DC Entry - Day 1

When all was said and done Friday morning, (getting up, and getting Taylor to Ash's parents house) we were on the road towards DC around 1030am. It was a great day out, perfect weather, nice temperature... but lots of traffic. All was pretty smooth sailing except for that spot on I-64 near Williamsburg where 4 lanes go down to 2 and all hell breaks loose. After that delay, which set us back around 15 minutes according to the GPS, once again it was open roads. That is of course, until we got closer to DC and found out first hand how ridiculous Tyson's Corner area traffic is. It was moving, but at like 10MPH for quite awhile. Once we broke free not far from Arlington Memorial Bridge we were good to go. I had never personally driven into DC, but the view coming in from this direction is awesome, right up behind the Lincoln Memorial. Not 10 minutes later we were at 19th and L, parking at our hotel.

Concerning parking. I knew it was going to be like $20/day to keep the car in the garage, that was cool. The garage is underground, and is not owned by the hotel, but someone else. So I start to pull in and get stopped by a dude who hardly commands the English language. I tell him I'm staying at The Quincy, so he writes me a ticket for the garage. Then put my name and room number on a small envelope. We park, and start walking back up towards the hotel when he stops and says I have to give him the key. Now I don't know about you, but maybe people are used to that, but not me. Since when do you have to leave your key with the garage staff... seemed shady to me, but whatever.

After checking in and dropping our stuff off in the room (and noticing there was no flat screen like they show on the website) we were off to see the sites. The main reason I chose The Quincy hotel was because it was within 2 miles of everything we wanted to see. And that was about my limit of wanting to walk. It worked out well.

We headed down L, made a right on Connecticut, then a left over towards the backside of the White House by cutting through Farragut Square and Lafayette Square. There was a nice amount of people here, but thankfully, not as much as I thought there might have been. We got some good pics from here and moved on down the street and around the US Treasury Department building. It was the best way to get around to the front of the White House, the side where 99% of pictures of the place are taken. Upon showing up, the place was packed. No wonder the backside was pretty bare, everyone was up front. It was tough to get up along the black iron fence, but we managed and landed some sweet shots.

After the White House, we walked down over to First Divsion Monument. I thought it was pretty neat. It's a tall cylindrical monument topped by a gold statue of Victory. Not far from it was the Second Division Memorial, again with more gold... this time in the form of a flaming sword, very cool! After this we headed south, directly towards the Washington Monument. You've all seen it in one way or another, but I think in person really is the best way. It was a beautiful day out, and the pics came out great.

We then set out towards the Lincoln Memorial. Got a great view of the Jefferson Memorial while walking. On the way we stopped at the National World War II Memorial. I don't think this was here the last time I came through DC years ago. It's an oval shapped memorial with a pool in the center that is flanked by two fountains. Each end of the oval represents the "Atlantic" and "Pacific" states, and all states and territories are etched in stone, along with many famous quotes from the time period, such as the notorious, "...day of infamy" speech by FDR. There is also this large concave wall that has a gold star on it for every US life lost during the campaign.

We continued out walk along the reflecting pool to finally meet up with ol' Abe. He was definitely the site to see of the day. Lots and lots of people were all over his steps and inside near the large seated statue of the great, late president. All of those people, yet eerily quiet inside... peace and respect.

It was around 5pm at this point, and we started walking back towards the hotel, passed Rawlins Park along the edge of George Washington University, passed the IMF and World Bank and finally to the hotel.

We took a quick shower and then met up with Jen and Chris around the corner for dinner at Famous Luigi's. The place looked great by the pictures, and I figured it would be at least a step above The Olive Garden. The place was ridiculously packed. Good thing a Fire Marshall never walked in! We finally got seated after damned near an hour of waiting. For the four of us, it was a tight fit, but we managed. Ash got a great looking Lasagna the size of my head, and I had a great tasting Veal Parm, which I don't think I've had since my days at BCT in Ft. Jackson.

We ended the night arguing over late night drinks, and hitting up CVS for some essentials. Had to get up early the next morning so we didn't stay out late.

Below you can see the path we walked over the whole day. The hotel wold be at the top in the "12 o clock" position, and we took the path in a clockwise direction, as identified by the large red arrow.