Our first real day of sightseeing

After pretty much flying for a whole day and then a morning to recover, we hopped the Amtrak to Washington DC. The train was certainly a great way to travel; smooth, efficient and comfortable. The train guard could have jumped straight out of a movie with his upbeat "How you doin', guys?" greeting and his cylindrical, peaked black cap.

We arrived Wednesday evening to Union station and it was a fitting introduction to the glorious strength and beauty of DC's architecture. We hopped a cab to our basement apartment in Capitol Hill and got ourselves organised. I was certainly happy to be leaving the luggage grounded in one place for at least a few days.

It was an early start as our body clocks are still adjusting to the time change so we decided to head out early. The metro stop across the road from our apartment is uber-convenient and we navigated our way back to Union station to wander around before going on our DC Ducks city tour. The Ducks are world war 2 amphibious vehicles that can drive on roads and propel themselves along the river. Captain Bob was an informative and friendly tour guide and it was a great way to get our bearings as well as learn a little American history. 

After that it was time for lunch and to get our walking legs on. We walked the Mall down to the awe inspiring Washington monument, got a slushie as a refreshing way to cool ourselves from the humidity and then AJ, R and I headed back to apartment (whilst A headed to have a closer look at the Pentagon).