6-26-10 Saturday (Please Don’t Touch The White House)

The gang headed into DC via cars for our 9 am White House tour.  Luckily parking in the area wasn’t as difficult as we were prepared for.  With extra time at hand we stopped at a Subway for breakfast.

  Above: Laurie stays connected via her iPhone.

Onward to the White House!  White House tours have to be reserved well in advance.  It takes contacting your Senator’s office to coordinate a tour.  Once we went through various security check points, we were in!  No photos were permitted.  We walked through or past several rooms reading information boards.  Tim touched the walls in one room and was scolded.  I had to put that in the blog because it became a running joke for several days.  The walls he touched weren’t traditional.  They were made by fabric stretched between wood frames instead of drywall.  Tim saw the abnormalities and investigated with his fingers.  Bad Tim, bad.  No damage was done.

After the White house tour we made our way (or tried) to the Capitol. 

Above: Pearl answers that ever so important question – how the hell do we get there?

 

Above: Tim says, “Let me know when you’ve figured it out.  I’ll wait.”

 Above: Tim and Jim at the Metro station.

Above: Laurie & Pearl at the Metro station.

Above: Tim – that’s our train!

Above: Pearl & Laurie ON the Metro.

Above: Tim & Carl.

Above: Tim & Carl.

Above: Pearl & Laurie.  We made it!

We missed our appointed tour time but were still able to get in!  We were able to take photos here.  Beautiful.  I must say – personally, I think the Capitol has got it goin’ on. 

Above: Jim and Garret at the Capitol!

  Above: Jim stands on the 4 quadrants of the Capitol.

 

We departed DC.  Jim and I returned to the RV while the rest of the gang napped.  Later we met at TGI Friday’s for dinner and then drove back into DC to see the various memorials and monuments at night.

Above/Below: Lincoln Memorial 

Above: Washington Monument.

Above: Korean War Memorial.

Above: World War 2 Memorial. 

We saw more than I photographed but the darkness made for poor quality in some cases.

So what about Weight Watchers point break downs?  Well, I just haven’t had the time.  Looking up foods is time consuming.  I’ve been doing salads and chicken as possible.  I’ve made good choices.  The points will have to wait until after this trip.  I can’t keep up.

We strolled around an old village.  We then went for lunch and off to some water gardens.  We actually spotted an old Cadillac with cattle horns.  Next off to the stockyards.  Damn it was hot!  See it all here.

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6-25-10 Friday (Companions)

We drove to Chantilly, VA to catch a tour at the Air and Space Museum, Udvar-Hazy Center.  This is part of the Smithsonian and noted as the “companion facility to museum on the National Mall.”  It was an hour drive there.  As with all Smithsonian museums, it was free except we had to pay $15 to park.

Above: Jim pays attention to the docent while I, well…

Above: The real Enola Gay.

 

 

Above: A view from some observation tower.  It wasn’t exciting at all/  There’s the Jeep above the “GARRET” in the lower right hand corner.

 Above: This place is huge!

 

 

 

 

It took an hour to get to the museum and 2 hours to get back.  Ugh.  We returned to the RV to host dinner with the rest of the gang who had just flown in this afternoon.

Above: Pearl (L) and Laurie (R).

Above: Jim and Carl.

Steaks on the grill.  Fresh broccoli, baked potatoes.  Wine.  Mmmmmm.  And yes, I’m still on Weight Watchers, counting points, just not posting tonights.  I’m falling behind on the blogging.

I marvel at the large selection of costume jewelry at Walmart.  3 stars have died within a week last year.  Read about it here.

6-24-10 Thursday (Things To Hope For)

As now seems typical, we got up early and headed into DC via the Metro.  We wanted to catch a 10am guided tour at the Museum of Natural History.  The tour guide was full of information but hard to hear.  Her amplifying gizmo didn’t work.  She took us through several exhibits giving us tidbits of information not found on the signs.  We’ll be back with the rest of the gang later this week.

  Above/Below: Hope Diamond stuff.

 Above: Jim and I have seen this kind of squirrel.  We cherish our RV journey!

Above: Don’t worry Jim, the dinosaur looks dead.

Above: The tour guide, Jim and the remainder of our group.

We’re going where next?  A postal museum?  Zzzzzzzzzz.  (It actually turned out to be interesting).

Above: Jim checks out the map and the itinerary.  A tour starts soon at the National Postal Museum!

 

Above: A fully restored lobby.

 

 

 

Above: The Hope Diamond was mailed to the museum in 1958.  This was the wrapper!

 

 

 

At 3pm there was a river boat tour we were going to take but travelling via bus isn’t always very fast.  We had to skip the 3 o’clock but we did make it for the 4 o’clock. 

Above: On the bus (The Circulator).

  Above: Here comes our boat.

Above: Jim in the plaza at the river.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above: The Watergate.

Via busses and the Metro, we returned back to the RV to walk Dasher.  Off to the Potbelly Sandwich Shop for dinner.  It was good.  We’d eat at one again.  Turns out it’s a local franchise.

After dinner we went grocery shopping at a non-super Walmart and then a local supermarket chain called “Shopper”.  We picked up all the dinner supplies for the 2 dinners we’ll be hosting with the gang over the next few days. 

Oh and today was a weigh-in day.  No loss but on the bright side, no gain either:   

 

Ah, a restaurant that surely helped put on weight.  Of course it was what we ordered.  We took a tour of a famous 80’s night-time drama TV show’s house.  Interested?  See it here.

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