21st September 2017 - Thursday

We slept a bit better last night, and I got up about 8 o’clock to get some breakfast and explore the local few blocks. There was a Walmart two blocks north which I had a quick nosey around.  I got some cereal, milk, juice and snack bars for the room. I also accidentally bought some no razor blade shaving cream but I don’t want to talk anymore about that!

It was so hot still, so early on in the day, and the smallest milk and juice was like 2 litre bottles so I was sweating a bit carrying it back. There was another Starbucks adjacent to the supermarket so I got Kathryn’s breakfast from there. I finally got the unlocking code for my iPhone so was successfully able to activate my Three mobile SIM card to enable me to use data on my phone.

We got ready and headed out about 10 o’clock in the end. We decided to get the subway to the zoo as it was quite far out of the city centre. The fare system was a little bit complicated but we figured it out and topped our cards up with money. The subway is quite dark, lots of concrete and not very modern like most of the American public transport. However, it wasn’t busy, and the trains were air conditioned and we got to the zoo in no time.

It required a fairly longish walk up to the zoo from the station. As the zoo is free, you just walked in the entrance a bit like entering a park. There was three main zones and we worked our way through them all over the course of a few hours. Thankfully there was several indoor sections which were air conditioned which allowed us to escape the scorching sun. It must have been around 30 degrees outside in the sun.

We were able to see the giant pandas, red panda, seals and zebras to name a few. Overall I didn’t think it was great, but Kathryn had a good time. There was one interesting piece of radiography which highlighted particular evolutionary traits which was interesting.

After we walked back to the entrance we had a quick snack at a Starbucks opposite the entrace and got some respite from the heat. We then walked back to the subway and travelled near to the white house. Obviously you can’t visit Washington without getting this photo.

We then travelled over to a Mexican restaurant called MXDC which we visited on our honeymoon. We visited during happy hours and so were able to get a few cheap margaritas. Afterwards we walked back to the hotel, stopping to get some ice cream.