A Day of Intrigue

 We began our day with Breakfast at Edgar, the restaurant at the hotel where J. Edgar Hoover supposedly ate lunch nearly every day for 20 years. 

After breakfast, we walked just over a mile to the Washington Monument. We were very lucky to be able to get tickets to go to the top. The security rivaled airport security, with the addition of big old metal blast doors to keep out the riff raff. 

The trip to the top is fast (70 seconds) which is amazing compared to the original elevator which took something like 12-20 minutes, depending on who you believe. No walking back down the stairs…that option hasn’t been available since 1976. 

The views were incredible. 

The elevator ride down is a bit more leisurely and you get to see some of the commemorative stones that were purchased to honor Washington, including the one dingus (John Force) who bought a stone and just put his own name on it. 

After the Washington Monument, we walked to the International Spy Museum, where we spent 3.5 hours and could have spent more. It’s a great, interactive modern museum full of stories of spies and cool spy gear. There were deadly pencils, cameras in pens, shoes with listening devices in the heels and you get your own spy ID and mission to complete. The most memorable piece of, er, equipment was the false scrotum complete with gnarly hair designed to hide a radio. It was meant to be used by pilots in case they were downed and captured, banking on enemy soldiers not wanting to check too carefully. 

As is our habit, we hadn’t eaten since a late breakfast so food was a necessity. We hopped on a Circulator to Union Station and walked to Present Company Public House for dinner.  We highly recommend the burnt ends appetizer. We each had a delicious cheeseburger. Shannon had pimiento tater tots with a sriracha ketchup. There was nothing wrong with those. 

Then we hurried back to the hotel (thank you, Uber) in order to take our nighttime tour of the monuments. Make no mistake, though it’s a bus tour, there is still a lot of walking. The monuments were gorgeous. The Korean War Monument is amazing at night. We wish we had made it to The Vietnam Memorial Wall during the day because it is harder to see at night. We are glad that we got to see MLK from the air as well as from the ground, as it really cemented the “out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope” theme. We loved the way Lincoln is lighted at night and wish Thomas Jefferson was as well. And of course, the Washington Monument was always present. 

We saw so much, but there’s so much more to see. We are already looking forward to a return trip. 

 

Canal boats and rooftops and exorcisms, oh my!

 We began the day with a fantabulous breakfast at The Tabard Inn. It’s old and eclectic and the Eggs Benedict was so damn good. Also, the donut with whipped cream that we had as an appetizer was pretty amazing. This place was a little classier, so we didn’t feed the birds. 

After breakfast, we had our Marriott Vacation Club Sales pitch, scheduled for 90 minutes. It took 3.5 hours. There are some great things about MVC. The sales pitches are just part of it. 

Next we took The Circulator to Georgetown and wandered around and sampled cookies from Levain Bakery. So good and so dense. Jason says it could have been the best oatmeal raisin cookie he has ever had  

Then we took a tour of the C & O Canal. We totally nerded out learning about Hokie Stone and how locks work. We actually went *through* a lock. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love it. (Photos show the boat lowering in the lock.)

After the Historical Georgetown Canal Tour, we went to the Graham Hotel rooftop for a drink and bruschetta  and people watching .

Next we walked to The Exorcist Steps. The Exorcist is a 1973 Classic, like we are!

After that, we walked to a German Style Beer Hall, called the Berliner. Food was good, beer was good, the ginormous fan was amazing (DC is pretty sweaty in August.)

We Ubered back to the Mayflower and made friends with some Pakistani guys from Pittsburgh who were in town for a wedding.  Midwest friendliness for the win! 

Oh! And we quietly walked by the room where FDR wrote his “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” speech. It’s room 776 at the Mayflower Hotel.

 

Time for History!

  We started the day with breakfast at the Sunrise Cafe, a tiny little hole-in-the-wall restaurant. It was a good breakfast, which we needed since we didn’t eat a real meal again until 7:30 pm (We don’t always plan well.) Also, Jason enjoyed tossing bread crumbs to the birds to see how big a piece was too big for them to fly away with. 

