Day 7 & 8 - The Windy City

Ok, it must be about my turn to help out with the blog load.  Please forgive me if I go over a couple of things that Stu may have already mentioned in brief, there shouldn't be too much of that though.

Day 7 saw us waking up at around 10:30am, still in New Orleans.  We were tired but happy and it was time to move on.  We had bought a replacment for the busted old suitcase so I had to 'move house' into the new one.  It wasn't too bad and I can't tell you all how fantastic it is to have a properly working suitcase again.  I wrote a note on the old suitcase asking housekeeping to dispose of it in any way they saw fit.  That done, we packed up and headed for the train station.  We had a great time in the Big Easy and if/when we ever make it back over here I'm sure we'll head back there to check out some of the stuff we missed this time around.

Our transit from New Orleans to Chicago was aboard an Amtrack superliner.  There really isn't all that much to say about it either.  It's a train.  We had a superliner roomette which basically means you have marginally more room than people travelling in coach and you get a couple of meals included.  Alright, it was a little more than that as there was a bunk bed and the two seats folded out into a bed as well so we could both lie down for the night and get some sleep.  We enjoyed staring out the window at the changing scenery and were able to get up and walk about the train.  It even stopped every few hours to pick people up and we were able to get off, stretch our legs and have a smoke.  It was definitely an easier trip than the flight from MEL - LAX was.  Except for the part where I got up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night and didn't realise Stu had gotten up and gone to the dining car.  I thought I was doing a marvellous job not waking him up and was lying there in my bed looking out the window at things passing by etc until I realised he wasn't actually in bed at all.  Turns out he had gotten up at about 5:30am.  I got up at about 5:45am and went to the toilet and locked the cabin door. As it turns out, no real harm was done, the train served breakfast at 6am and by the time I realised where he was, Stu had really only just finished his breakfast.  Sorry honey.

We arrived in sweet home Chicago just after 9am, collected our luggage and caught a cab to the Affinia Hotel.  Luckily for us, they had a room available at that time of day so we were able to check in right away.  Check in we did and then came upstairs for a shower and some fresh clothes.  Having showered we hung around the room for a little while updating the blog and generally getting ourselves sorted out until it was time to go and meet a couple of friends.  People at Paradox! The Musical.  Will know these two likely lads as SewerRatz and Jesus.  They were kind enough to come and pick us up from our hotel room and take us out on a private, personalised and rather unique tour of Chicago.  First stop was Buckingham Fountain, next to Millenium Park. 

We had a wander around there for a little while and then it was time to jump back in the car (so Ratz didn't get a ticket, even though it was his mission for the day) and head off to find something to eat.  We stopped off and had some nosh at a place that made kick arse sandwhiches.  I'm sorry guys, I honestly can't remember what it was called.  Was it Pick You Up? or something like that.  Anyway it was good.

UPDATE: Ratz says it was the "Pick Me Up Cafe". Thanks Ratz.

After lunch Jesus took us for a walk down the street so that we could grab a couple of photos at Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs, while Ratz went to check on the parking ticket situation.  I later found out that this was because of the fact that Ratz is a Sox fan and wanted no part of this Cubs home ground business.

Once we'd taken a few photos at the stadium we wandered down and were shown some of the more unique and intriguing stores that Chicago has to offer such as The Alley, a really cool games shop that had an amazing collection of Atari 2600 games (wish I still had my old console) and a really cool cigar shop.  After we'd wandered around for a while we all piled into the car.  Ratz took us out to show us the house where he grew up.  Well he really took us out there to show us China Town, which was "Just around the corner. Literally." but somehow got "turned around" and we ended up taking in a few extra sites as well. 

After we'd found China Town, Ratz thought it would be an awesome idea to introduce us to a shop called Horrorbles.  Unfortunately, he got "turned around" again and we ended up driving back through China Town.  We managed to make it to Horrorbles and rather than try to describe this fantastic place to you, I'll drop in the link and you can check it out for yourself. http://www.horrorbles.com/  While at Horrorbles, Rats needed to make a pitstop.  He was directed to a door with "redrum" written in red letters on it.  He walked straight in and then walked straight out again with a rather red face.  Turns out there was someone in the bathroom already, said someone was apparently only washing their hands but didn't have the door locked or call out when Ratz opened the door.

Gobb says: Horrorbles sells an awesome replica Freddy Krueger glove. Someone buy it for me for christmas k thnx bai.

