Back to DC !!! (October 17-20)

As we hunkered down in Virginia Beach last week, and as the government ground its way to whatever the #&%*%$  they finally came up with, we decided to roll back up I-95, and try D.C. again. What the heck! We're retired!

We found a beautiful campground, this time a regional park south of Arlington in Virginia near Mount Vernon. A little farther out than before, but a much more peaceful setting.

We spent Friday and Saturday in Washington, D.C. We had planned to spend a few more days here, but circumstances (darn them!) conspired once again to keep us away. This time it wasn't the government. The campground's water system failed due to a power pole going down on the road leading into the park. No water. No toilets. We left.

BUT...before all that happened, we had a great time exploring our nation's capitol.  Our photos are limited though , since many of the sites restrict photography, and what we took didn't turn out very well. Here's a brief, abridged recap:

On Thursday, we drove to Mount Vernon, which was only about 20 minutes from our campsite.

Mt. Vernon, overlooking the Potomac River 

George and Martha, and their grandchildren (oh, and Stacy)

On Friday, we went through the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, which was awesome! From Leonardo Da Vinci's conceptual sketches, to the Space Shuttle...wow! (No photos, sorry.)

Then we took a tour of the Capitol Building: interesting, but sort of frustrating because there were so many tours taking place at one time that we were sort of rushed from one very interesting place to the next. Still, we were impressed at how incredibly beautiful our Capitol Building is.

A gorgeous day, and a gorgeous Capitol Building

We walked over the the Library of Congress, and wandered through the various displays there.

Library of Congress

We ended our day with dinner at Old Ebbitts Grill, an historic establishment near the White House where the powerful hang out. (We had a great meal, but did not see anyone we knew.)

On Saturday, we started at the Lincoln Memorial, which gave us both chills.

We made our way down the mall to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and to the World War II Memorial. There were many veterans present from both wars. Jack and I both had tears in our eyes to think of the thousands of war dead over the course of our country's history.

Vietnam War Memorial bronze 

Vietnam Nurse's Memorial statue

WW II Memorial

We then went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. What a collection of STUFF! It was great.

By this time, we had tuckered ourselves out, so we headed back to camp.

As much as we would have liked one more day in D.C., we feel so blessed to have been able to see what we did. Both of us agree that every American should be incredibly proud of how breathtakingly beautiful our nation's Capitol is.