We set our alarm the night before for 8 a.m. Mom got up, grabbed a shower, I got up a little bit later and started getting dressed for the day. I put a bunch of stuff in my day pack for all the walking around DC we were going to do. I finished up once Mom was out of the shower, she got the rest of her stuff ready, we ate some bananas we bought from the Wawa the night before and then packed up our stuff to take to the car.
We went to the lobby and Mom checked us out and I took our luggage to the car. Mom asked the front desk clerk if we could keep our car in the parking garage while we walked around DC. They said we could until 5:00. Perfect! Now, I didn't have to find a place to park the car. I looked at the map to find out where we had to go to get to the Rosslyn metro station. I knew it was a few blocks from our hotel...which is the reason why we chose this hotel in the first place. The price and the location.
We found the metro station and went inside. I saw the ticket kiosk, found out what we wanted to do, which was basically the all-day pass for a flat fee.
I think it was $13 per person for the unlimited day pass. It was way cheaper than trying to find a place to park! We each got our metro cards, the guy behind the security glass gave us a physical map we could use, I thanked him, we scanned our cards at the turnstiles and went down the escalator. Mom asked me which one we were supposed to get on. I told her any of the silver, blue or orange lines. They all go to the Smithsonian stop, which was where we were going on The Mall.
The silver line was the one we ended up going on because it showed up first. We sat down and Mom said these were nicer than the ones in NYC. Across the aisle was this this homeless looking man with a cheese box (the kind of box the large piece of Velveeta cheese comes in) full of metro cards. He must collect the cards when people discard them hoping that they still have some fare on them so he can ride the train. We kept to ourselves and waited for our stop.
We got off the train, through the turnstile and up the really steep escalator out to The Mall of DC. I asked her what she wanted to see first. She said she had no idea where to start so I became the tour guide since I've been to DC before. It was many years ago back in 2005, when I came here with my fastpitch team for a national club tournament. It was hosted by the Navy out of Annapolis. We played our games in Glen Burnie. When we were done with the tournament we came to DC as a team and did some exploring. I still remember my way around even though we didn't spend a lot of time there...maybe a few hours or so.
We started at the Washington Monument since it was literally right there when we emerged out of the metro station. My plan was to make a large circle, hitting as many of the main attractions as possible and doing a lot of the virtual caches as well. Below the Washington Monument were people waiting to go inside. I told Mom we didn't need to go inside, you'd just be paying for the view, which I'm sure is pretty amazing.
We walked along the Reflecting Pool down to the Lincoln Monument. We skipped the Korean War Memorial because there was construction going on, but I was able to do the virtual cache, I Can See Lincoln (GC2657), anyway. We stopped by the World War II Memorial but there were a lot of people there. Many veterans from Indiana were there for some special outing. I saw many old men who served in the war being pushed around in wheelchairs. They were pretty excited to be there. Each person who served were greeted by one of the congressmen in a snappy three-piece suit. I wanted to get out of their way so we could see the memorial and do the virtual cache.
The wind blew pretty hard as we were walking to Lincoln. We saw several groups of kids and chaperones wandering from one monument to another. I guess this is what we get for coming during the week while school is still in session. Oh well, I was just glad I wasn't at work.
We got to the Lincoln Memorial and walked up the stairs. I told Mom there was an inscription in the marble of where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his I Have a Dream speech in 1963. She thought that was pretty cool but it was surrounded by a bunch of kids so we will visit it on our way out after seeing Lincoln.
The first time I was here, I really thought Lincoln was going to be much bigger. I was surprised. Mom was too. She thought he was going to be bigger as well. We waited in line to get a photo and a nice lady asked us if she could take our picture. We said sure. She took a couple and thanked her. She asked if we could get one of her and her family. We returned the favor. We got a couple more photos in, Mom took everything in, I did A View of an "Honest Man" (GCEB2) and then we went to the MLK inscription.
