Washington, D.C.

Tues., Oct. 19, 2021 thru Sat., Oct. 23, 2021

Tuesday we left Virginia and headed 90 miles east to land at Cherry Hill Park in College Park, MD. We had an appointment to drop Gary’s truck off for an oil change nearby so we got set-up at the campground, had lunch, and Cheryl & Joe drove us over to drop off our truck. Then the four of us did some grocery shopping before we left the boys to unpack groceries and Cheryl & I headed over to the daily concierge talk at the campground at 4PM.  Who says you’re not on a schedule when you’re retired??? We were able to purchase metro tickets, get information on the bus schedule, and have questions answered. Cherry Hill Park is the closest campground to D.C., and they do an excellent job of helping you get acclimated to the area. 

The next day, Wednesday, we all set our alarms to wake up early. I was actually up to see sunrise! Very rare for me. We were able to catch the bus from the campground to take us to the metro station. Only hiccup is that D.C. has a shortage of bus drivers so the earlier bus never showed, and we had to wait another hour for the next one. That posed a problem as the original plan was to visit the Library of Congress for a 10:45 timed entry. Barb, the concierge person, has an “office” at the bus depot at the campground. I said “what do you think… will we make it?” She said it’ll be close. To be on the safe side, I snagged tickets that Barb had downloaded for a noon entry into the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture.  This is one of the newest museums in D.C. We wanted to go to that anyway but weren’t able to get advance tickets. If the Library of Congress doesn’t work out, we have a back-up plan. 

Forgot to mention, Cheryl is flying solo with us today. She and Joe had a “check engine” light go off on their brand new 2021 truck and Joe had to take that to a local dealership to have it looked at. 

In addition to a shortage of bus drivers, this week half the trains are out of commission because of a derailment in D.C. last week and the ongoing investigation. Soooo our public transit adventure lasted for almost 3 hours. We finally had to forget the Library of Congress as 10:45 came and went. Although one positive experience from all that was we visited Union Station as that was one of our metro stops. Reminds me very much of Grand Central Station in NY. Beautiful. Thank goodness it was never torn down. 

The three of us finally made it to the African American Museum. The three floors below ground talk about slavery and segregation in a compelling way. One graphic showed the name of the slave ship, the country where it originated, and the number of slaves that boarded the ship and the number that survived. Most died in route. Extraordinarily sad. There was also a sculpture of Thomas Jefferson with bricks behind him denoting his 609 slaves. Twelve of the first 18 American presidents owned slaves. The museum also had the Greensboro Lunch Counter on display. The upper floors then move on to the accomplishments of African Americans in military service, sports, and the arts to name a few. The result is that you are uplifted by the stories of perseverance and advancement. I particularly enjoyed the “Cultural Expressions” display. You’re surrounded by screens of the African American experience. Awesome museum. It’s extremely well done. We highly recommend seeing it if you get the opportunity.

After our museum experience, we then had to high tail back to the campground via public transit because we all had tickets for a night tour of the monuments. Thankfully mass transit was working a little better in the afternoon so we returned in a more timely manner than we started. We did have one situation on the metro where Gary was approached for money by a young black teen. Gary did not engage and the kid ended up going away but not before he reached over and tilted Gary’s baseball cap down. I don’t recall anything like that happening the last time we were riding D.C. metros 2 1/2 years ago. Sign of our unsettled times perhaps? 

Upon our return to the campground, Joe had adult beverages waiting for us and Cheryl had dinner for the four of us… leftovers of their previous night’s lemon piccata, which was delicious! Joe had a positive experience at the dealership and the “check engine” light was able to be fixed while he waited.

After dinner we boarded the bus with about 40 others all masked up and headed off for our Night Tour of the Monuments. We passed by some beautiful historic upscale row houses near the Capitol. The tour guide explained the houses were built tall and skinny as a way for the owners to pay less in taxes (less land). Always gets back to money doesn’t it no matter the time period.

Throughout the evening we kept noticing helicopters flying low over the National Mall area. Turns out Biden was returning to the White House. Don’t see that every day! In addition, all the flags were at half staff because of the death of Colin Powell. There were several wreaths at the Vietnam Memorial in his honor. 

