Day Two: The Tourmobile
This was our first day in the Big City! We left Curtis & Lindsay's house and drove back to I-66 and followed the signs to the Vienna Metro Station, which was the closest metro to their house, about an hour & 15 minute drive with traffic. After we figured out where to park, we set off to figure out how to use the metro. I looked at the sign for about one minute and then went immediately to the booth to ask one of the workers for help. He explained things quickly and we were able to get on our way. I found that if I ever needed an answer to any question, the people & even the 
tourists in DC were all very helpful.
We rode the orange line to Rosslyn, switched to the blue line, and rode to Arlington Cemetery. When we got there, it was just starting to rain. I had planned to buy Tourmobile tickets for that day -- a bus that takes you through Arlington Cemetery, then around Washington DC to the various sites and you can get off at the stops and explore and then get back on another bus, or just stay on the bus and listen to the history that they told you as you were driving to each stop. Buses came to the stops every 20 minutes so it was a very quick way to
get to see everything in one day, although I did things backwards of how I should have. The tour bus stops going around DC at 4:30 (I'm sure because of Rush Hour traffic), but they continue with the Arlington tours until 7 o'clock, so we should have saved that for last. Oh well! By the time we got to the ticket booth, however, it was pouring rain and they had suspended selling tickets or doing tours. So we waited inside the Arlington Cemetery visitor's center for about 30 minutes waiting for the thunder, lightning, and rain to subside. After that, we bought tickets and headed out on the tour of Arlington Cemetery.
First we went to the Eternal Flame & Kennedys' graves. Then we went to the Changing of the Guards. We also went to Arlington House and Tomb of the Unknowns. As we were driving back to the visitor's center, Lizzie dropped her sipper cup and it went sliding off the bus into the road. We didn't stop for another mile, so there was no way I was going
to venture back to try to find the cup! So Lizzie's sipper cup is somewhere in the middle of Arlington Cemetery.
After we finished the tour, we hopped on a bus headed to DC. We were on there with a group of about 50 people who all had on shirts say
ing they were celebrating the 50th anniversary of their parents/grandparents/great-grandparents. I thought that was neat. They were all black and I don't know how thrilled they were to have us join their tour bus (none of them said anything to us until we got off at the next stop and left the camera sitting on the seat -- then the lady in the seat across the aisle from us told me that I was forgetting my camera!).
We went to the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, drove past the White House, some of the Smithsonian museums, the National Postal Museum, Union Station, and the Capitol Building, and then got out at the Air & Space Museum. I was determined to get my money's worth for the tourbus tickets (especially since we'd wasted a half hour due to rain), so I thought we could just eat snacks out of the diaper bag instead of stopping for lunch. But by now it was 2 p.m. and I
was absolutely STARVING! I thought I was going to pass out, so we went to the hot dog vendor in front of the Air & Space museum and I bought the hot dogs and Cameron bought us each a cold lemonade. I am telling you -- a hot dog never tasted so good! That was the only hot dog we had on our DC trip and it is a hot dog worth remembering. We went in the museum quickly so I could feed Lizzie while he looked around a little bit. I kept reminding him that we'd be coming back the next day so not to worry about seeing everything while I fed Lizzie.
Then we got on the tour bus again. We drove past the Holocaust Museum, Bureau of Printing & Engraging, Washington Monument, Jefferon Memorial, FDR Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and back to Arlington Cemetery. I didn't dare get out of the bus at the Jefferson or FDR Memorials because I was afraid we wouldn't be able to get back on one and I didn't know the city well enough to try and find a different metro than the one we'd come in on, so I was sad that I only got to see the Jefferson Memorial from the road, and the FDR Memorial wasn't even visible from the road (it is all on one level, since he was in a wheel chair, it is all wheel chair accessible. I will have to see the FDR Memorial at another trip to DC! We rode the bus back to Arlington Cemetery and then rode the metro back to the car, and drove to Gainesville, where we got off the freeway and ate dinner at Ihop. We also stopped at Target to get Lizzie a new sipper cup and Cameron a toothbrush and toothpaste.
I thought of family members as we drove past Gainesville, Haymarket, and Manassas. Virginia sure is beautiful! It is so green and has lots of open space. I noticed a difference when we went to Maryland and it was extremely crowded with people & cars. I guess spots in Virginia are like that too, but not in Front Royal where Curtis & Lindsay live. I noticed that the crowds, the traffic, the heat, and the humidity were all not nearly as bad as I thought they were going to be! It wasn't nearly as hot or humid as Nauvoo was. It rained a lot while we were there, and there were thunderstorms, which even put the power out during the night one night. I really enjoyed being there, although I wouldn't want to live there all the time. I can understand why Curtis & Lindsay are excited to leave and move to Arizona. He had to drive a long way to get to work every day and things are so spread out, and traffic isn't desirable. Plus the rain would get old after awhile.
