Monuments & Aerospace

worldtour_5995.JPG, originally uploaded by mark benger.

As you can see from the above pic, I'm now in Washington DC, home of many fine monuments, a certain pale residence, and most importantly the Smithsonian Air & Space museum.
Two complaints though - it's bitterly cold, and the only food option at the Air & Space museum is Macdonald's. Still they did have Spaceship One and a spitfire, and unlike most US museums were prepared to note & credit when something wasn't invented in the good old USA.

Austin Texas

First off many thanks to Ray and Ryan, who I met up with in the Bay of Islads in New Zealand, for putting up with me for the past couple of days.

So what have I been up to since my last entry? From Seattle I headed down to Portland on the shortest US rail trip so far at only 4 hours, before hading back east to Chicago where I bounced back west to LA via the Grand Canyon (snowy but uncrowded). I then headed straight east to Texas and Austin. The train stopped overnight in San Antonio, so I wandered off to see the Alamo at midnight.

Next stop is back to Chicago (all rails lead to Chicago) and then onto Washington DC.

Home of Starbucks

worldtour_5840.JPG, originally uploaded by mark benger.

I'm in Seattle, home of Starbucks, Boeing and Microsoft for a flying visit - just one night before heading to Portland, then back to Chicago before heading south to the Grand Canyon and a bit of warmth (its cold here).

I seem to be loosing things on this trip, the latest count is:
1 Mobile phone (plus 1 broken)
1 Compact camera
4 or 5 hats
1 t shirt

Ps I will be arriving back home in early march