We left Horrorbles and it was time to go to Val's Halla.  Now this store is amazing and beyond belief.  Val is an amazingly friendly woman who is full of fantastic stories and she has a store full of the most amazing collection of vinyl for sale.  Val doesn't just sell vinyl.  She also sells cassettes and CD's and can find pretty much any hard to get music, there's even a box four big boxes of 8 tracks!  Her shop's bathroom is also a shrine to Elvis Presley. Literally! If you have been looking for that hard to get track or album, give her site a look or send her an email. http://www.valshalla.com

By the time we left Val's Halla it was time to go and find something to eat again and Ratz knew just the place.  Before going to get something to eat we stopped in at an electronics warehouse that sold just about everything you could think of for very reasonable prices.  Stu had been looking for ans external hard drive for a while and managed to pick one up while we were having a browse.

Now its confession time.  Stu and I were both far too busy enjoying the awesome chilli and BBQ that we had stopped for, that both of us have completely forgotten the name of the place that we stopped to eat at.  As soon as I see Ratz or Jesus online, I will ask them and edit this post.  It really was good food though.  It wasn't just chilli and BBQ, they also do gyros and so we got some meat to share.  After breaking bread with Jesus and becoming incredibly full, we headed off to Ratz's best mate, Mike's place because Mike's wife, Stacey, works for a camera shop and said she could get a lense that we had been looking for, for our digital camera.  Unfortunately, there was a breakdown in communication over the phone and Stacey had bought the wrong lense home with her.  Not to be deterred, Mike and Stacey piled back in their car and took us back down to the shop for the correct lense.  Stu and I were both happy and grateful for this.  Our camera now has a sparkly new lense that can autofocus, amongst other things.  Thanks Stacey and Mike :-) REALLY!

UPDATE: The place we ate dinner was "Gemato's Grill". Gobb couldn't understand the guy at the counter, but that's ok because we're all pretty sure he couldn't understand Gobb either. Great food anyway.

By this time it was 8:00pm and a few of us were getting a bit tired.  So Jesus and Ratz were kind enough not to just leave us in the car park out in the middle of somewhere that was foriegn to us and dropped us back off at the hotel.  It was good timing too because they got caught in a big storm on the way home and then there were a couple of tornados sighted about 20 miles south of where they live.  Very glad they made it home safe and sound.

All in all it was an amazingly fun day.  We got a very unique view of Chicago, saw some awesome sights and met some excellent people.  One more aspect of the day that I haven't mentioned yet is that both Jesus and SewerRatz are a pair of the funniest guys that Stu and I have ever met.  We spent a fair bit of time in the car travelling from place to place and, while doing so, we were frequently in stitches of laughter because of the banter from the front seats.  Our sincere thanks to the two guys for taking a day out of their lives to show a pair of tired Aussies around their town.  We are really really grateful and hope we get to cross paths again sometime soon.

Once we'd returned back to the hotel room we were pretty much exhausted.  We settled down on the bed with our laptops to check emails and all of that sort of thing and after a couple of minutes there was a knock on the door.  Stu came back in from answering the door with a lovely bottle of Merlot and a card.  Gemma had been thoughtful enough to find out where we were staying and send us a bottle of Red.  Thanks Eddie, it really is far too cute and very much appreciated.  I hope you're all having a good time together.

So after a nice glass of wine it was time to head to bed.  We slept very soundly and didn't really wake up until 10:30am.  We haven't really gotten out and about all that much of Chicago today, mostly because it is windy as anything and only about 62/16 degrees.  We had woken up too late to get anything from the hotel's breakfast menu and were feeling pretty hungry.  We ended up downstairs at Gino's East ordering a couple of small deep dish pizzas.  Can I just take a moment to say YUM!  Neither Stu or I have ever had a deep dish before and I sure hope they wont be our last. (Actually, I already know we'll be eating deep dish again because we still have half of this mornings' left over and plan to have them for breakfast tomorrow.)

Anyway, it's nearly 6pm and we're going to be heading out to Buddy Guy's Legends Bar for dinner and a jam session tonight and then we're heading off to Missouri tomorrow.

Will write again soon in the meantime here's some random Chicago shots.

Day 6 - Maw Nawlins - Part 2

Aaaalrighty, so we survived the day's sightseeing around Chicago with the lads, but more on that later. Let me catch up first.

