Posted on July 20, 2022 by TG
[7.20.22] 20.0 – Min Read
This week’s journal looks like it will be a travel journal, since so much of it will be consumed by our 5-day, 4 night stay in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday through Saturday, followed by Saturday afternoon and evening in Annapolis, Maryland, before heading to visit my folks in Pennsylvania on Sunday.
Getting Ready for Our Trip:
Monday was all about getting ready for being away from the house for 11-days on our first, honest-to-goodness tourist trip in over two-years, coinciding with our 29th wedding anniversary on July 16th. From 2014-2019 we’d ridden our motorcycle to Key West, Florida, four times where we celebrated our anniversary, intermixed with an all-inclusive resort visit to Cancun for our 25th / Silver Anniversary in 2018. So, having spent the last two years celebrating close to home, this would be a very different type of anniversary trip.
I began the day in my office taking care of some home finance business and publishing last week’s journal, while Debbie headed-off to “run errands” of an undisclosed nature. I finished-up in the office before 9:30am, intending to head off for a 15-mile bicycle ride from the house, but when I walked out to the mailbox to post this week’s journal, son-of-a-gun if we weren’t having light rain. So, on to Plan B.
I went ahead and got all of my clothing for the trip out and ready to be packed, while waiting for the lawn to dry so I could mow it one last time before we headed out-of-town, optimistically thinking I might be able to get by without having someone mow the lawn while we were gone. When I headed out to do the yard work, imagine my surprise when the lawn had grown as much in four-days as it had in seven-days last week, so it was clear I’d need to find someone to mow the lawn about half-way through our visit.
Having always been impressed by how-well the landscaping service that took care of our neighbor’s Ed & Liz’ lawn, I walked up their hill and knocked on the door to ask Liz for the name and number of their landscaper. My hope was, since their landscape crew usually came out on Saturday, they’d be able to add-in our lawn service for just the one day without throwing off their whole schedule since we were right across the street. Liz gave Julian a head’s-up via text message that I’d be reaching-out to him, and once I saw her note had gone out I sent along my detailed request. It was around 9:30pm before he replied and confirmed they’d be able to take-care of our needs: I’d just leave a check under the front mat. So, that was a load off my mind. I’m sure our lawn will be long and wooly when we get back on Friday the 22nd, but at least it won’t be out-of-control.
After finishing-up my own lawn work I headed up on the porch roof to clear off the large collection of branches that had fallen there. While I was up there I ended-up removing the foam gutter fillers that, in theory, kept leaves out of the gutters, but had now become a problem. I’ll have to remove the rest of the foam gutter fillers once we’re back and then re-evaluate how to deal with our gutters before fall. Lord knows, it’s not the most pressing project I have in my queue.
Debbie returned home mid-afternoon after going shopping for some comfortable shoes to wear while we walked-around Washington, D.C., and also picked up some new casual shorts. She’d run quite a few other errands and had most of her clothing picked-out for the trip, but it was one of those afternoons when we both agreed, it would be a good night to get out-of-the-house for dinner instead of grilling and staying-in. Yes, we’d be eating out quite a bit for the next week but, well… just doing our part to help out the service industry in what is still a trying time.
After enjoying some delicious buffalo chicken wraps and a few too many cocktails, we returned home where I cleaned-up a few errors in my history blogs that were bothering me and then headed to bed around 9:00pm to read and, hopefully, fall asleep… something I rarely do before travelling. Debbie came up a short while later.
Our Drive to D.C. and First Evening at the Hilton, Washington DC at the National Mall and The Wharf, on L’Enfant Plaza
Sadly, like most nights before a trip, I did not sleep well and found myself awake by 1:00am, and by 3:00am gave up and headed into the office so as not to disturb Debbie with my tossing and turning. It was around 4:30am when I headed back to bed to get 45-minutes of “rest” before Debbie’s alarm went off at 5:15am. I didn’t take us long to get ready for our drive, finish packing and we were out the door by 5:45am, per our original plan.
