Washington DC

July 7 - 10 Washington DC sights! Wednesday all three of us went to the White House for the tour. It was awesome and we all enjoyed it. Of course Shirley and Les were escorted by a Secret Service agent through the Presidents’ private kitchen into his private elevator so that they could get to the second floor of the tour. I waited on the second floor because the elevator only held them (yeah sure)…anyway it was a thrill for them and maybe even the highlight of the week….however Shirley was disappointed that the President wasn’t available to have coffee with her!

Thursday Les and I toured the Pentagon, really interesting and a little overwhelming. They employ 16000 employees so you can imagine that it is just like a small city. In the evening the three of us took a tour of DC at Night via bus. We were able to see the White House, Ellipse, Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam, Nurses, Korea and others at night, all illuminated, just beautiful.

Did I mention it was still hot, hot hot….as the week progressed the humidity increased so we were at least glad that our tour was a night and that Les and I had done most of the hoofing during the earlier part of the week, still hot, but not quite as humid.

Friday we drove over to Arlington National Cemetery on our way to Mount Vernon (Washington’s home). We toured the cemetery by “tour mobile” for a reasonable price and was shown various gravesites of famous people, including the Kennedy’s resting ground, Jack, Jackie, two children, Robert and most recently interred Teddy. All very emotional for us Yankees. We also made a stop at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and had the opportunity to see the changing of the guard. What a sight. After that tour we were off to lunch and Mount Vernon. It was quite warm and we decided to eat in the car so that Shirley didn’t have to get in and out ten times! So it was Five Guys Burgers and Fries in the car! Mount Vernon was a little less than 1 hour away and a pleasant drive. We toured Washington’s house and compared it to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello - could not have found two more diverse individuals. Washington’s real love was farming but both men were very much ahead of their time and inventive.

Saturday was our day of rest or at least no touring. Laundry day and total clean of the living spaces. We were leaving on Sunday to visit with Les’ nephew Jeffrey and his family in Pennsylvania and he wanted the RV to be super clean for them to see. Actually I think Les wanted to show Jeffrey that he was no longer the messy uncle that Jeff would remember!