Friday night in NOLA (na-na-na-na-NOLA) saw us make our way down to the river for our riverboat jazz/dinner cruise. On the way, I got hustled by a guy who claims he was collecting donations for charity. He may well have been, I don't know. I was too busy laughing to care, and gladly parted with a few bucks, just for the laugh. He got me with this line "Hey, I bet I can tell where you got your shoes!".... 2 minutes later... "I don't care where you bought em, you got em on your damn feet!". Yeah, haha, stupid Aussie rube. I'm not going to say how much I got rolled for - it's embarrassing - but it was worth it. Also, please forget I told you this if I ever try to make a bet with you that I can tell you where you got your shoes. It's only fair.

The cruise itself was fine. There weren't too many on board, the drinks were reasonably priced, the food was tasty and the jazz was jazzy. We went down the river, and we came back up the river, and it was all good. There's really not much more to say on that, so... have some photos.

This last image is a photo of a painting I rather craftily snapped. Can someone now go and turn it into a gorgeous oil painting for us? Free?

After the cruise, and with Lisa's blisters giving her a hard time, we hopped on a trolley for the one-stop ride to the casino - Harrah's. We're not massive gamblers, but we like to play the slots now and then, and we like to check out the new machines, so we wandered around the slots for an hour or so, trying a bit here and a bit there, and thoroughly being able to enjoy being able to "smoke while we poke." I'd like to explain what that means but I'm not going to. Figure it out for yourself.

We didn't win any money, but we didn't lose anything significant either so I guess at least we have more for Vegas :) Anyway, onto the most amazing and surreal part of the evening.... FOOTY! A short stroll found us at Ryan's Irish Pub, the self-proclaimed (in writing!) "Best F***ing Irish Pub In The World!" I have to say, I dispute that claim, for a few reasons, including the lack of Irish beers (yes, they had Guinness but so does everyone these days), the absence of pretty much any traditional Irish decoration (a couple of clovers and a most-likely-stolen sign that indicates the distance to Tipperary notwithstanding), and the complete lack of lilting, red-headed, buxom barmaids to name just a few.

Nonetheless, it seemed a pleasant enough place, and Mike the bartender was willing to put the Grand Final (aka "The Granny") on the widescreen for us, so with Guinness in hand, and TV tuned to ESPN Classic, we sat down to... watch an Australian football match, live in an Irish pub in a bar on Decatur Street, New Orleans, Louisiana. 

For nearly 3 hours we sat there, watching the game intently until the final siren, with occasional regular frequent constant interruptions from our new best mate "Mad Max", who once lived in Sydney for a year - illegally - and decided that meant he knew ALL about Aussie Rules and was keen to share his "knowledge" with us. Ok, his name was "Max", but given his professed love for Australia, we're sure he wouldn't mind the appellation. Also, he was most likely at least slightly insane.

I can't even begin to express what a surreal experience that was, and for the game to be as nail-biting as it was, with the result in our team's favour was just... well, what a memory! I'm just glad we didn't mention that the opposing team was generally referred to as "The Saints", or we may have had some opposition from the local New Orleans football supporters.

No, I don't know what that expression means.

 Mike the bartender and his shoulder-pet "Flashy"

We finally got back to the hotel around 3.30am, made a phone call back home to share the victory with the other Cats supporters, and headed for bed, absolutely exhausted but happy.

And again, I'm going to leave this here. Check back for Part 3 day 7 and beyond.... soon.

Day 6 - Maw Nawlins - Part 1

Sorry it's been a couple of days since our last post. We've been pretty flat out busy, and we've just spent 19 hours on a train without any interwebs, so this is the first chance we've had to update. We're in Chicago now (as of about 2 hours ago) and we're just waiting on a couple of the RFX/Paradox crew to come and take us out for... whatever they have in mind. Should be fun.

So, where were we? Ah yes, Nawlins. Friday started with a "jazz brunch" at the Court of Two Sisters, which is a quite impressive place that serves some great buffet-style food (catfish, gumbo, shrimp, crawfish, grits etc.).

 

Theoretically, they have a jazz band there that plays while you eat, but frankly, we were a bit disappointed in the jazz trio they had lined up. The two guys and a girl were great when they played, but instead of playing 45 minute sets and breaking for 15 minutes (as the waiter told us they should be doing), they instead sat in their seats for 20 minutes, followed by 30-40 minute breaks. In the 20 minutes when they were where they were meant to be, they played 2-3 songs tops each time. Luckily, the food was tasty, and the breakfast cocktails kept coming, so it wasn't a complete waste.

Since the band failed to sit in their seats long enough for a photo, just pretend this is them.

