums, so little time...
I was wrong about the cool, quiet part though..its been just about as hot and humid as Florida and it is "end of the school year field trip" time- so every museum is swarming with giant school groups!
But before I get onto DC, a couple of things about our last WDW day: we started by parking at MK and then catching the monorail to Epcot. The boys rode Mission Space and couple more times and we did Soarin' to see if it was the same as DCA (yup- identical!)
We bought a cute little kids spaceman helmet for our nephew at the Mission Space store and then caught the boat to Germany to try out some treats from Karamelle Kuche. The caramel corn was tasty but a bit soft, but the caramel slice thing (not its actual name, funnily enough) was great.
We rode the Gran Fiesta tour ride in Mexico again and stopped off in Norway for a couple of sandwiches and another school bread for lunch. We really enjoyed the wholegrain bread they used at the Kringla bakery, as it seems hard to find that sort of bread in the US supermarkets. In fact, we all decided Norway was our favourite Epcot land - the boys love the Vikings, I love the wooden church, the flower garden on the roof of the cafe, and of course, the school bread......
By now it was super hot and humid. Apparently it gets really bad right before the rainy season in Florida, a couple of people told us, and they hadn't had a decent rainfall for a while, so they were over-due.
As we were heading out, we timed it just right to gt pics with Mickey and Pluto:
We got on the monorail to MK, but it was heaving with people, so we just managed to catch Carousel of Progress, Mickeys Philharmagic and Space Mountain before we decided it was time for a break.
I had cancelled our dinner ADR at Whispering Canyon, but we were still keen to check out the Wilderness Lodge, so we drove over there and the security guard was nice enough to let us park, despite not having a reservation- we promised we would only be an hour. We had a good cheese steak flatbread at the Roaring Fork and had a look around the lobby, which is a bit like the GCH but more rustic- very cute detailing and great lamps. We were having a walk around the grounds when it started raining with thunder and lightening, so we headed back to the car and decided we still had enough energy to do one final visit to AK!
People were pouring out of the park when we got there, as it was 5.30 and still raining. But we poncho-ed up and headed in. It was SO great seeing the park without a zillion people around, and the rain had cooled things down a lot. It is a beautiful park with all the greenery. We watched the monkeys while we waited for the rides to reopen. A CM told us the top of Everest is metal and has been hit by lightening several times, so they have to wait for any storms to be at least 6 miles away before they can reopen the ride!
Eventually though, they did, and the boys were able to walk straight on and ride Everest twice, back to back with no wait. Then we went and walked the Maharani trail and saw the tigers and exotic birds. All the vegetation was looking gorgeous after the rain, especially tropical and jungle-like. We also saw A Bugs Life, which is identical to the DCA show, but worth checking out as you get to look at all the Tree of Life animals close up as you enter.
Rainbow over Everest!!
It was getting on for park closing time, so we headed to DTD for a final hour at Disney Quest. After checking the boys in, DH and I found a table on the patio at the House of Blues opposite DQ, and had a margarita to mark the end of our WDW stage of the holiday!
Next morning we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast before heading the the airport. Again, really good and cheap and lovely friendly servers-definitely one to try if you aren't on the
Disney Dining Plan.
Our JetBlue flight to DC got in around 3pm after a bit of a delay due to a storm. Very impressed with JetBlue- massive amounts of legroom, free drinks and snacks and one free checked bag- plus they were the cheapest fare!
We have rented a small apartment near Union Station that I found through TripAdvisor, walking distance to the Mall monuments and Smithsonian Museums. It is small but has everything you need and is a great location.
So far we have visited the Library of Congress, which has an amazing ornate interior, Air and Space Museum (boys did this while I geeked out at the L of C), Natural History Museum and museum of the American Indian, plus the Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam Memorial. Today we also spent several hours at the American History Museum, which has cool stuff like Dorothy's ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz. We had a great dinner at the Old Ebbert Grill, near the White House, which I would recommend. Lots of history, classy and very buzzy and good American food at not too crazy prices.
Tomorrow we are booked on a tour of The US Capitol and will try and squeeze in an art museum before we jump on our train to NYC at 4pm! Phew.....
Preparing to geek out - on the steps of the Library of Congress
The Capitol