Washington DC

Our campsite at Pohick Bay Regional Park in suburban Lorton, Virginia, just south of Alexandria put us in reasonable commuting distance to the major sites in the heart of Washington DC. The drive to the metro parking garage was still hairy even without the trailer and after the worst of rush hour but from there it was about a half hour metro ride some of it elevated, some subterrainian on very long multi car (15 - 20) trains. Stops included Ron Reagan Airport and Arlington National Cemetery but we exited at Capitol South and embarked on our exploration of the many historic buildings in this vicinity. The Library of Congress was the first of these.

The Supreme Court building was shrouded in scaffolding. (Many of the buildings in DC seemed to be undergoing repair - some related to last year's earthquake).

The Capitol itself is a very imposing structure.
 I nipped into the Visitor's Centre briefly.

The area on the east side of the Capitol was surprisingly uncrowded, but the west side, facing the mall saw a considerable increase in the number of tourists, including numerous bus tours of many different nationalities. We wandered up the mall noting the various government buildings and then the chain of remarkable Smithsonian Institution national museums. Of these we had the longest tour of the National Museum of Air and Space.

By this time (lunch) the overcast skies were being burnt off and the sun was out with temperatures rising into the low 80sF. However, with a breeze it made it reasonable for an afternoon of walking from site to site, far better than the hot humid weather with temperatures up to 100F that you can often expect in August in DC. A tour through the Hirschorn Sculpture Garden was a pleasant reprieve before continuing on to the Washington Monument (closed due to the earthquake). 

We walked on and over to Pennsylvania Avenue (passing Homeland Security enroute) for a view of the gardens and rear of the White House, then around the block and past the East Executive Bldg to the front entrance. (President Obama, however, was not at home. This being an election year, he was out showing the flag, in New Hampshire, I think.

We took what I thought would be a short cut via the Metro but the walk after we got off at Foggy Bottom (yes that’s the name of a metro stop) seemed just as long passing George Washington University and the Department of State as if we had walked directly from the White House to the Lincoln Memorial.

We took in the memorial from the base of the steps, deciding the view of Lincoln in his chair was just fine from here and made our way past the Vietnam War Memorial

(where National Park rangers were assisting visitors making rubbings of the names of their fallen family members. On past the lovely fountains of the World War II Memorial and back to the Washington Monument, we gazed at the Jefferson Monument but did not have the time or stamina for an upclose viewing. Back to the Smithsonian Metro stop and back to our car about 5:00pm. I managed to coax Garmin Gertie into finding us an alternate route back to the campsite that did not involve the I-95 at rush hour and we were pleased to find that Mazy had not done anything requiring repairs on her long day alone.

We were just settling down to relax under the trailer awning prior to dinner when the raindrops started to fall and we barely had time to take the tablecloth off the picnic table before a real downpour started that lasted several hours – no campfire tonight.

We used the next day to relax, tour the park down to the marina area (Pohick Bay is one of several bays off the Potomac) do chores (laundry, trailer cleaning, and shopping). I found a corner of the campground close to the office that let me access wifi and sat at a picnic table and tried to plan out our route home.  A quiet day with no touring and no driving that we both appreciated.