After brunch, we again wandered down towards the French Market, picking up a tasty poop-stick on the way. I probably need to explain that. "Poop-stick" is a word Ell and I picked up somewhere as slang for "cigar". Not sure if that's because of the look or the smell, but there you go. Anyway, it was one and it was tasty. Seems ambling around honking on to the soggy end of one of these beasts is the done thing in New Orleans.

Now, here I know I owe a couple of people an apology... I had intended to pick up a box of cigars for consumption in Missouri but, um... well, I forgot. Will see if I can find some affordable alternatives elsewhere.

Along the way, we found a couple of amazing art galleries (with amazingly high prices to match), a few street performers and just... stuff. This guy, dressed in silver, bore a sign that read "Coins make him move. Dollars make him dance!" We gave him a dollar. He failed to dance, but he did pose nicely.

It turned out there wasn't much going on at the French Market, so we made our way back towards the hotel for a rest before heading off for a paddleboat cruise later in the day. As it turned out, the company we had booked with (the Creole Queen) was having problems with their boat and wanted us to switch to the following day. Since we'd be leaving at lunch-time on Saturday, that was no good, but fortunately they were able to rebook us onto their competitor's boat for the Friday. More on that later.

Now, the Aussies reading this will know full-well that the AFL Grand Final was on Saturday afternoon Melbourne time, which turned out to be 11:30 US Central time. For those who don't know what this is, it's our national sport's big final match for the year, or (as described by an American) the "Aussie Rugby Superbowl Thing". That's close enough. Anyway, our team was playing in the game, so we really (REALLY) wanted to watch. Not easy to do in a country that thinks the game is some form of rugby or, worse, soccer. Shudder.

Originally, we'd been told that the match would be broadcast with a 2 hour delay on ESPN2 here in the US, which would have been fine because we had that in the hotel room, but it was changed at some point to be live on ESPN Classic instead. Our hotel room didn't have ESPN Classic. A few phone calls made, and we discovered Ryan's Irish Pub on Decatur Street that had ESPN Classic available, and would be prepared to let us watch there.

So, at this point, the plan was to head off on a paddleboat cruise, then maybe hit the casino for an hour or so, then head to Ryan's for beer and football. Doesn't get much better.

I'm going to have to leave this here, as we have to leave in a minute, but either Ell or I will come back to it later. Assuming the boys leave us capable.

Days 4 & 5 - Nawlins: The Big Easy!

Well it's been a whirlwhind couple of days since making the Washington post but we are still REALLY enjoying everything.  The trip from Washington was pretty straight forward, although I managed to score a couple of nasty blisters while marching through Dulles to get on board the plane.  There was a big storm happening around the Louis Armstrong International Airport just prior to our landing, so we had to take the scenic route for a little while.  After cruising the New Orleans skyline for about 10 minutes we managed to land safe, sound and relatively dry. As soon as we grabbed my beaten to death suitcase, I whipped out a pair of flip flops, because those blisters really are quite nasty.  While I was rifling through the suitcase there was a four piece band playing 'When The Saints Go Marching In.'  There was no mistaking which airport we were in.

Gobb says: The four-piece band was not actually inside her suitcase. That would be silly. There's barely room for a trio in there. Speaking of which, Ell's suitcase is so badly busted by now that we're going to have replace it before we leave N'awlins. Stupid clumsy baggage-handlers.

We wandered outside and got a taxi to take us to the hotel.  The weather here is much like Darwin, about 33 - 35 degrees and very humid.  Everywhere has refrigerated airconditioning though and when you go inside, you completely forget what the outside weather is like.  Driving through the place in the taxi we were on the look out for signs of Katrina and, even though you see a few little things here and there, the place has recovered remarkably well.  There is still a lot of re-building going on and the odd house here and there that hasn't been fixed up, but if you weren't looking for it you probably wouldn't notice it.  The locals have an air of proud survival when talking about her and there is definitely a hint of reverence in there as well.  The number one cocktail here is called a Cat 5 Hurricane.  All in all, it's amazing the way this town has recovered.

We arrived at the hotel, which is just beautiful, and were escorted up to our room by a friendly fellow named Al.  Unlike other places, where our bags have been bought up after we got to the room, Al pretty much gave us a tour of the hotel, showed us where everything was and marked out a map of a number of things that we said we wanted to check out.  He was such a nice man and pretty much a classic example of what the folks here are like.  While we were unpacking and making ourselves at home there was a knock on the door and we received a very welcome bowl of fruit and a lovely card. Stu and I were both somewhat puzzled at first, not knowing where it had come from, but found out that the card was signed from Eddie, Gemma and Richie.  Such a lovely thought and we are very grateful for the gesture. Thank You!

