Washington, D.C. (on hiatus)

Jack and I have worked our entire lives, paying taxes, paying Social Security, Jack serving in the military, and FINALLY (sort of) retiring. We thought it would be so COOL to finally visit our nation's capital and spend some unhurried time visiting the monuments, museums and seat of government that we have heard and read about all our lives.

It was.

Despite the federal shut-down and lousy weather, we really enjoyed our day in D.C.

Jack & Stacy in front of the  Capital Building

We are staying in a lovely RV park in College Park, Maryland. It is rainy, grey and cold.  We took the train into D.C.. When we got off the train, we went to the Spy Museum which is privately operated and, thus, open. It had its corny spots, but overall it was very interesting, informative and cool.

On our way out through the gift soppy we were approached by a young man with recorder, microphone, etc. He said he was with NPR and asked if he could interview us about how the shutdown was affecting our lives (and our visit to Washington). We said sure, and expressed our disappointment, never thinking it would actually find airtime. But, on the train ride back to College Park Jack got a text from our friend Kar in Portland saying he had just heard us on the radio. At least someone listened!

We wandered around the Capital Mall area and took one of those "hop on/hop off" bus tours. But most of the buildings were closed due to the Federal government's inability to decide on a budget. We were, however, able to sit in the gallery of the House of Representatives, and visit the Supreme Court.

The Capital building through the fog

The Capital, the White House, the Smithsonian and all other museums and monuments were closed.  We talked with several security officers in the Capital and the Supreme Court who are on their 9th day without pay, hoping that they will receive retroactive pay when the government finally gets their act together. We were inconvenienced, but these people were worrying about paying their mortgage.

Barricades, barricades, barricades

Federal workers....these people are not getting paid

The White House (this is as close as we could get)

Down the mall...beautiful!!

The original Smithsonian..."Notes from the Castle"

We hope to be able to go into D.C. one more time before we leave this area to tour around (certainly not INTO) the Lincoln memorial, the Vietnam memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, and the Pentagon.

Although we haven't been able to view a large portion of what is available here, we both agree that our nation's capital is a magnificent city, and we will be back!