My GPS tried to take us south to I-285 around Atlanta, and then up I-85 through Greenville and Charlotte to I-95 since it would — in theory — save us 2-minutes of drive time vs. taking our usual I-75N route through Tennessee to I-40E at Knoxville and then I-81N to the D.C. area. How on Earth it could be a “better” drive going through three major metro areas between 6:00am and 10:00am on the main interstate used by commuters was a mystery to me. So, we ignored the GPS recommendation and enjoyed a very nice, easy and uneventful drive with light to moderate truck traffic through Tennessee, and very few FedEx trucks, on a day with overcast skies that didn’t turn partly sunny until noon time when we stopped for lunch in Wytheville at their Applebee’s. We’d stopped at his same Applebee’s for the first time on our trip-up to Pennsylvania in May and the same, delightful and very efficient barkeeper, Salina, was working and took great care of us.
On our second leg of the trip after lunch, Debbie gave my mother a call to let her know how we were doing and to confirm our travel plans, i.e., arriving at their place in Pennsylvania on Sunday afternoon. Debbie handled the call as it’s just a better quality call than using the hands-free system in the truck, but she did note that mother sounded good, but wasn’t all that talkative.
As we got closer to Washington, we had three different route options: I-64, I-66 and a collection of state highways in between, so we opted to take I-64 to I-95 into D.C., Interestingly enough, we were re-routed up U.S. 15 to I-66 as I-95 was apparently a mess and backed-up: thank goodness for GPS. Our “alternate route” delivered us right to the front door of the hotel at 4:30pm and the valet service was awesome, well worth the $55/day, our front desk agent was also wonderful and gave us a great tip on where to go for cocktails / dinner: Tiki TNT. For the record, we paid $4.04/gas for gas in Kennesaw before we left on the trip, $4.35/gal in mid-Tennessee, and $4.65/gal in Virginia near Charlottesville.
After getting settled in our room, which was on an upper floor with a nice southwest view that included a glimpse at The Wharf on the Washington Channel, just east of the Potomac River, we made a brief stop at the hotel bar and quickly dismissed that as an option as it was filled with hotel guests on business travel and expense accounts talking shop.
Debbie suggested we go elsewhere, so we made the short 4/10th of a mile / 8-minute walk to The Wharf and quickly found the Tiki TNT bar our hotel front desk agent suggested.
It was definitely our kind of place, but seeing the weather turning ugly, I ran back and got the umbrella out of our truck which was still parked out-in-front of the valet stand. But, good that the truck was out there as we had a strong thunder shower come through and it was still drizzling after we’d had out cocktails and a couple of appetizers as our dinner: ahi poke and coconut shrimp; both were excellent. Debbie even opted for a cinnamon bun for dessert.
After our walk back to the hotel under the cover of the very large, full-size umbrella I keep tucked behind the backseat of the truck, we went up to our room and relaxed for a bit. I’d thought about heading out to the mall to see it at night, but with the rain, etc., and after our 10-hour drive, staying in seemed like a good call for our 1st night.
Wednesday: Exploring the Mall, & Visits to the Holocaust & American History Museums
I didn’t sleep all that well, despite being a very comfortable bed. It was likely due to the HVAC system’s blower running all night and the inability to raise our room temperature setting above 76°F, never mind raising the actual room temperature above 72°F.
Regardless, our plan for the day was to visit the Holocaust Museum in the morning, and then walk to all of the memorials and monuments on the west-end of the National Mall, and then visit the Smithsonian Museum of American History and then the National History Museum next door. However, the main feature of the Holocaust Museum was a tour through the 1935-1945 Holocaust experience which required a ticket.
With regard to the tickets, when we first decided to make our trip in late June, just about every day we’d be in D.C. was “sold out,” but it was noted a small number of tickets would be available on-line at 7:00am each day, as well as another small number “at the door.” Well, I woke up at 6:00am and began checking, just in case they might “open-up” the ticket sales early, but no luck. When I logged-in again promptly at 7:00am and attempted to buy our two $1.00/ea tickets, the system balked. On a subsequent retry, no tickets were now available, so my idea of was not a unique one. With that in mind, and since the museum didn’t open until 10:00am, we modified our plan to leave at 8:00am and do our 6-mile walk around the mall before seeing if we might be able to snag a pair of tickets at the door to the Holocaust Museum.