After about half an hour in the room, and some yummy fresh fruit, we decided it was time to go out for a walk.  The hotel is on Royal Street, which is full of antique shops and art galleries and we had a bit of a browse around there before deciding it was time to head to Bourbon Street.  Now before I tell you anything more about Bourbon Street I have to say this.  There is a local rule that what happens on Bourbon Street stays on Bourbon Street and it is even printed on T-shirts and everything.  For those of you that have never encountered Rue Bourbon, you must put it on your list of things to do, but it isn't for the faint hearted.

We were walking down the street pointing here and looking there and noting things like the shops selling frozen daquiris, which are a tasty but sometimes lethal treat in this climate.  Then we came across a small shop front selling take away beers and other drinks.  Well I've never seen such a thing before.  We weren't sure if you were actually able to walk around with the drinks or if you had to just consume them right outside the shop.  Writing to you about that now, having spent an epic night out on Bourbon Street, seems somewhat naive but we were completely blown away at the time.  Just down the road, a couple of shops away from that place, was a place called Bourbon Rocks.  Now Bourbon Rocks sell 3 for 1.  We went in to find out what this 3 for 1 is all about and it is simply this.  Pick any standard spirit and get 3 shots for the price of one and they put it in a takeaway cup.  At this stage we were still a little bit iffy about the notion of walking away with the takeaway drinks so we sat at a table for a little while.  After seeing a number of customers walk in, order and walk out again we decided if it was good enough for them, it was good enough for us.  So we ordered another round of bourbon and coke and left Bourbon Rocks.

We then went to a couple of T-shirt stores and bought some souvenir T-shirts and then went to a place called Mango Mango to check out these frozen daqiris.  After a daquiri and a slice of pizza we decided to walk back to the hotel and put the things that we were carrying back in the room.  This means that very few photos were taken of our night on Bourbon Street, because we left the camera behind at that point, but to tell you the truth I think we should all be a little thankful for that.

We left the hotel again and went and had dinner at a place called Red Fish, followed by a number of hours at a karaoke saloon singing songs and drinking more 3 for 1's which later in the evening became 2 for 1s.  We stayed on Bourbon Street until about 2:30am.

Gobb says: OK, I just need to add here that Bourbon Street is completely insane. Really. The entire street is one big frat party from end-to-end. Honestly, we weren't even intending to go partying on Bourbon Street, but once there... well, we couldn't help it. In the interests of keeping this blog family-friendly, we've left out a lot of the gory details, but... just WOW. If you've never been here, then it's something I highly recommend, just for the experience.

The next morning we were understandably reluctant to get out of bed.  But we made it out and headed off with Gray Line Tours to the Jean Lafitte Swamp and Bayou Tour. We caught the Gray Line bus at the docks, a couple of blocks from the hotel, and went on a 30 minute bus ride through New Orleans to get to the tour place.  Again there were still a few weatherboard homes in various stages of disrepair due to Katrina, but nowhere near as many as we had expected.

There had been a storm while we were on the bus and a whole lot of rain came down but by the time we got off the bus at Lafitte the sun was out again.  Standing there in swamp land, in the bright sunshine, after a storm, having been on Bourbon Street until 2:30am... it was very steamy and I'm sure most of you can imagine how we felt.

We boarded our tour boat and bought a couple of bottles of water and sat with the camera poised waiting to see some gators.

We were not disappointed.  We saw big gators, baby gators, gators with tails missing and gators jumping out of the water because they have some kind of marshmallow habit that they just can't beat.  We found out that even though marshmallows are the preferred treat of any self-respecting gator (other than clumsy boat passengers of course) they were also quite partial to Cheeto's.

Our tour guide would see a gator on the bank or further up in the water and whistle and call "here boy." Sure enough the gators would swim up to the boat.  He also gave us a warning that if any of them try to climb up on the boat we were to just push them back into the water... YEAH RIGHT!!! Fortunately they didn't try to climb up so we didn't have to test the bravery of any of the passengers on board.  The closest we came to having a gator on board was when the guide lifted the tail of a 12 foot male up so people could have a touch.  Well at least that was until he told us that there was a young gator on board the whole time and passed it around for everyone to pat and hold.

