Tag Archives: Washington Monument

Last Day in DC

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Sunset on the Mall - Washington Monument and the Smithsonian Castle

Sunset on the Mall – Washington Monument and the Smithsonian Castle

This was our last day in DC. We checked out, but left our bags at the hotel, leaving us free and unencumbered to play tourist for one more day. Today’s destination was Georgetown. We took Metro to Foggy Bottom, which if I remember correctly from my Little Abner is where the state department usually hangs out. Funny how Americans like to take their political news with a liberal dash of humor. It used to be from the funny pages, with the likes of Little Abner, Pogo and Doonesbury. Nowadays, we rely more on late night TV, what with Jon Stewart and his kin. We had breakfast near there at a nice little patisserie called Bread and Chocolate and then walked into Georgetown proper, which is sort of the college district in DC. We started with the Old Stone House, the only surviving pre-Revolutionary building still standing in Washington. We also saw the C&O Canal. Anne wants to bicycle its towpath, like some of our bike buddies have done. The high point of the day and also the highest point that we hiked to was Dumbarton Oaks. It had a relatively small museum, but also a very well-appointed collection of antiquities, from both the old world and new. We also toured its gardens, which represents the only sight that we have had to pay a fee for all week. We hiked for just a bit in Rock Creek Park, but got lost again. We were really getting a little tired of always getting lost, but we ended up on Embassy Row, which was more than consolation. We saw dozens of embassy, both big and small, as we marched down Connecticut Avenue to DuPont Circle. We grabbed a quick late lunch there before we ran to the train and caught the next arriving train with just a minute to spare. The turnaround at the hotel was equally efficient and we arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. And guess what? Our next door neighbors were waiting there at the gate for us to go home too. Joanie was kind enough to pick us up.

In Memorial

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Washington Monument and the Capitol Through the Columns of the Lincoln Memorial

Washington Monument and the Capitol Through the Columns of the Lincoln Memorial

On our first full day in Washington DC, we found a pastry shop nearby in Crystal City to start with. In Crystal City it is all office buildings and hotels above ground, but below ground are rather extensive malls connected by tunnels. We took Metro again to the Mall downtown. Yesterday’s icy wind had died down and it was rather pleasant out. So, we decided to spend more of the day outside. We rented bikes from a Capitol Bike-Share kiosk. We used a similar system before, in Montréal. They are kind of clunky compared to our own sweet mounts, but they were serviceable and way more convenient to find in DC. We rode from the Smithsonian castle to the Lincoln Memorial and then from there to the Jefferson Memorial. The trick of this system is to keep your rides to less than thirty minutes. If you go over thirty there is a surcharge, but if you stay under than you continue to ride at no extra charge. Along the way we stopped at the Washington Monument, the WW II, Korea and the Vietnam Memorials. We hoofed it from the Jefferson Memorial to the Holocaust Memorial and had lunch at the café there. This pretty much completed our circuit of the Tidal Basin. We toured the American History Museum and viewed the Whitehouse, before taking the train back to Virginia. We had Ethiopian for dinner, which was very good.