Hola!

Today has been such a long day, filled with lots of sight-seeing, some good food, and a ton of learning about crime and punishment in the United States over the centuries!

I woke up bright and early to start the day with a quick workout in the hotel’s gym.  I completed 10 minutes on the elliptical, followed by 15 minutes on the treadmill and then a quick triceps workout.  The gym was pretty tiny, but it felt good to sweat a bit 🙂

After the gym and a quick shower, I joined my dad for breakfast in the hotel lobby.  They had a lot of options, but I opted for the oatmeal with fruit salad and a hard-boiled egg.

Once we were done breakfast, we made the short walk to the National Museum of Crime and Punishment, just a few blocks from our hotel.  There were many museums we were interested in seeing, but this one was at the top of my list!  Our original plan was to spend the morning at the museum, have lunch and then hit another museum, but that plan didn’t work out!  We ended up spending the entire day at the museum- there were so many exhibits and so much to read and do!

The museum was really interesting and I especially enjoyed reading about the serial killers that have existed in the last couple of decades.  There were exhibits on everything from punishment techniques over the centuries, information on various types of execution, an exhibit on how homicides are investigated and an exhibit all about America’s Most Wanted.

We each participated in a line-up…

Of course, there were also games to simulate driving a police car [I crashed into a civilian], shooting a gun, and operating robotic bomb detection.  The bomb went off before we were able to remove it.  Oops!

We left the museum around four, hungry and ready for a late lunch.  We didn’t want to eat too much, so we shared a cheese, spinach and mushroom crêpe.

 We then made our way to the National Archives, where The Constitution, Declaration of Independence and The Bill of Rights are housed.  We only had forty minutes to look around before it closed, so we hit the highlights.

  It was amazing to be so close to such important documents in our nation’s history.  In the 1980’s and 1990’s, the documents would be lowered over 20 feet into the ground after close, but these days, security has been enhanced.  They wouldn’t tell us anymore than that; the guard that was talking to us said we would need to get a job there if we wanted to learn the other secrets!  The documents were very faded, especially The Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence, but the guard said the new cases would preserve the current ink for at least 200 years.

Once it closed, we walked back to the hotel and met up with my mom for happy hour at the hotel bar.  It felt good to sit down and relax after standing and walking all day!  Our tummies started talking to us at 7:30, so we walked a few blocks to the highly recommended Jaleo, a trendy tapas restaurant.  We opted to sit outside since it was a pleasant night and the restaurant was pretty loud.  It would definitely be a fun restaurant with a big group of friends!

Our waiter advised us to order 2-3 tapas each and then share, so we chose three vegetable tapas, three cheese tapas and one meat tapa.

We all agreed that the potatoes with the tomato and alioli and the asparagus were the best dishes.  I just about licked the plates clean!  (I think I would have if it weren’t socially unacceptable…)

After dinner, we walked a few more blocks to Pitango Gelato for dessert.  We bought a large gelato, which allowed us to choose three flavors and then share.  All of their gelato is homemade and it was super creamy.  My mom chose Hazelnut, my dad chose Crema, and I chose Chocolate Hazelnut.  They were all delicious and we had no trouble finishing the cup in no time.

Now, back at the hotel, I am struggling to keep my eyes open, but looking forward to a warm and sunny day!

Goodnight, everyone 🙂