We didn't just see gators though, we also saw turtles, a variety of water birds and were introduced to young Roxy Raccoon, who also comes when she's called.

Once we had seen at least a little bit of everything, our guide stopped guiding and turned on the zydeco while cruising back to dock.  There we were in a boat, cruising up the bayou, listening to zydeco... life is good :-)

A replica trapper shack

After the tour finished, we jumped back on the bus and headed back to the French Quarter.  We wandered around a few streets and picked up some bandaids and disinfectant, because those blisters I mentioned earlier appear to be thriving in the New Orleans climate.  Eventually, we happened upon an outdoor cafe that had a live band playing.  Deciding that it was about time we had something to eat, we pulled up a pew and ordered some Nawlins classics.  Stu had a shrimp and oyster Po' Boy, while I ate a cafe sampler of shrimp, oysters and crawdads.  We washed this down with a Louisianna Lemonade while the band played songs like Mack The Knife, Summertime, I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter and even Basin Street Blues, which had me totally stoked.

Pay no attention to the piano player behind the pole :-)

By now it was time to head back to the hotel and have a bit of a rest before we went to dinner.  This is exactly what we did.  Dinner was at the Omni Royal's Rib Room.  Guess what they do there... Stu and I both ordered the 11 ounce chef's special which is a cut from a whole rib rack that has been slow roasted.  It is then bought to your table on a grill plate, sizzling in cajun butter.  It also comes with a baked potato but I'm yet to meet the person who can eat both the rib and the potato.  It was hard work finishing off that piece of beef and I was wishing that I had only ordered the 8 ounce, until I realised that the only difference between the 8 and the 11 was that the 8 has no bone in it anymore and therefore is probably just the same amount of meat.  Anyway, with bellies full and sleepy heads, we returned to the room and pretty much passed out.

Just a little something we stumbled across in a shopping centre while walking around.  This one is for the Paracites playing at home.

Today we are heading to a jazz brunch at The Court of Two Sisters and after that we'll go for a walk around the French Market.  Tonight we are scheduled to go on a riverboat cruise up the Mississippi on the Creole Queen and then we'll be back in the room to watch the AFL Grand Final, which starts at 12:30am here.  I'm ignoring the fact that the home time of New Orleans for American football is the Saints.  GO CATS!!!!!!!!

Day 3 - A Capitol Idea

We travelled from Penn Station, New York to Union Station, Washington via Amtrak, and I have to say it was a positive experience. The train was clean, comfortable and not very full, so we got a double seat each to spread out on and relax. Got to DC just after 10:30, then caught the red line to the hotel. The only problem we had is that Lisa's large suitcase is... well, it's busted, badly. One of the wheels has been broken off (rough handling by airlines?), and that's led to further damage on the base. As a result, it's no longer able to be wheeled, and we're going to have to replace it at some stage. It should be OK for the trip to New Orleans, since we don't have to take it far, but we'll have to either replace it or get it repaired in NO.

So, Washington DC.

By the time we checked in and showered and so on, it was after 12:30. We had tickets for the "trolley tour", which is one of those hop-on/hop-off things, with stops all over the city. Unfortunately, they stop running at 5:30, so we had to choose where to go to fit in as much as possible before then. We looked at the map, and decided that it was going to be monuments. Unfortunately, there was no time for any museums or anything else, but that's OK, we're more than happy with what we've done in the short time available.

We caught the trolley right near the hotel, travelled around through the north-west, including Georgetown, then back down to Pennsylvania Avenue, where we got off and started walking.

On Pennsylvania Avenue, we found this quaint little cottage thing, which was sort-of cute, so we decided to take a photo. Maybe someone can tell us what it is:

Some kind of white house. Probably nothing important.

We then spent around 3 hours wandering around and taking snapshots of various monuments, including Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, Roosevelt, World War II, Vietnam, Korea etc. Might as well share some here, since there's not a lot else to tell.

And then there were the squirrels. These little fluffy guys are everywhere and they're disgracefully cute. The one in the second photo apparently decided that, if he made himself flat enough, he was invisible. Heh.

Finally, one of the most overdone and yet strangely hilarious (and completely juvenile) shots ever! Poor Lisa was a tiny bit embarrassed taking this shot, but come on... guys, you know you'd have done it too.

Impressive, no?

Right now, it's just after 9am on Wednesday and we're sitting in bed, counting down the time until we leave for the airport to head off to New Orleans and nursing our various injuries. Nothing major, but we're both tired and sore and just enjoying the rest.