Saturday 3rd February, after a hectic week of meetings, conferences and a rather vicious tummy bug, we were pleased to be leaving Baltimore. The much promised freezing weather didn't really materialise, maybe that would have helped kill off a few of the germs :o(

We'll play catch up over the next few days to explain the events of this past week, whilst trying hard to keep everyone up to speed with what we're doing now.

Karen, Caesar and I all travelled to our hotel in Washington DC by a charter shuttle. It was a pleasant enough 55 minute drive, but the irony of the drivers radio blaring "Proud to be an American" while we passed homeless people huddled out in the cold in the suburbs wasn't wasted on us.

After settling in at our new hotel, we took a walk round to the front of The White House, past the National Christmas Tree, the Zero Mile marker, along through the World War 2 Memorial, along the Constitutional Gardens to the Korean War Memorial, The Lincoln Memorial and The Vietnam War Memorial and retraced our steps back towards the hotel. It was a pleasant 3 mile walk until perhaps the last half an hour when we started to feel the cold. We made our final stop at Starbucks for hot chocolate before we returned to the hotel. We treated ourselves to room service for our dinner in the evening and last thing took a pleasant moonlit walk back to see The White House by night while giving Caesar one last toilet opportunity before bed.