Moongate Garden: Our walk from the Hilton to the Smithsonian Castle was all of 0.3-miles / 6-minutes north on 9th street. Our first stop was the Moongate Gardens with its dragonfly sculptures at the northeast corner of the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art. It was a lovely installation recalling another historic garden and highlighting the history of the dragonfly and damselfly.
The Washington Monument: From there, we walked west along the great lawn of the mall towards the Washington Monument. As always, the Washington Monument is an epic, marble structure that evokes all kinds of metaphors for President George Washington: understated in architectural detail, but overwhelming in it’s presence and imagery… much like the man. From a distance it centers you on the National Mall, and up close it’s size and scale to the surrounding land and building scape is immense. It’s just one of those artistic creations like the Mona Lisa that you just want to gaze-upon and “take-in” to understand what the artist had mind. Interestingly enough, work on the Washington Monument began in 1847, but came to a standstill in 1858 due to the lack of funds, and then the Civil War. After the Civil War, there were all kinds of political and social elite “issues” that delayed construction until it resumed in earnest in 1877 and was finished in 1884, 29 years after the Smithsonian Castle was built.
The World War II Memorial: From the Smithsonian Castle, we walked another 0.8-miles / 16-minutes to the World War II memorial, one of the memorials Debbie and I visited many years ago on or one-day / 6-hour “National Lampoon – Summer Vacation Grand Canyon-like” visit to Washington, D.C.. The World War II monument is amazing, and so-well executed in terms of the visual experience it evokes with so many features that address the European and Pacific Theaters of War, the 56 states and territories of the U.S. that existed in 1945. It was incredibly well done and warrants respect. I could spend hours at this monument taking in the visual aspects of it’s design and imagery.
The Signers of the Declaration of Independence: Despite having visited Washington D.C. and the National Mall several times from the 1970s to the 1990’s, I never realized there was a Constitution Gardens Pond to the north of the reflecting pond, as well as a Signers of the Declaration of Independence Memorial. It’s only because I saw it on the Google Maps application that we made the 0.2-mile / 5-minute walk to this often-overlooked memorial. Sadly, five of the signers were captured by the British and treated as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the revolutionary army, another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the revolutionary war. But, few know who all 56 were, and this memorial recognizes them and is perhaps one of the most important “pieces” of this nation’s history. They signed and pledged their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor, and many paid for it. Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners, men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.
The Vietnam Memorials: Next-up was the Vietnam Memorials… a mere 0.3-miles from the signers memorial, where the well-known, black granite wall with the 57,939 names of killed or missing U.S. citizens who fought on the wall. It’s one of those memorials like the Washington Monument that makes you just take a step back to take it all in. And, the Vietnam memorial was not the first memorial in Washington, D.C. to recognize Americans by-name who died in a war. There’s the Washington, D.C. World War I Memorial that recognizes by name the 26,000 residents of D.C., who gave their lives in World War I dedicated in 1931. Regardless, the 60,000 names on the Vietnam memorial are humbling, as is the Vietnam memorial statue just southwest of the wall with the three soldiers looking towards the center of the wall, representing “all Americans” who fought for the U.S. in Vietnam. There is also the women’s Vietnam Memorial just east of the three soldiers that’s as impactful as anything else you’ll find on the Mall.
The Lincoln Memorial: Our next stop was the Lincoln Memorial, 0.6-mile and 9-min away. I’ve visited the Lincoln Memorial perhaps 5 times in my life, and the impact is never diminished. There is so much symbolism and his Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address are, well, timeless. And, despite the signs posted everywhere that suggests “be quiet and respectful” we had a lone individual camped-out in front of the seated statue of Abraham Lincoln having a one-sided conversation with Lincoln that somewhat “killed the moment” as he exercised his1st Amendment Right to freedom of speech. And, in some respects, that was a great reminder of how our Constitution works to support individual rights vs. individual desires. I desired a quiet and respectful environment, but someone’s rights trumped my desires. That’s not a bad thing, in the big scheme of things.