We walked past a gift shop and went inside. Mom was looking for a Washington DC T-shirt but didn't find a good one. Instead, she bought a water and a sticker. I bought a couple postcards. We weren't sure we were going to walk past a store anytime soon.
From there, we walked to the Vietnam Memorial on the northeast side of the Lincoln Memorial. I wanted to see the memorial and do the virtual cache. We got to the location and again, there were a bunch of kids everywhere writing something down in little booklets. We had to wait until they weren't in the way anymore. Mom took a couple pics without children in them, we walked over to the wall and did So We Will Remember Them (GC25E1). It had us count bricks and explain our position at the wall, mostly just to prove we actually visited.
Afterwards, we walked across Constitution Avenue to go visit the Einstein statue. This was a place I didn't go the first time I was here, so I got to see something new this time. It was also nice that when we got there, we were the only ones there for a little while. We got our photos in and of course did the virtual cache, Everything is Relative (GC1B64). We had to find an inscription near the statue to finish the phrase. We looked at our map and moved onto the next location to visit.
We walked back across Constitution Avenue and into the Mall area again. I saw there was another virtual cache nearby, Well I Do Declare...(GC77F7). I guess there was a number of people who are from DC or have been to DC several times that never knew this spot existed if it weren't for geocaching. I know I wasn't aware of it because the last time I was in DC, it was several years ago, we were strapped for time and I wasn't a geocacher. It was a memorial for the people who signed the Declaration of Independence. To fulfill the requirements, we had to find and name the gentleman from St Catherine's Island. It was an easy find. We talked to the ducks nearby.
We continued walking down the Mall and noticed we were getting closer to the White House. We grabbed Out of the Swamp (GC9D91). We had to answer who lived in the lock keeper's house and what used to be where Constitution Avenue was. It was an easy walk by and grab. I walked across the street and joined up with Mom. We walked up through the lawn area towards the back of the White House. I stopped to grab Mile Zero (GC2E52) really quick while Mom kept walking. I just had to decipher what the Roman numerals said plus I thought the Zero Milestone was pretty cool. I got some photos and then caught up to Mom.
We walked up 15th Street and then onto Pennsylvania Avenue for a view of the White House. There was some sort of fence up in front of it, so you got an obstructed view of it. Also, there was a protest guy who had his crap set up at the best viewpoint of it so we had to work around the loser. I told Mom that I remembered this area looking different when I was here. Maybe they've done some upgrades since 2005?
We got our fill and moved east on Pennsylvania Avenue towards Ford's Theater. We stopped at an actual souvenir store and Mom found what she was looking for. I bought a replica of the Declaration of Independence because the last time I was here I wanted one but didn't have extra money to purchase one. This time I did. I also enjoy watching National Treasure (2004) and National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007). I also purchased a sticker for when I found time to do my scrapbooking again.
We walked down F Street to 10th Street where Ford's Theater was located. There was an Adventure Lab, a Wherigo and a virtual cache here. We only had time for the virtual cache, The Actor Really Did Break a Leg (GC8B0C). We had to answer a couple questions about the Ford Theater and the house Lincoln died in across the street inside of. Mom took a few pictures and we walked back to Pennsylvania Avenue.
We followed the road and saw another memorial, this time it was to all the branches of the military. Yes, there was a virtual cache here as well. The Lone Sailor (GCCA5E) and we had to find out which branch of the military was represented on the sixth panel. It didn't take us very long to find it and make a note of it.
We started walking towards the US Capitol building that noticed a blue rooster on the roof of one of the buildings across the street. We thought that as super random. Mom mentioned that the federal buildings and where they were located in Washington DC is how she imagined the Financial District and Wall Street would look like in NYC. I told her NYC is much older and denser than DC is.
We walked past the Canadian Embassy because there was an easy virtual cache there too. Neighbors (GC8A46) took us to a statue next to the building. We had to identify characteristics about it, the name and artist of the sculpture and we had to find another piece for the virtual that we couldn't pinpoint but I was able to find it online when we got home.
