April 28-May 4, 2019
Our 90-mile ride to Cherry Hill Park in College Park MD was uneventful and we arrived right at check-in time, 11am. Too bad the guy in our site hadn’t gotten the message on check out time, at 11:30 one of the workampers went over and woke him up telling him he was overdue in leaving. At 12:30 I walked over and he was still not ready, I asked him when he would be ready, he said it wouldn’t be long and apologize. I admit I went off a little on him, soon though we saw them pull out and we moved in about 1pm. Had to get the ribs in the smoker as we friends coming over for dinner. A couple of hours later our friends Alex & Paul pulled into a site down the road from us. Let the fun times begin.
Years ago, before we were on Facebook we, along with our friends Les & Deb, drove down and spent a week touring Washington DC. Dave took lots of pictures and downloaded them every night, we had a great time seeing the sites with our friends. A few months later when we were all back in VT I went looking for my pictures, couldn’t find them so I called up Deb to get her files from the visit. She called me back, she couldn’t find hers either. Neither one of us ever found our pictures so we knew someday we’d have to go back and revisit many of the places we had previously visited.
Cherry Hill Park makes it so easy to get into DC, a bus to the metro station, then the metro into the city, takes about an hour for the trip but not having to think about parking the dually pickup it’s worth the time and cost which was about $5-$7/person total to get into the city. They sell the metro cards right in the office and reloading them can be done at the park’s bus station or easily at any metro station.
Our first foray into DC was on our own, we were on the 8:20 bus and reached the National Mall about 9:30. We spent the day walking the National Mall and seeing the memorials, over 15 miles walked that day.
Washington Monument
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| 2019 |
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| 4/1977 with my BFF-high school trip |
WWII Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
Korean War Memorial
Vietnam War Memorial
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| Men's memorial |
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| My cousin US Marine Robert J Overmyer-7/4/69 died in Quang Tri province |
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| Women's memorial |
Martin Luther King Memorial
Jefferson Memorial
FDR Memorial
Capital
WWI Memorial
Arlington Cemetery
Walking along the National Mall
Tuesday Alex and Paul joined us in touring DC.
Our first stop was the National Air and Space Museum. Some random pictures of what we saw there.
After lunch, from the food truck vendors just a block away, we headed to the Museum of Natural History. We visited a few of the different areas but our favorite is always were the gems and minerals are.
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| Hope Diamond |
Wednesday we hung around Cherry Hill Park until it was time for our night tour of the memorials. At 5:45 we boarded our tour bus and headed into DC with our tour guide explaining the history of the city and how Washington DC is laid out.
Thursday Dave and I headed into DC by ourselves again. We tried to get tickets to the Holocaust Museum but the only ones available were at 3:15 which would put us heading back during the commuter hours, which we didn’t want to do. Instead, we headed to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving to see how money is made. No pictures on the tour but we did get a few pictures while in the gift shop. As a former banker, I enjoyed seeing how our currency is made and the security changes over the years. The only bill not having all the security threads and watermarks on it is the 1 dollar bill, not worth worrying about counterfeits counterfeiting it.
We also did a quick walk thru of the National Museum of the American Indian, a repeat for us as we’d been there years before.
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| Mohawk Pipe Tomahawk Circa 1750 |
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| Anishinaabe Pipe Stem with Pipe Bowl Circa 1792 |
On Friday we all headed back into DC. We got off the metro in Chinatown.
From there we headed over to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, Paul was a former Los Angeles CA police officer, he had been here before and wanted to see it again.
Afterward, we headed over to the only museum that we visited where there was a fee to tour, the National Law Enforcement Museum.
It was then time to find some lunch so we started walking towards the National Mall. Along the way, we came upon the United States Navy Memorial.
For lunch, we tried to go to the National Farmers Market but it was way too crowded. So we headed to the best kept secret lunch place. The FDA, they have a cafeteria that is open to the public, supposedly workers in other nearby building come there for lunch too. This was our second visit and it was just as good as the first time. And affordable!!
Saturday Dave and I headed to the Eastern Market in DC. Way too pricey for our blood so we took a long walk back to the metro station stopping to check out Bartholdi Fountain along the way.
We got home and finally took a walk around Cherry Hill Park. Lots of sites of varying lengths, some cabins, and a tent area. A few thoughts about visiting DC. FDA was the best value for lunch, good food at a reasonable price, much better than the street vendors and food trucks. Not realizing we needed tour tickets for a few of the newer museums we didn’t get to see them, so plan in advance if you want to see the Holocaust or African American museums. The metro is easy to use, know what the last stations are on the line you want to go on so you know which subway to get on. The subway is clean, the stations are kept up, and we never felt unsafe there.
Our pictures are backed up, they are on Facebook, so hopefully, we can escape DC with them.
60+ miles for the week.
Until next time...