Korean War Memorial: Just to the southeast of the Lincoln Memorial is the Korean War Memorial, and it may be more impactful than the Vietnam Memorial. The original memorial with 19 statues of U.S. service members walking through a rice paddy, and a soon-to-be-dedicated, 36,000-name circular memorial with the names of US service members and Korean Augmentation of U.S. troops who gave their lives during the U.S. Police Keeping Action in Korea. It was never a declared war, and the numbers of U.N. nation service members who gave their lives are included on the memorial. It’s a very powerful memorial to one of the least-understood conflicts, at least by most younger Americans.
The D.C. World War I Memorial: Next-up was the half-mile walk to the Washington, D.C. War memorial, the only District memorial on the National Mall. It symbolizes the unique distinction of Washington, D.C. as a local entity even though it is the federal city. Construction of the monument was completed in 1931 and the memorial was dedicated by President Herbert Hoover on the national observance of Armistice Day, November 11, 1931 with the names of 499 D.C. residents who died in World War I. There was no national monument for World War I until April 16, 2021 when the formal unveiling of the memorial that honors the 4.7 million Americans who served their nation in World War I, including 116,516 who made the supreme sacrifice took place.
Martin Luther King Memorial: The memorial’s was dedicated on August 28, 2011, the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and is based on a quoted line from his “I have a dream” speech, “Out of the Mountain of Despair, a Stone of Hope.” A wall of quotes spanning Dr. King’s long civil rights career represents his ideals of peace, democracy, justice, and love. It was also a very impactful, visual experience to both of us… as intended by the artist and memorial planning group who selected it’s location and the final design.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial: The FDR Memorial uses stone, water, and landscaping to capture key elements of FDR’s four terms as president in a very approachable way. His most impactful quotes are at eye level and the statues are at or close to ground level. The memorial is made-up of five outdoor rooms, one as a prologue and four for each of FDR’s terms in office. The water features and the stones set the tone during different times in his presidency, from the placid pools of reflection to waterfalls of chaos. This was one of the most appealing memorials I can recall visiting.
Thomas Jefferson Memorial: The Jefferson Memorial was dedicated on April 13, 1943, Jefferson’s 200th birthday, by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It’s interesting to note that the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Commission (TJMC) initially decided the Jefferson memorial would be placed at Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues in their initial resolution on June 26, 1934. In 1936, President Roosevelt decided the planned site was too small and the TJMC allowed FDR to select a new location, which is where it now sits on the Tidal Basin. The first statue of Jefferson was cast in plaster due to World War II restrictions on the use of metals, and was replaced with a the 19-foot tall, bronze statue in 1947 that stands on a 6-foot-tall pedestal of black Minnesota granite. The memorial has been “renovated” several times in the past and was undergoing yet another during our visit. It’s perhaps the least impactful of the monuments around the National Mall, at least to me, but still a must-see.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: The museum was dedicated on April 22, 1993, and is one of the most-visited museums in Washington, D.C., providing a fact-based interpretation of Holocaust with the goal of helping all people confront hatred, prevent genocide, promote human dignity, and strengthen democracy. It is managed the United States Holocaust Memorial Council (USHMC), an independent entity with its own governance structure, but regularly participates in joint projects with the Smithsonian. In terms of our experience, as noted, after taking a short sit-down break at the museum’s café to cool-off and hydrate shortly after 10:00am, we were able to secure 10:30am start-time tickets to the permanent and central Holocaust exhibit at the museum and are so glad we did: it’s a must-see experience. It was somewhat overwhelming at times, even though it’s a story I know fairly well, but not to the extent that was clearly conveyed in the exhibit. We were so consumed and mentally exhausted by the main exhibit, we didn’t visit the other 5 exhibits and, instead, headed back to the museum café for lunch, and it was actually pretty good.
