We went to see the President but only got to see his White House…

When the weather here in the Shenandoah Valley finally got warmer and the rain subsided it was time for us to make a road trip to our nation’s capital Washington DC. Sharon had never been to DC before so it was time for me to take her to see all the sights. As for me I had lived in DC way, way back in the late 60’s so I too was anxious to see how much it had changed.

              

Our plan was to drive the hour and fifteen minutes over to the Fairfax\Vienna Metro Station and catch the tram to DC. We left the Shenandoah Valley near 8:30 and got to the Metro by 9:45… so all was going well until we tried to park in the garage. Both parking garages were full as we drove around for about 15 minutes trying to secure a spot… Yikes!!! Next we tried to find a metered spot and when we finally did we didn’t have enough quarters to pay for the time we needed. Arghhhh!!! So we walked to the Metro Station to get change and there was no where we could get change… #$$@$^&…

We asked one of the Metro employees what we should do and he said if it were him he drive four miles further to the West Fall Church Metro Station. Now that appealed to me since that is where I lived way, way, back in the late 60’s. Four miles down the road we pulled in only to find another full parking garage but the overflow parking lot had a few spots. Hooray!!! We paid the $4.50 to park, walked to the Metro, paid $6.05 round trip, then boarded the Metro and finally got to DC at the Foggy Bottom Metro Station just after 10:30. We had a lot of ground to cover after this late start.

I had plotted a 9 mile walk around all the hot spots of DC so we would be mostly just looking and not doing much dawdling. First stop was the Lincoln Memorial and the first disappointment we had was that the reflecting pond was completely dug up and being rebuilt. We walked to the Korean Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, MLK Memorial, and Holocaust Memorial. We saw the Smithsonian Museum, Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Memorial, the Capital Building and the White House. It was a bit disappointing seeing all the cranes and fences surrounding various buildings and monuments but then we remembered that there was a lot of damage caused by the recent quake here.

After 5 hours of walking and touring we were pretty tired puppies so we made our way back over to the Metro Station and caught the next Tram out of town. Then after returning to our car we got to experience a little of the DC rush hour since we didn’t leave till 4:30 pm. But despite our trials and tribulations and minor disappointments our visit to DC was all well worth it…

       

Sharon commented that DC memorials and buildings were much bigger than she ever imagined. As for me, I couldn’t believe how much DC had grown since I had lived out in the sticks known as Falls Church, VA which in the late 60’s was a good 10 minute drive from DC.

Today we will leave the Shenandoah Valley and go to Norfolk, VA for a few days where we will stay at our friend’s house while our motorhome gets the oil changed and fluids checked. Hope she gets a good checkup…