Last Virginia Post, maybe

Thinking back, it might have been that I was interested in seeing DC that prompted us to go to Virginia. For me, it was like going to London. Many buildings and monuments are familiar from the news or TV shows and movies, and much of our history and present is tied to events in Washington.

As a federal district, Washington hasn't any representation in Congress or the Senate although it has a municipal government.

Williamsburg is a good distance from Washington which is famous for crazy traffic, so I booked a bus with a transfer in Richmond. By now we knew that I-64 could be a problem and, sure enough, we only just made the connection. I had also booked the hotel, thanks to Tripadvisor which has rarely let us down, the University of George Washington Inn in Foggy Bottom. Who comes up with these names? UGW is known as "the university that ate Foggy Bottom" because it has literally taken over the neighbourhood. It turned out to be a fantastic location: 15 minute walk to the Lincoln Memorial, 5 minutes to the Kennedy Center,

The terrace level of the Kennedy Centre, ENORMOUS (there are people in the picture, so small they are barely visible). There are four small theaters on this level sitting on top of 3 large concert halls on the main floor. 

15 to Dupont Circle, next door to the Department of State (does everyone watch Madame Secretary?), and our hotel was comfortable and quiet.
I had also booked a walking tour, 6 hours that turned into 8 with a 30 minute lunch break, with DC Insiders. Bo, who is a deportation lawyer in real life, is passionate about DC and another of the many story tellers we met. We started at Dupont Circle with a 15 minute history-of-Washington lecture, walked up Embassy Row, across Rock Creek to Georgetown,

A street in Georgetown

past the Washington Harbor development, the Watergate, and the Kennedy Center, to the National Mall, and eventually the White House. It happened to be Easter Sunday and sunny so there were masses of people on the Mall which is a huge green space in the heart of the city, essentially a memorial park.

the Lincoln Memorial is much larger than we thought it would be

Bo in front of the Vietnam Memorial about which he had many stories. The highly reflective stone is meant to connect the present to the past.

The Washington Monument, also huge.

The National Cherry Blossom Festival was on but the winter was so cold and the spring so late there were no cherry blossoms to be seen. The star magnolias were doing their best to put on a show for we tourists but even many of the water features, like the Reflecting Pool on the Mall, had not yet been filled.
Several people assumed we would spend time at the Smithsonian, maybe not realizing how many museums that entails. It would take weeks and we had hours.
Washington is a nice city of neighbourhoods and what we saw felt livable. According to Bo it's had its ups and downs and only 20 years ago was burdened with grime and crime. Today it feels liveable and vibrant and it was a highlight of the trip east for all of us. The "all" of course includes Pat and Ed with whom we often travel, combining a visit and an exploration. For me, the highlight of all our trips is that we get along well enough to spend time together and we'll always have those memories. It would be nice to live closer to each other but we don't so we make the best of it.

in front of the White House

Btw, the bus and train depots are both at Union Station and before we left the station to find our hotel we abandoned our return bus tickets and booked on Amtrak for the return. One train, no transfer and still the train was an hour late getting us back to Williamsburg. I don't know how anyone can plan to be anywhere, especially if you are obsessively punctual like I am.

The train station in Williamsburg

Union Station

Because of the traffic problems I convinced the troops to transition to Richmond on Thursday afternoon instead of driving directly to the airport on Friday morning. Did I say the airport is about 45 minutes from Williamsburg? Our concierge though an hour and a half should do it on a Friday morning but I was anxious about it. Jim says I getting crazier. Friday morning we woke up to dense fog and a cancelled flight. We were standing at the gate counter when the flight was cancelled so got a quick transfer from United/Air Canada to Delta/Alaska and actually got home about 15 minutes earlier than our original schedule. Without luggage of course which showed up 2 days later.

Jim asked me where I want to go next and I answered "home". Repeatedly.