Smithsonian National Museum of American History: We made the half-mile walk to the American History Museum after lunch, fully-planning on visiting it and the Natural History Museum during the afternoon. However, after walking what must have been at least a mile inside the American History Museum, never mind all of the standing and reading that goes hand-in-hand with a museum visit, we’d seen perhaps half of the exhibits that were open and available over the course of two-hours and were exhausted, both physically and mentally. So, we knew there was no way we’d be visiting the Natural History Museum today and, instead, walked across the mall to the Smithsonian Castle’s gardens and made our way to the Hirschhorn Sculpture Garden.
Hirschhorn Sculpture Garden: Debbie had been told by Julie that the Hirschhorn Sculpture Garden was a must-see during our visit, and given it was only 3:00pm and only a half-mile walk from the American History Museum, we decided to head that way. I really didn’t know what to expect and was quite surprised by their outdoor sculpture collection, both in terms of the scope of the different works and years when they were cast, many in the 1950’s to the 1960’s, based on much-earlier designs. It was well-worth the time we spent there.
Late Afternoon and Dinner: As we did last evening, we returned to our hotel room to relax for a bit, and then headed back to the Tiki TNT bar where we found our barkeeper, Johnny, from last night tending the front bar. We had a cocktail, but decided we’d investigate our dining-options along The Wharf and walked the 1/2-mile length of Wharf Street, checking-out the menus at several “interesting-looking” restaurants. Sadly, none of the places seemed all that inviting, and then we discovered the Cantina Bambina, a 2nd story bar on the water with two really engaging and enjoyable barkeepers: the two Beths. One was an ‘Elizabeth’ and the other a “Bethany” but both went by the name Beth. We camped-out there for a couple hours, snacking on Jalapeno & Pimento cheese dip, noting the bar didn’t serve “food” per se. But, we were more than welcome to bring-in food and ended-up ordering a take-out burger from the “Shake Shack” across the street and it was really good and just what we needed. It was probably about 8:00pm when we returned to the Hilton and retired to our room where we caught a movie before turning-out the lights.
Thursday: The Natural History, American History Part II & Smithsonian Castle
My original plan for Thursday was to head-off to the Arlington National Cemetery just across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia, then do a drive-by of the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial, head into Alexandria for lunch at Gadsby’s Tavern, and then head to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum next to Dulles Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, noting the in-town Air & Space Museum on the National Mall was closed for renovation during our visit. However, given how much we’d only accomplished and seen on Wednesday, my sense was we’d be better-off using our day to make sure we visited the Natural History Museum on the mall, and then finished-up the American History Museum, letting us relax in our room a until 9:45am, as the museums don’t open until 10:00am. Had we opted for the Arlington National Cemetery that opened at 8:00am, we’d have needed to be up and out of the hotel by 7:45am.
U.S. Natural History Museum: It was a mere 13-minute, 7/10ths of a mile walk to the museum from our hotel and we didn’t leave until 10:00am, so that we could avoid the crowd that most assuredly gathered at the entrance at 10:00am when it opened. Our first stop in the museum was the indoor butterfly house where we were able to walk through a sealed habitat filled with live butterflies, something Debbie always enjoys. It was no where as nice or as large as the butterfly houses in Key West, Florida, or at Barnsley Gardens back in Georgia, but it was still interesting and enjoyable. Next up was the precious gems collection where we saw the Hope Diamond and many, many other amazing stones, gems and crystals, never mind sheets of natural copper that had leached in between layers of shale. We started to wander through all of the minerals exhibits and Earth Sciences section when we realized we could spend 1/2 a day in there. We changed course and spent the next hour and a half exploring the undersea world exhibits, the African wildlife, the mammals, skeletons and human evolution exhibits before hitting our threshold for absorbing information, and made our way to the museum’s café where we split a very tasty chicken & cheese quesadilla.