When we started walking toward the White House, we came across our first statue of the day: Farragut. He’s the “Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead!” guy, which took place during the Battle of Mobile Bay during the Civil War.

From there we walked down to the White House, which was beautiful and had a surprisingly small number of demonstrators our front. Don’t let the photo fool you; there’s a big old fence there  I just stuck my camera between the vertical bars  

After the White House, we went to Fahrney’s, a historic pen store. Somebody bought a pen.  Ok, two people bought pens. And two people enjoyed the air-conditioning  

After Fahrney’s we wandered to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. On the way, we discovered Casimir Pulaski. (I had never even heard of Pulaski until I moved to Illinois.) Casimir Pulaski was not only a war hero, but is now the patron saint of the foul-mouthed junior high skateboarders practicing in the park. 

We made it to the Smithsonian, had a quick snack and promptly spent HOURS on the third floor learning about the American presidency. The First Lady gowns were beautiful and of course, Lincoln’s Hat (the one he was wearing the night he was assassinated) got me right in the feels. 

We agreed on our favorite artifact: The Star Spangled Banner.  It is so fragile that it is on display under incredibly low light and therefore no photography is allowed.  It was amazing. I was not expecting it to be so big or to impact me so strongly. 

But just for fun, here’s an early electric fan that made me laugh out loud.  Seems safe, right? 

 

From the Smithsonian we pushed on to the Washington Monument. Did you know that it was built in two stages because they ran out of money? That’s why it looks like it’s two different colors. 

Next we walked to the WWII Memorial, which was beautiful. This is just a small part:  each of these stars represents 100 American casualties in the war. 

Next we walked the length of the Reflecting Pool to visit the Lincoln Memorial. 

I may have wiped away a tear or two. 

After that, we were crabby and hungry and sweaty (maybe that was only me) so we walked to the Old Ebbitt Grill for dinner. According to legend,  it’s the oldest tavern in DC, and the animal trophies on the wall belonged to Teddy Roosevelt.

We finished the evening with a drink at The Edgar at The Mayflower and then we crashed. It was a lot of time on our feet and some of us are getting really close to turning 50. 

On The Road Again

#1. Victory for the day: the O’Hare remote tram is running again!! Whee! You just have to park, get on a bus, wind through the depths of O’Hare remote parking and then get dropped off at the Tram, which is *across the street* from where you parked. It’s pretty awesome. 

#2. Slight wrinkles in your pants (or masks in your back pockets) will earn you a TSA pat-down. 

#3. Dulles has this people mover that is disconcertingly like an AT-AT. We climbed aboard and trusted the operator to navigate us across the tarmac and avoid airplanes. 

#4.  The Mayflower Hotel is cool and historic and hosts parties on Wednesday nights that we aren’t invited to. 

#5. The National Postal Museum has a slightly bizarre exhibit dedicated to a dog who rode the rails with mailmen and collected tags from all across the US.  They have the actual taxidermied dog on display. His name is Owney. 

#6. “The Presidents” section of the National Portrait Gallery is really interesting. Norman Rockwell managed to make Richard Nixon seem human.  

We liked Bill Clinton’s portrait but think we may have enjoyed it more if we had been chemically altered. 

We have lots of questions about James Buchanan, but mostly we want to know if this expression is “Blue Steel” or “Magnum?”

And on that note, we need to go to bed. It’s late and we have a big day tomorrow.

Your Elevator Doesn’t Work

“Hey! Your elevator doesn’t work.”

This is a cautionary tale. Soon we will *be* the couple who can’t figure out how to make the elevator run. Until then, we will step into the elevator and show the couple  how to use the key card to make the elevator magically work. And then we will laugh to cover the fear that we aren’t far away from being outsmarted by technology.

Getting old is not for the faint of heart.