CPAP therapy night 2. The vendor app didn't register my first night, for no apparent reason - maybe it thought it was a "test drive"? - so only as of this morning did I get my "one night" badge. :p

A little muggy and overcast for the Arboretum, so we went with a backup plan: the Spy Museum.
1. X8 to Columbus Circle, short walk to the E St NE / NMS (National Mall Circulator stop)
2. 2 Circulator buses arrived at very close to the same time
3. The driver of the bus we chose didn't explain very coherently which stops were closed for a filming event, but I was pretty sure from what I overheard from another passenger that it was stops "2" and "15" (where the route splits into a circuit on 3rd St NE).
4. Gauging by the emptiness of the L'Engant Plaza food court / mall area, we assumed The Spy Museum would not have a long wait. We were wrong; but we were lucky to get a pair of tickets for 2:45 instead of the 3:45ish the greeter initially told us.
5. The food court afforded us a fair choice: Mamma Pizza, Basic Burger, DC Dogs, Charley's Cheesesteaks, Sbarros failed semblance of pizza, Subway (which Mrs still derides with "yoga mat" references despite that fact they stopped using azodicarbonamide years before we met and completely phased out over 10 years ago in April 2014, and ignoring the fact that McDo, CFA, Wendy's, Ball Park, Jimmy Dean, Little Debbie, Pillsbury, Sara Lee, Smucker's, Tyson and Wonder were all using it too), etc. We went with cheesesteaks. Jalapeno is the perfect add-on.
6. The Hilton didn't seem to care that we were not actual lodging guests, so we soaked up air conditioning there that was so lacking in the food court. This was the oasis to find Starbuck's and overpriced headeache remedies from their snack/convenience nook.
7. I dunno about $35 a head worth but the Spy Museum was pretty fun and interesting for a 3 hour tour.
8. If we entered at 2:45 and spent 3 hours then we exited at 5:45, right? So we strolled up L'Enfant Plaza, through the Energy Dept nuclear security building archway, past the "Cthonodynamis" sculpture, across Independence Ave, through the Haupt Garden and onto Jefferson Dr. This was where the NM[S] Circulator was supposed to pick us up.
9. After waiting 10? 15? minutes, Mrs decided we should go wait at the stop we had gotten off at in the morning, between the Washington Monument and Holocaust Museum. There, watched 3 buses southbound on 15th turn east onto Jefferson Dr instead of contonuing straight to our stop. So we went back to the Jefferson/12th stop amd waited another 15?20? minutes.
10. With no buses arriving at the later stops, we headed across the National Mall, past the national embarrassment known as "David's Tent", to wait at the 12th and Madison stop for another 30 minutes. At this point I think the N.M. Circulator buses must have stopped running entirely.
11. At 7:45 we ordered a Lyft, since even if we got to Union Station, X8 service had already ended for the day at 7pm.

Mixed Mrs a G+T and myself a martini while we started watching "Axel F" and waited for salumi [sic] and meatball pizzas from Mozzeria.