U.S. American History Museum: After lunch, we made the short, 5-minute walk “next door” to pick-up where we left-off at the American History Museum. We’d made it through the Civil War yesterday before calling it quits, so that’s where we picked-up. We covered the rest of the war years, post war, and evolution of our nation as well as the “five families / one house” exhibit where an entire home that stood for 200 years at 16 Elm Street in Ipswich, Massachusetts, about 30 miles north of Boston was disassembled and partially rebuilt in the museum, and also visited the Star Spangled Banner exhibit. However, in retrospect, we still didn’t scratch the surface of what all can be seen at the museum. I suspect a full day with a carefully thought-out plan of what to see, exhibit-by-exhibit is what’s called-for, which is to say a lot more homework. Well, that and spending a lot more time visiting the Smithsonian Museum websites for all of these exhibits to help narrow down which ones are “must sees” for our interests. Again, we could make this trip every year for several years and still not see everything at just these two museums, never mind all of the other museums in Washington, D.C..
Smithsonian Castle: In what is perhaps my favorite image of the original Smithsonian Castle, taken in 1883… noting it was built in 1855 and was perhaps one of the only “finished” structures on the National Mall at that time, as work on the Washington Monument that began in 1848, but stalled for 23-years (1854-1877), and wasn’t completed until 1884. While this photo suggests it was taken in 1883, I don’t see the National Museum Building (now the Arts & Industry Museum) to the east of the Castle which was built in 1881. The history of the institution is nearly as interesting as the 100’s of thousands of artifacts that are just on display, never mind millions of artifacts in their total collection. Anyway, we made a point of visiting the castle where they have “sampler” displays of what’s available at the 19 Smithsonian Museums.
Late Afternoon and Dinner: As we did yesterday, we returned to Cantina Bambina after visiting the museums from 10:00am until perhaps 4:00pm. Neither of the Beths were there, but the other gals tending bar were just as attentive and enjoyable. Instead of a burger from the Shake Shack, we split a half of a pepperoni pizza from a very small pizza parlor called “Union Pie” right next to the Cantina Bambina and it was outstanding. We had a wonderful time, just as we did on Wednesday night and are so glad we stumbled onto these neat, little bar. The cost of our cocktails was almost twice as much as they are at Guston’s back at home, making for some hefty tabs, but when in Rome….
Friday: The Arlington National Cemetery, U.S. U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial and the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center
Having postponed our travels into Virginia, today started-off at 7:45am with the short, 11-minute drive to Arlington National Cemetery that opened at 8:00am. Our plan for the day was catching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown, then visiting the JFK gravesite with its eternal flame, before taking a drive past the U.S. U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial just to the north of the National Cemetery. From there we’d drive south and have lunch at Gadsby’s Tavern in Alexandria, Virginia, before heading out to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at the south end of Dulles International Airport. Well, that’s not exactly how it played-out, as we had finished our visit at Arlington just after 10:00am, and Gadsby’s Tavern didn’t open until 11:30am. We decided to pass on Gadsby’s and headed directly to the Udvar-Hazy Center after driving by the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial, and planned to grab some lunch there.
Arlington National Cemetery: It was a quick and easy drive, actually too easy as we arrived at 7:57am and were told to come back in a few minutes, even to get into the parking garage, which was a bit odd. We made a U-turn as instructed, and then immediately made another one and parked on the shoulder of the road for a couple minutes before jumping in line to enter the Cemetery for the second time in four-minutes. It was good to be there early, as it wasn’t too warm when we made our 7/10ths of a mile / 13-minute hike up Roosevelt Road, past the Joe Louis Memorial, and arrived at the Tomb of the Unknown around 8:20am, just as they were getting ready to have the changing of the guard. But, curiously, there were an awful lot of more senior officers dressed in their Service Uniforms, what the Honor Guards wear. A short time later four platoons of Honor Guards arrived at the base of the steps to the Tomb of the Unknown, a color guard then arrived followed by the U.S. Army Band. I had to ask one of the civilian officials at the Tomb of the Unknown what the reason was, and he advised they were having a wreath-laying ceremony in recognition of the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Guam coming-up on 21 July 1944.
