Friday April 10th This morning we headed straight to the Botanical Gardens. Washington is already covered in gorgeous spring time flowers as well as the lovely Cherry blossom trees that seemed to be everywhere. The Botanical Gardens were still a treat. Rooms of beautiful flowers of many species, Some rooms were set up more like rain forrests with water spraying for the ceiling at intervals. The building is bright like large green houses joined together. I loved seeing a tiny pineapple growing. Jan and I were experimenting taking macro pictures. It was hot enough in there to just wear tshirts. The many Orchids were stunning too. We continued across the mall, past some protesters about Taiwan, to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. This huge museum is filled with air craft, space craft and science about planets and such. Well we saw one of the backup command modules for the moon landing. Lots of planes, including the spirit of Saint Louis. I absolutely loved the satellites. We saw a model of the mars rover, I was surprised how big it was. We even touched some moon rock on our way out. There's a huge fast food outlet at the air and space museum where we had lunch, sharing rasberry fizzy drink too. We made our way up to the front of the White House. It was pretty cool, I wondered why there was no traffic down there and why there were so many police officers. I noticed a protest but we doubt that was why as the Anti Nuclear protest had been there since the 1980s. We walked around the blocks, and at the back we saw people setting up for the easter egg hunt among the gorgeous spring trees. We walked home via the Treasury, and we stopped in at a white house store at a shopping center and bought some souvenirs. Back at Union Square we grabbed a bunch of sushi which we ate back in our room. We finished up the night sharing some space ice cream for desert.