We continued on down Pennsylvania Avenue. This was the furthest east I've been in DC sightseeing. When I was here with my fastpitch team we did not walk to the Capitol Building because it was getting dark, we were running out of time and had to get back to the train.
There were a lot of people over by the Capitol. We noticed that there was some scaffolding in front of the Capitol Building. Everything must have something in front of it this time of year. What gives? Were they cleaning it? Up for repairs? Oh well. There was a huge class of kids with the teacher and chaperones trying to get everyone organized to take a group picture with the Capitol in the background. This actually would have been a really cool field trip when I was in school. It would never happen though because it would have been really expensive and hard to organize it all. Plus, we lived really far away.
Mom and I found a couple spots to admire the Capitol Building. Our Capitol building in Olympia was modeled after the one in DC...sorta like its mini me. We hung out in this area for a little bit. I did the virtual cache, Capitol View (GCDE1). It was basically a selfie with the Capitol Building. At this point of the day, we were getting tired, we saw pretty much all we wanted to see and then some on The Mall. We stopped by the Botanical Gardens building and the Forest Service building on the way to the closest metro station. I did Not Your Granny's Garden (GC2C14) and Forest Service Info Center (GC1600). They were quick and easy virtual caches.
We walked the few blocks to the Federal Center metro, rode the steep escalator down to the platform, swiped our metro cards, went through the turnstile and waited for the next train to Rosslyn station. The first one that came was another silver line. We hopped on, made ourselves comfortable and discussed what we were going to do next once we got to our stop. We were on the train for about 20 minutes. When it was our turn to get off, we made sure we had all of our stuff, exited the train, went up the really steep escalator and walked the same way back to our hotel.
We got into the car, I got the Nuvi set up and asked Mom where she wanted to go first. She said she wanted to go to the Iwo Jima Memorial/Marine Corps Memorial, just on the other side of the highway from the Red Lion. I put in the coords and off we went. It took us just a few minutes to get there. We followed the road around t the small parking lot. I am glad we got there when we did because a tour bus full of people pulled up just as we got to the statue. The memorial was dedicated in 1954 to all Marines who have given their lives in defense of the United States since November 10, 1775. I was going to do the virtual cache there but there were too many pieces to it, and we didn't have a lot of time to go to several waypoints to complete it. We got back in the car, and I asked Mom where she wanted to go to next.
She said she wanted to go see the Arlington National Cemetery, but we didn't have to go inside. It is a 639-acre military cemetery dedicated to those who have died since 1864 (during the Civil War). There are more than 400,000 graves inside the cemetery controlled by the United States Department of Defense. One of the most frequently visited sites in the cemetery is the grave of former President John F. Kennedy. I found a place to drop Mom off so she could get a couple shots of the cemetery. I turned the car around and picked her up when she was done. We just didn't have a ton of time to explore but we were at least able to see it.
Mom wanted to see one more place before we left DC to head up to Pennsylvania. She found this place while searching for things to do in DC. It looked like a cool place to go see but the directions were absolutely horrible. It talked about a graffiti wall over by Georgetown and how picturesque it was. But, getting there was super confusing. After leaving the cemetery, I tried getting some directions into the Nuvi but they didn't want to work for some reason. It did not recognize the address we were putting in for it. These were ones we took off of the site Mom found. Instead, I had to manually touch the screen for M Street, this is where they wanted you to park. From there, you were kinda on your own.
We found M Street and found a parking lot to park in. The lot was cheap and supervised, so we know our car was going to be looked after, plus we were only going to be there for an hour or so. We walked down to the canal. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Trail is below next to the river and above next to the canal. We took the one down by the river. We should have stayed on the Capital Crescent Trail next to the canal. We wandered around on the trail next to the river for about a half hour. We saw the "boat house" the directions spoke of, but we weren't finding this graffiti wall. We walked down the trail a little bit more, under an old bridge, and then decided to walk back. It was getting sketchy.