So, we not only were there long enough to see three changing of the guards, but also a full military dress ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown: it was amazing. After the ceremony ended, we made the 1/2-mile walk over to the John F. Kennedy gravesite and eternal flame, before heading back to collect the truck from the parking garage. However, even with staying the extra hour for the wreath-laying ceremony, we were running far too early for having lunch at 11:30 in Alexandria, Virginia as we’d have to find a way to kill 45-minutes, time we could better use at the Air & Space Museum.
U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial: We made the 2-mile-long / 5-minute drive over to the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial so Debbie could see it. We didn’t bother to stop and park to view it from the west side as it’s typically shown and captured in photos, but did take a good photo from the east side as we drove around the circular drive.
The Smithsonian Air & Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: It was a 40-minute drive out to Chantilly, Virginia, for our visit’s last museum stop and I was quickly reminded why I dread driving in and around the congested urban areas in the northeast U.S.. The roads all seem to have smaller lanes, interstates and highways seem to crisscross each other time and again, and the use of tolls is frequent and haphazard. I eventually had to draft Debbie to become my navigator and spotter for exits as they all came up without much forewarning and were always on the wrong side of merging traffic: ugg. Anyway, as frustrating as the drive was, the reward was well worth it.
The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy (OOD-var HAH-zee) Center was simply amazing, especially with it’s use of overhead walkways that let you have a bird’s eye view of the 150+ aircraft on display in the massive Boeing hangar: 635 feet in length, 225 feet in width, and 82 feet, 9 inches in height, with some 161,145 square feet of exhibition floor space. Adjacent to the Boeing hangar is the 56,000+ square foot, James S. McDonnell Space Hangar with 135+ space vehicles and rockets on display. Another welcome sight was the Shake Shack-restaurant that likely replaced the museum-run food concession where we split another delicious burger. Again, it’s impossible to describe the museum other than being overwhelming in the size, aircraft collection, display and viewing options… never mind the condition of the aircraft. Best of all was seeing the “workshop” open to viewing from behind glass and well above to capture the “magic” of how these amazing aircraft move from “as found” to restored for display.
Our return drive to the Hilton near the National Mall was as equally confounding as the drive out to Dulles, as toll-roads are “hit or miss” experiences. Some roads are flagged as “toll roads” by Google Maps that have expressways with tolls, but not the through traffic, whereas others have “all lanes” as tolls, to include a premium price for the expressway. We ended-up “busting” two of the tolls and attempted to put $3.25 in change in another that failed to acknowledge the mandatory “contribution” to their highway system. However, now that a few days have gone by, I can see that the EZ-PASS system was able to recognize my SUN-PASS from Florida that’s also recognized by Georgia’s tollways, so at least I know I’m not being fined, just paying my tolls in arrears, plus that extra $3.25 in change I literally “tossed-away.”
Late Afternoon and Dinner:
As before, the valet service at the Hilton was well worth it if only to alleviate the need to go and search for parking and then feed a pay-system where the by-the-hour cost was well in excess of the daily $55 valet fee. We merely pulled-up at the Hilton, handed-off our keys and were on the way to our room. From there, you guessed it… we headed back to the Cantina Bambina, once again enhancing their bottom line by a good bit and being generous with our tips. We tried their smoked white fish dip instead of the Jalapeno and Pimento Cheese dip and it was very good too. However, for dinner, we headed back to Tiki TNT where we enjoyed a wonderful chicken wonton snack as our dinner. After that, we were finally able to to make a night time visit to the National Mall before heading back to our hotel for our last night in Washington, D.C..
ENDORSEMENTS
The Hilton, Washington, D.C., National Mall at the Wharf. If we ever return, that’s where we’re staying. The short walks to the Mall and the Wharf, with no need to use a car for transportation makes it worth the added expense. It was perhaps $200 more for our four-night stay than the Holiday Inn two-blocks east and a block north, but location, location, location trumps a few bucks when the Hilton treats you to 4-Star service and attention, vs 3-Star Holiday Inn.
Cantina Bambina on The Wharf. If you’re looking for a beach-bar feel and vibe, this is as close as we could find. It may be the only bar “on the water” other than the Yacht Club’s lounge and, well, we don’t have a $500k cruiser or club membership, so we’re so happy we found Cantina Bambina.
