Our last day in Washington DC, and this morning was a swift check out of the hostel. The one negative point of budget travel is some of the sacrifices that you have to make. For example, tonight we were planning on leaving Washington DC on our way to Chicago (with a stop in Cleveland). This meant though that we didn’t have a roof over our 
heads until we next hop on a bus at about 10pm this evening. This is where creative thinking comes in of where to spend the day. We choose to brush up on our American history and head to the Smithsonian American History Museum.
Turns out this museum was easy to spend a full day in, with some fantastic exhibitions including a fascinating look at Abraham Lincoln and even showcasing the famous top hat the president was wearing when he was assassinated. The `America on the Move` exhibit was a favourite, with a great collection of American cars on display. We also made a quick stop at Julia Childs kitchen, as well as joining the line-up of tourists to get a snap of the ruby slippers from `The Wizard of Oz` and also Kermit the frog!
Here`s us thinking that we were going to be hard pressed to fill in the day, but after a visit to the Smithsonian Castle and a walk back to Chinatown, we soon found ourselves on the bus heading north to Cleveland.
So maybe budget travel has its major positives – would we have seen everything we did if we also had nice hotel room?
