Washington, DC - Day 8

Wake up: 7:30am (again...slightly later than planned...)
Breakfast: 9:00am down the street at Marvelous Market (coffee and a myriad of breakfast-coffee shop foods to choose from)
Metro: 10:15am

first stop: the Old Postal Museum again for restrooms and shopping while dad goes to the FBI Museum to find out about tours only to be told they no longer give them. Oh well, onto the Smithsonian Castle (since we'd yet to see it). Evan, Mom and I went headed to the Castle while Dad went to the theBureau of Engraving and Printing to get tickets for the tour (tickets for 2:30). Once finished the Castle (the major part of it was closed for a conference so it didn't take long) we had time to kill so decided to run through some of the other Smithsonian museums nearby. We headed toward the Freer Art Gallery/Sackler Gallery (they along with the African Art Museum are connected by tunnels so one only has to go through security once) around noon knowing we had to leave the area by 2:00 to get to the Bureau on time. We quickly ran through Freer and Sackler but no one felt like walking around the African Art exhibits so we headed back out into the rain only to stop at the USDA's weekly farmers' market where we bought freshly popped Kettle Corn and homemade apple cinnamon bread. We still had about a half hour to kill so we stopped in the at US Park Services Building near the USDA office and saw Smokey the Bear. About 2:10 (as we had slowly been working our way toward it) we headed for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing for our ticket time. The tour finished about 3:15ish but again...another gift shop. This one was cool because one of the workers in it was actually making printings like people used to do...with steel plates, ink, damp paper, and pressure. Unfortunately, by 4:00 my knee was shot. It had been aching all day but I coul no longer deal with it so we headed for the Metro and the hotel for a break. On the way it was decided that we would go to the pub across the street (McFadden's) for dinner at 5ish. The food wasn't too bad...kind of bland and the place smelled of stale beer but other than that not too bad. We got back to the hotel about 6:30 and started packing. About 8 Evan and Dad decided they wanted to go exploring after dark so they left and went to...well, I'm not really sure.

Home tomorrow...it's time...we're all tired...but first - Ellipse/White House tomorrow (since we've yet to see it...)