Throughout the evening our tour guide, John, shared D.C. factoids. Here are a few in no particular order:

• The National Mall was actually a real mall back in the day where goods could be purchased.
• MLK’s monument cost $16,000,000 to create and it is striking. The theme of the memorial is from his “I Have A Dream Speech” where he says “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.” 
• The Lincoln Memorial is built to look like the Parthenon. There are 36 columns for the 36 states when Lincoln was President. 
• There are 58,395 names at the Vietnam Memorial. You can’t help but be moved when you walk through it. 
• To us the WWII Memorial appears to be the largest in D.C., which is appropriate. There is a wall of stars as part of the memorial. Each star represents 100 American lives lost or missing and there are 4,048 stars in total. The loss of life and missing Americans during WWII totaled 405,900. It is second only to the loss of life during the Civil War of 620,000. No words. The WWII memorial is absolutely beautiful. 
• The first cherry blossoms were planted in 1912 around the tidal pool. 

It was a very enjoyable evening. We headed out at 5:30 from the campground and returned around 10pm. We visited the Capitol (from the outside), White House (from the outside), Washington Monument (you see it everywhere), Jefferson Memorial, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Memorial (which is also quite large and appropriate since he died in office during his 4th term), Martin Luther King Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the WWII Memorial. An awesome night. 

Thursday we all visited the International Spy Museum. This one was not a Smithsonian museum so we had to pay for it. What can I say. It had information on actual spies and their exploits, tools of the trade, and showed the progression of spying from early days of the Revolutionary War to present day. You can even test your skills by taking on the persona of a spy. I was a dancer (fat chance!) and my password was “cucumber.” Go figure! There are kiosks at different locations to test your spy skills. Problem was the kiosks were in high demand with waiting lines. We very quickly decided to let our spy persona go and just focus on the exhibits. However, it really was fascinating to see the actual tools of the trade and hear real spy stories and not the James Bond stuff. 

Considering the fact that we made several wrong turns walking to the Spy Museum from the metro stop, we all decided we’d suck at spying. Interesting museum with some definite information overload! Afterwards Gary & I needed to head back to pick up our truck since the oil change was done so we split from Cheryl & Joe. 

We had our first Uber experience from the train station to the truck dealership. Worked great! Technology is amazing! And all good with the truck. No surprises.

Friday, we had a lazy morning then headed into DC with Cheryl & Joe at noon and visited the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum for a few hours. Cool historic building and interesting displays of bones… lots of them… and gems which were amazing. They have one of the largest gem collections in the world with over 7,000 pieces including the Hope Diamond. Awesome to see the gems… and the dinosaurs. 

We then had a timed entry for the National Archives. We saw the originals of the Magna Carta (1219), the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights. A remarkable experience to see the documents that our country was founded upon. Quite humbling. The rotunda where they are stored is beautiful. No photos allowed. Sorry. They are held in beautiful cases that felt ice cold. All temperature controlled. With Covid still around, they are limiting the number of people inside. On the plus side, we could get up close and personal and take our time reviewing all the documents which was awesome. We were told by some of the guards that typically you can’t get this close. Too many people.  On the down side, some of the hands- on exhibits in the National Archives were closed because of Covid. As with most things in life, there are trade offs. No complaints. We’re always happy with whatever we’re able to see. 

Afterwards we made the trek back to the metro, stopping to see a few things along the way…. where President Lincoln died, which was a house located across the street from the Ford Theatre. The Old Post Office Building (now leased as a Trump International Hotel) which has commanding views of the city if you go up to the top. It’s closed now because of Covid. We were fortunate to have visited several years ago. We also stumbled upon a building that was built in 1902, the original “Woodies” Department Store. It’s considered a striking example of the Guilded Age in D.C. with its ornate cast iron details which in recent years have been painstakingly cleaned and painted in whimsical colors of the period. Very unique!

You’d think with 4 of us we could accurately read bus signage. Not so much. We got off the metro and were so excited to see the #83 bus to take us back to the campground that we neglected to notice it was going in the opposite direction. Let’s just say we got back later than planned! Luckily we were only about 10 minutes into the trip when we put this together, but then had to get off that bus, cross the street and wait for another one to come along. Ugh. Adult beverages were very late that night! 

Our last day in DC (Saturday, 10/23), was spent at the National Zoo! Our first ever visit! Most of the photos below are compliments of Gary. A neat experience. 

We’ve had a wonderful stay here. Each time we come to D.C. we see different things. They all make you proud to be an American. It really is a special place… the monuments and memorials are amazing, there are over 17 Smithsonian Museums to explore, the Capitol, the National Mall, Arlington National Cemetery, and on and on. And almost all attractions are free for citizens and international visitors alike. Plus the city is easy to navigate using mass transit… you just have to build in extra time to reach your destination. But mass transit is a novelty for those of us not using it every day! Goodbye DC. Until next time… 

Next stop Stacie & Johnny’s house in North Carolina.