We left Gainesville and drove back to Lindsay's house. Curtis was still out of town, so we visited with Lindsay and the girls for a while and then went to bed. I felt like I knew my way around DC and the metro well enough that we'd be fine all week. In fact, now I feel like I could go back to DC all by myself and be totally fine and look forward to doing that someday (I suppose James could tag along if he wanted to). :)
tourists in DC were all very helpful.We rode the orange line to Rosslyn, switched to the blue line, and rode to Arlington Cemetery. When we got there, it was just starting to rain. I had planned to buy Tourmobile tickets for that day -- a bus that takes you through Arlington Cemetery, then around Washington DC to the various sites and you can get off at the stops and explore and then get back on another bus, or just stay on the bus and listen to the history that they told you as you were driving to each stop. Buses came to the stops every 20 minutes so it was a very quick way to
get to see everything in one day, although I did things backwards of how I should have. The tour bus stops going around DC at 4:30 (I'm sure because of Rush Hour traffic), but they continue with the Arlington tours until 7 o'clock, so we should have saved that for last. Oh well! By the time we got to the ticket booth, however, it was pouring rain and they had suspended selling tickets or doing tours. So we waited inside the Arlington Cemetery visitor's center for about 30 minutes waiting for the thunder, lightning, and rain to subside. After that, we bought tickets and headed out on the tour of Arlington Cemetery.
First we went to the Eternal Flame & Kennedys' graves. Then we went to the Changing of the Guards. We also went to Arlington House and Tomb of the Unknowns. As we were driving back to the visitor's center, Lizzie dropped her sipper cup and it went sliding off the bus into the road. We didn't stop for another mile, so there was no way I was going
to venture back to try to find the cup! So Lizzie's sipper cup is somewhere in the middle of Arlington Cemetery.After we finished the tour, we hopped on a bus headed to DC. We were on there with a group of about 50 people who all had on shirts say
ing they were celebrating the 50th anniversary of their parents/grandparents/great-grandparents. I thought that was neat. They were all black and I don't know how thrilled they were to have us join their tour bus (none of them said anything to us until we got off at the next stop and left the camera sitting on the seat -- then the lady in the seat across the aisle from us told me that I was forgetting my camera!).We went to the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, drove past the White House, some of the Smithsonian museums, the National Postal Museum, Union Station, and the Capitol Building, and then got out at the Air & Space Museum. I was determined to get my money's worth for the tourbus tickets (especially since we'd wasted a half hour due to rain), so I thought we could just eat snacks out of the diaper bag instead of stopping for lunch. But by now it was 2 p.m. and I
was absolutely STARVING! I thought I was going to pass out, so we went to the hot dog vendor in front of the Air & Space museum and I bought the hot dogs and Cameron bought us each a cold lemonade. I am telling you -- a hot dog never tasted so good! That was the only hot dog we had on our DC trip and it is a hot dog worth remembering. We went in the museum quickly so I could feed Lizzie while he looked around a little bit. I kept reminding him that we'd be coming back the next day so not to worry about seeing everything while I fed Lizzie.Then we got on the tour bus again. We drove past the Holocaust Museum, Bureau of Printing & Engraging, Washington Monument, Jefferon Memorial, FDR Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and back to Arlington Cemetery. I didn't dare get out of the bus at the Jefferson or FDR Memorials because I was afraid we wouldn't be able to get back on one and I didn't know the city well enough to try and find a different metro than the one we'd come in on, so I was sad that I only got to see the Jefferson Memorial from the road, and the FDR Memorial wasn't even visible from the road (it is all on one level, since he was in a wheel chair, it is all wheel chair accessible. I will have to see the FDR Memorial at another trip to DC! We rode the bus back to Arlington Cemetery and then rode the metro back to the car, and drove to Gainesville, where we got off the freeway and ate dinner at Ihop. We also stopped at Target to get Lizzie a new sipper cup and Cameron a toothbrush and toothpaste.
I thought of family members as we drove past Gainesville, Haymarket, and Manassas. Virginia sure is beautiful! It is so green and has lots of open space. I noticed a difference when we went to Maryland and it was extremely crowded with people & cars. I guess spots in Virginia are like that too, but not in Front Royal where Curtis & Lindsay live. I noticed that the crowds, the traffic, the heat, and the humidity were all not nearly as bad as I thought they were going to be! It wasn't nearly as hot or humid as Nauvoo was. It rained a lot while we were there, and there were thunderstorms, which even put the power out during the night one night. I really enjoyed being there, although I wouldn't want to live there all the time. I can understand why Curtis & Lindsay are excited to leave and move to Arizona. He had to drive a long way to get to work every day and things are so spread out, and traffic isn't desirable. Plus the rain would get old after awhile.
We left Gainesville and drove back to Lindsay's house. Curtis was still out of town, so we visited with Lindsay and the girls for a while and then went to bed. I felt like I knew my way around DC and the metro well enough that we'd be fine all week. In fact, now I feel like I could go back to DC all by myself and be totally fine and look forward to doing that someday (I suppose James could tag along if he wanted to). :)
1 comment:
That's quite the busy day you had! Good job writing everything down so you don't forget later.
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