Then Mom saw this questionable staircase that has seen better days. I went up to see what was above and it was part of the canal trail and wait, there was the graffiti wall we were looking for! The directions off of that site were so awful and misleading. They were talking about a road on the map that didn't exist. We never found that road.
For the next set of adventurers, park in the lot off of M Street and 33rd Street. Walk down to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Trail and cross the footbridge to the other side of the canal onto the Capital Crescent Trail, walk along there, under the Key Bridge and Whitehurst Fwy and to the left you will find the graffiti wall. The boat house is directly below. There might be an easier way, but this way worked for us after figuring it out. Do not rely on the stuff you find online because you could be walking around like a chicken with your head cut off.
Mom followed me up the staircase and we enjoyed the area for about fifteen minutes. We were the only ones up there, so we had the place to ourselves. We took several photos, enjoyed the views of the Potomac River and the bridges that took you across to Virginia. It was a nice view, and I can see why people come to hang out here. I was sad there wasn't a geocache at this spot though.
We walked back to the car, thanked the ticket person for watching over it, paid them a couple bucks and I set the Nuvi to Josh and Amy's address in Pennsylvania. We had about a two hour drive a head of us.
We kinda left later than we anticipated and got stuck in the rush hour traffic leaving DC and entering Maryland. We followed the north side of Potomac River along Canal Road. I didn't know this area, so I had no idea how long we were going to be in traffic. We should have used the restroom before we left. That was my bad and I regretted it. Mom called Amy to let her know we were leaving DC and not to worry about making us food because we weren't sure when we were going to arrive. She told us thanks for checking in.
We merged onto I-495 and followed that interstate for a while. I asked Mom what kind of food she wanted, and she said pizza. We got off the interstate and looked for some pizza in the nearby area. I mostly wanted to use the restroom. We found a place, but it was aways off of the interstate. Oh well, we followed Nuvi's directions anyway. It took us into Rockville, Maryland, to an upscale place called Matchbox. We got there just before 6ish.
We were seated and both Mom and I ordered strawberry lemonades and side salads while we waited for our pepperoni pizza. I used the bathroom right away and washed my hands. Our lemonades and side salads arrived while I was in the restroom. It was weird drinking from paper straws. The salads hit the spot and the pizza definitely hit the spot when it arrived.
We enjoyed our food, paid for our meal, used the restroom one more time and went back out to the car. I wanted to get the geocache right outside the building. It was called The Purple People Puzzler (GC9Q831) and it was an easy find. I signed our names and then headed over to the grocery store, The Fresh Market, across the parking lot. Mom wanted some water, and I wanted a Coke Zero. We found some chocolate covered peanuts to eat as dessert as well. We paid and got back on the road to the interstate.
I-495 eventually merged into I-270 and the traffic was insane. The interstates in Maryland (possibly elsewhere as well) have the actual freeway and these side roads that are a part of the freeway too. I am not sure what their function was but maybe for people who are getting off and, on the interstate, frequently and the main interstate is for people driving through. We followed I-270 to Frederick until Nuvi told us to get off on US 15 to head northeast into southern Pennsylvania.
We got off the highway at York Springs and followed PA-94 into Carlisle. That road was sure hilly. We drove through the center of town and followed Nuvi's directions to Josh and Amy's house. We got there around 9ish.
We parked in the driveway out of their way, unloaded our stuff and sat in the living room and visited with Josh and Amy for a while. Josh went to bed and Amy stayed up with us and chatted for a little bit longer. Then we all got ready for bed soon after. I was tired after the long day and driving. We drove about 120 miles that day through three states and DC. We went to bed around midnight.
Next Adventure: NYC-DC-PA Vacation: Walking Around Carlisle and Boiling Springs, PA
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