Day #7: Washington D.C.

Thanks for giving me the chance to rest up and catch my breath before writing up this day #7 post.  HHJ, T-Ray, TJ, and I started the day by driving about a half hour down to Cobb Island at the very southern tip of Charles County, MD.  There we had breakfast at Captain John's Crab House, right on the water on the mainland side on Neale Sound off the Potomac River.  We haven't tried them for dinner yet, but they serve a great breakfast.

After a short drive around Cobb Island we headed back home to prepare for a whirlwind trip to Washington D.C.  We drove up to the nearest Metro station (Branch Ave.) and took the train to the L'Enfant Plaza station, which is just a block or two from the D.C. mall (the big long grass thing, not the shopping center.)  Since we had limited time we decided to see some of the memorials first, so we headed down to the Washington Monument.  On the way TJ got some shots of the Capitol Building.

We also dropped in on Mr. Smithson.

The James Smithson statue and the Smithsonian castle.

And finally, the Washington Memorial itself.  It was closed because they are still checking it for damage following the earthquake a couple weeks ago.

Some images of the Washington Monument

We didn't go any closer, but got a long-distance shot of the White House.

Since we were there on 9/11 we could see that the security was at a high level.  We kept getting buzzed by a Park Police helicopter.  We know the President was in New York earlier in the day, so we wondered if the copter was checking things out in advance of the President's return.

Tough to get a shot, but this helicopter flew low past us a number of times.

After visiting with George we headed over to Abe's place.  On the way we stopped at the World War II Memorial.

The World War II Memorial.  Each pillar represents a state or U.S. territory.

We continued down to the other end of the reflecting pool to see Abe.  Unfortunately, the reflecting pool is being renovated and was completely torn up, but the Lincoln Memorial is as awe-inspiring as ever.

The Lincoln Memorial

And finally, the Vietnam Memorial:

The sun was quite warm, and we had walked a long way to get to all these monuments.  We stopped for some ice cream and water on the way back toward the mall, and debated over what to try to see next.  We opted for the American History museum, but it was already after 5:00 and they were closed for the day.  After that we realized that we were all too tired to do any museums justice, so we decided to pack it in and head back to the Metro.  TJ got one more good shot in before we left:

The Capitol and the Washington Monument.

By the time we got back to La Plata we were all hungry, so we headed straight for Captain Billy's Crab House on the banks of the Potomac.  We took a gamble because the road to get to Captain Billy's was washed out in the recent flooding in the area.  (In fact, southbound 301 heading toward Virginia has spots that that are torn up and still under repair.)  But we happily discovered the road is just fine.  TJ got to try authentic Maryland crab cakes, HHJ opted for a bowl full o' mussels, T-Ray -- a connoisseur of all things noodle -- had the kids' mac & cheese, and I enjoyed the potato-crusted cod.  Starting the meal off right was a basket of hush puppies complete with butter and honey.  A great meal to cap off a terrific, if tiring, day.

TJ gots lots of pictures of the house, so the next post will feature those if you are interested.  In the meantime, TJ flies back home tomorrow afternoon so the true end of the adventure is at hand.  I will return to the new house here to start making sense of all the boxes and make plans for how to embark on my new life here in Maryland.  Until the next post, so long for now.