A few pics with me and the gang, in this Flickr set. More as I have time, or they upload their own.

The original plan was to leave at 8. The revised plan was to leave at 9. The updated, upgraded and enhanced plan was to leave at 10.

We left at 10:30.

Half an hour later, while crossing the Lincoln Tunnel, we got stuck because of an accident. For 45 minutes. We had to wait there inhaling fumes while tow trucks came and picked up 3 badly damaged cars. Add one stop for gas and food and the whole trip took us 6 hours, instead of the scheduled 4. Great start.

We parked in front of the Smithsonian at 4:30pm and headed into the Air and Space Museum. We barely had time to run from one end to the other before the curators kicked us out – the museum was closing at 5:30. Which sucked, since it was really, really interesting. Must plan a future visit there and a whole day to explore it.

Afterward we started strolling the National Mall and take tons of pictures like any self-respecting tourists. After checking out the Capitol – complete with duckies in the pond – I volunteered to drive the car all the way behind the Lincoln Memorial and wait for the rest there. Which turned out not to be such a good idea: after passing the memorial I found myself on a highway, crossing the Potomac and exiting the city at high speed; after returning and trying the other side I found myself in Arlington Cemetery. In the end I gave up and parked the car where it was before.

At the Lincoln Memorial there was a movie set and they were filming a scene – sadly, I can’t say I recognized any of the actors. There was police to keep the tourists on the sides of the steps and they were asking not to use flash photography.

On our way back to the car we ran into more policemen and we saw an official motorcade stopping at the Washington Monument. The officer at the base refused to let us go up the hill and didn’t answer any of our questions about who or what was going on. So we circled the area to get back to where I parked and saw on the other side some people going up. Me and Mihnea got curious and headed uphill, where we found 3 agents (Secret Service I assume) that politely told us that they need to frisk us if we were to go further. We managed to get pretty close to the monument, but on the other side of where the cars were. There was some press, a few tourists and a bunch of agents patrolling around. We got bored pretty quickly (not to mention chilly) and decided to head back. By the time we reunited with the others, the motorcade already left. Later we found out that our suspicions were correct and somebody important was there

After a few night shots at the White House, we left. My phone – which doubled as a GPS – gave out its remaining battery in the first hour, leaving us in the dark. Fortunately the road was pretty straightforward and we got back to NY without any problems. We were home at 2:30am.

On Friday we went to visit the Intrepid. It was my first time as well, so I didn’t know what to expect.

We started on the hangar deck, where we learned about the ship’s history – from WW2 and throughout the Cold War – and how an aircraft carrier operates. Very interesting to see the advancement in design through the years and how many planes they can fit on one ship.

On the flight deck there were a bunch of Vietnam and Cold War-era planes and helicopters, including a Blackbird and a Super Tomcat. We also climbed in the navigation and command towers and checked out maps of the NY Harbor.

After the main ship we visited the Concorde they have there – which was pretty unimpressive – and the submarine. I had been inside one before – I visited Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine, at the naval museum in Mystic, CT – but it was nice nevertheless. It had 4 huge pods to store its nuclear missiles.

The guests left with some cool souvenirs: mini metallic planes and helicopters, very cutesy-looking. Should have got some myself.