I came to Washington...

...and they held a parade for me!

What lovely people ;O)

We were up really early to try and get tickets to go to the top of the George Washington Monument (tallest structure in Washington and the only thing taller than Capitol Hill - no sky scrapers here, they aren't allowed. Its the tallest stone structure in the world at 555 ft 5 inches) unfortunately you have to start queueing at about 6am to get these tickets and there was no way we were going to be up that early so we missed out!

It did mean, however, that we were in the perfect spot for my Parade! The Cherry Blossom Parade took over Constitution Ave this morning and came complete with cheerleaders, Elmo, Ronald MacDonald, Miss America, Garfield, lots of Cops on Motorcycles, a giant tomato and pickle and a great big rainbow. It was.....most curious!

From there we headed to the American History Museum part of the Smithsonian and saw Dorothy's ruby shoes, Kermit T Frog, Lincoln's top hat and the original Star Spangled Banner among other delights. It's an amazing place and incredibly interesting, so very crowded though and eventually became just too much for me so we escaped back outside into the light. Had a bit of a wander around the Sculpture Garden (nice but not as good as the one in New Orleans), I particularly liked the big shiny tree, it was cool!

Maggie went on to see the American Indian Museum and the National Portrait Gallery but I was done in and came back to the hotel for a most welcome snooze in my most comfortable bed :O)