Seeing the Memorials and Monuments. Stay close to the Mall and walk it early in the morning. Lots of joggers and cyclists heading to work in D.C., but not busy or crowded at all. It was us and a handful of other visitors at all of the memorials, not crowds.
The Museums. Trying to figure out how much time to allocate to a museum visit in D.C. is like estimating the cost of building a new home or a major renovation: figure out how much time you think it will take, then double-it and add two.
The Steven F. Udvey-Hazy Center. If you’re an aviation enthusiast, you must visit.
Saturday: Annapolis Maryland & our 29th Anniversary
Our day began not all that early, as our plan for the day focused on a 2:00pm trolley tour of Annapolis starting about 3/4 of a mile away from our hotel, the Waterfront Hotel, part of the Marriott’s Autograph Collection. The drive over to Annapolis was about an hour-long, give or take, and we were able to drive right in to the hotel and valet park the truck, check-in and have our bags put in storage pending our room being available later in the afternoon. Best of all, I let the front desk folks know it was our anniversary, and they definitely went the extra mile, which I knew they would at a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel where you’re spending $500/night for a room. It wasn’t 5-minutes when our front desk agent came around the corner with a bottle of Rose wine, chocolates and other niceties in a gift bag acknowledging our anniversary stay, and they definitely went the extra distance on waiting until a room with a wonderful view that wasn’t far from the elevators was available.
That gave us plenty of time to walk over to the Middletown Tavern — a place the kids recommended — where we split a crab cake sandwich for lunch and relaxed a bit before going off to explore the Naval Academy to see if we really wanted to stick-around on Sunday for the waking tour, and still make it to the Trolley Stop for our 1-hour tour of Annapolis at 2:00pm.
We were still undecided about the Naval Academy tour when we boarded the pseudo trolley-car / bus for our 1-hour tour of the city, narrated by the driver who was perhaps one of the best and most knowledgeable tour hosts in Annapolis. He knew everyone in town as we drove around the backstreets to look at the historic architecture, the city buildings, and all sorts of obscure yet fascinating things in and around Annapolis. In fact, his tour was so informative and enjoyable that, by the time we were done, we knew we could pass on Sunday’s walking tour of the Naval Academy: we were museum-toured out.
Our tour actually lasted a good hour and 15-minutes and about the time we got off the bus, it was a foot race to see if we could return to our hotel before the rain started to fall. However, we lucked-out, beat the rain and our room was ready when we walked into the lobby. Best of all, the hotel’s on-site bar and restaurant was managed by Pussers, an outfit from the British Virgin Islands we’d come to know back in 2018 when we were invited to join our friends Ryan and Jeanette for a 14-day catamaran cruise around the BVI’s, so we had no problem dropping into Pussers for cocktails and then again when it was time for dinner. We had a wonderful time and avoided the thunderstorms that passed through from 4:00pm until 9:00pm that night.
Sunday: “Vacation’s Over” and it’s on to a Family Visit in Pennsylvania
We had a leisurely morning, ate breakfast at Pussers in the Waterfront Hotel and then began our 1.5-hour / 150-mile drive up to Bernville, Pennsylvania just before 11:00am. It was a much-easier drive than our drives in and around Washington, D.C., and I made a point of getting gas before we left Maryland. The difference was very apparent, as I paid $4.35/gal in Maryland, and as soon as we crossed into Pennsylvania it was $4.75/gal. Closer to my folks home it was $4.59/gal, driven mostly by Pennsylvania’s very high excise and sales taxes.
It was just after 1:00pm when we arrived at my folks home, having stopped at the local Boyer’s grocery to stock up Diet Coke for me and green tea for Debbie. My folks were in very good spirits when we arrived and we had a very nice afternoon chatting and catching up on our trip.
We had salmon for dinner and it was delicious, and just relaxed as we gave a verbal recap of our past few days in Washington, D.C. and Annapolis, Maryland, while watching the R&A Scottish Golf Open finish-up.
Whew…. what a week!
Our Travels & Jekyll Island History 