Wahhshington, Deastrict ahv Cahlambia

is it a bad sign that i have start writing phonetically in American? probably, though i would like to think that in real life, my accent has remained pretty un- err, unchanged.

the past 4 nights have been spent in a trendy renovated apartment, about 3 blocks south of the National Mall. I have been able to actually cook (something decent) the past couple of nights too as our apartment had a well-stocked kitchen, including basics like pasta and herbs and spices. It even had a couple of different liqueurs; two strange mexican-looking ones which i didn't touch but also a pleasant creme de vanilla liqueur, which was somewhat port-like in flavour and a provided nice nightcap.

so our weeks' events included:
An evening walk at the east end of the Mall, up by Parliament House and then in the morning an exploration of several of the noted Smithsonian museums. We visited the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Native American History, the second of which we stopped to have special mexican spiced hot chocolate (they also served buffalo and other native foods) and i also purchased a native american book of recipes and traditions.

we also visited Mount Vernon, the home and farmlands of George Washington, which was just so beautiful, lovely big gardens and paddocks and forest and slave-houses and his mansion. It reminded me somewhat of Clarendon and the big estates by Stanley, in Tasmania (however not as grand as the tasmanian places, i found...)

What else, what else... Arlington cemetry, Washington Monument (the big masonic obelisk... brings back memories of The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown), Lincoln Memorial and the White House.

Today we also went to Dupont Circle and browsed through old record shops, tiny japanese boutiques, tea shops, and! a combination of some of our favourites - had a late lunch at Teaism, a japanese restaurant/cafe/tea shop, where i had sweet matcha and a bento box in a beautiful old terrace.

Our last night is tonight but i highly doubt we will get up to too much as we are going to need to try to squeeze in the great number of things (mum) bought.