Capital
Jefferson’s’ vision that the capital, all monuments and business buildings (old or new) should be magnificent and hold the spectator in awe, is exactly how he envisioned it.
Washington
Lincoln
MLK
Jefferson
Smithsonian
Quotes which moved us
Thomas Jefferson
Abraham Lincoln
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
National Capital
I can’t imagine how many daily visitors go thru the capital every day it has got to be a lot and the capital really has the tour system down!. You are given a ticket with a time of your tour, then you line up and go into a theatre which has a short video of the capital. Then you get in another line and are given headsets and a guide who then begins the tour. It is a must to go through the capital building when in DC. Then we took another tour of the Senate chambers to see the art work which beauty is beyond explanation.
Library of Congress
Take a tunnel under 1st street from the Capital. Display of most of the books that Jefferson sold to the government to replace those lost when the capital was burned down in 1812. Jefferson had a collection of over 9,000 books and he actually sold these books not out of the goodness of his heart, but because he was in such debt that he saw an opportunity to help relieve some of his debt at the time. Oh Jeffy, the opportunist!
Washington Monument
We got to the monument at 8:15am and stood in line for about 45 minutes to get tickets for 5:30pm ride to top. It was the 1st day that the monument opened after 3 year closure for repairs due to the earthquake which did damage. We understood that some people were in line at 3am!! Anyway, we showed up at 5:30, took the elevator to the top and saw the incredible views of the city. Well worth the wait.
Smithsonian Visitor Center
Went to the original Smithsonian building built in 1820. It is called the Castle.
Supreme Court Building
Ty’s take: lofty values…turned political.
Union Station (no pic)
Actually, a lot of history has passed thru this station. Beautiful bustling building.
Memorials
Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR, JFK, MLK, Korean, Vietnam, WWII
Vietnam where we found Ty’s friend, Dave Drob on the wall – RIP
FDR is a very interesting display as it takes you thru all 3 terms of his presidency. Walls of granite engraved with his quotes.
Korean memorial was eerie; we went at night and it appears the soldiers walking in rice fields.
Tian Tian
Bao Bao
Snow Lepoard
National Zoo
Went early in the morning and we saw the Pandas and the two new baby Snow Leopards playing around.
SpaceStation
Air and Space Museum
I have a NASA Space Station app that alerts me when the space station flies over the area I am in. I love to watch for it. Finally got to see a replica of the station. This place is mammoth, took us all day to go thru.
C&O Towpath and we went POSTAL
After an exhausting week in DC we headed for Brunswick MD to ride the Chesapeake and Ohio Towpath. We saw a local tv special about the C&O Towpath, 185 miles along the Potomac following the canals that were built in the 1800’s. The trail is hard pack dirt, a little rocky on the ride from Great Falls to Georgetown, and smooth sailing on the 10 miles from campground to Harpers Ferry. Alert Anthem bikers: this would be a great bike trip especially in the fall for colors. Fairly flat easy riding. Saw a lot of “bike tour” vans that provided the transportation to and from trails as well as bikes.
First day we rode from Great Falls MD to Georgetown, for 14 miles. Saw a docile deer on the trail that just looked at us and kept on dining. Our intent was to ride to Georgetown, spend the night, ride back. Bad planning as we did not expect Georgetown to be so expensive. One-night stay equals one week stay in campground! And we looked at every app for last minute deals – oh we did find something but it was on the other side of DC another 7 miles. We decided to ride back to Great Falls – total of 28 miles not exactly what we had in mind. Now Great Falls is 45-minute car ride we looked for a place to stay, eat and celebrate our 49th anniversary. Landed at William Bolger Learning Center, in Potomac, a training center for postal workers. Beautiful grounds for the post office; turns out it use to be a convent.
By the way, the ride along the towpath is beautiful as it has the Potomac on one side and the now defunct canals on the other side. The miles and miles of canals were dug and used for shipping getting the boats up the river where the river isn’t navigable. The Potomac has lots of falls, it drops something like 80 feet on its way to the ocean and in some spots very rocky, hence the need to canals. Once the trains came in the canals were no longer needed. Now they make wonderful bike, hike rides and in many spots, you can still see the locks and the lock keepers’ homes. The National Park Service even rents out some of the houses for those riding or biking the path.
Harpers Ferry
Next day we rode 20 miles round trip from camp. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. Washington thought this was the perfect spot for gun making. Never did figure out why, if it was the medal in the rock or what. Much of the information kept talking about the location on water source to power the machinery also this being a hub of the industrial revolution (for gun production).
The big happening, of course, is John Brown’s insurgence. Right idea, too soon and not enough support. Harpers Ferry at the time had a mix of free and not free slaves. Interesting note: wherever we have been the slave population has always been called “enslaved population” At HF it was always referred to as free slaves and slaves. Whatever the term, slavery was and is evil.
C&O Canal
towpath
HarperFerrytunnel
COlock
metroescalator
Mastered the Metro – Thank Goodness for Scooters
The Metro is amazing!! All the people, trains every couple of minutes, the escalators out (or in depending) are mammoth – we learned quickly to stand to the right and the yougin’ in a hurry pass you by. Our campground was 9 miles from the Metro train station and had a nightly “class” on how to read the metro map, the sightseeing map, and the metro bus map. Why couldn’t at least the sightseeing map and metro bus map be combined – ah well, just more to confuse the tourist. Being the navigator, I really got the hang of reading all three and figuring out which stop to get off or on at…Ty learned to just go where I directed him. Something to be said for 49 years of marriage. AND being a Senior, we rode for ½ price.
Never again will I scoff at all these scooters all around since we are now scootering EXPERTS!!!! Touring around DC requires a LOT of walking, standing, shuffling, and not much sitting down. First day we walked from place to place and I noticed all these scooters around and old geezesr riding them. On the second day we downloaded the apps and off we went! What a foot saver and only 25cents a minute, you can get a long way for 25cents.!
campview
Campground
DC: Cherry Hill RV Park – no big deal place other than it is close to the Metro AND they provided a “how to tour DC” class plus they have bus tours that are very well done. We took the evening tour of the Monuments.
Brunswick Family Campground: right on the Potomac River and the C&O Towpath. Electric and water only.
Animals/Insects
Spider vs Stink Bug – bug is all wrapped up. Shot this pic in afternoon, but the evening all was gone!
spiderstinkbug
Editor Correction:
All these tall statues are beginning to look alike! In the last issue, the picture of the statue identified as Jefferson it is NOT as the inscription below the statue reads:”George Washington”
