Day 3: DC Area Bus Tour

Monday, March 18, 2019

Still a little artichoke funk this morning. But not as bad. I think we all slept pretty well last night. Zach snd Eli went for a run this morning. Once we all got showered and dressed we were off to the races.

Little bit of traffic into town, but not that bad. It took about 35 minutes to make it to L’Enfant Plaza where we would catch the bus. This tour we signed up for was with DC Trails.

Stops 2 and 3 covered some spots we had plans to visit later on in the week: the Capitol Building, Botanical Gardens and went close to the National Mall.

Stop 4 was the National Air and Space Museum. We could have spent much longer here than we did. It was a very interesting museum and reminder me very much of the museum at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton OH, but on a slightly smaller scale.

Stop 5 brought us to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. This seemed to be a very popular exhibit for good reason. Tickets were sold out until much later in the day. But we did get to see a lot of the museum. Very touching and well-organized presentation of the events leading up to the campaign against the Jews in Europe and how the US got engaged in WW2.

Our bus guide made us aware of a little cafe that was open to the public at the Department of Agriculture Building so that’s where we caught lunch. I was fully prepared to drop some cash at this place, but it was actually quite reasonable. Pizza for most everyone except for Vivian’s staple chicken and fries.

We then headed toward the Bureau of Printing and Engraving to see if we could get in on a tour but they had sold out by that time of the day. Maybe later we’ll head back and see about getting tickets.

Leaving the BP&E, we headed back to the bus stop to continue our tour and we got to see Vice President Pence’s motorcade. We even got a wave from him. That was pretty cool. I got video of it but no pictures.

Stops 6 through 10 on the tour took us around the National Mall again, up Constitution Ave. and up to the north side of DC, past Chinatown and South again past St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and to Ford’s Theater where we would stop.

Stop 11 was for Ford’s Theater and the Petersen House where Abraham Lincoln was shot and passed away, respectively. We got the chance to see the theater and the balcony where Lincoln was sitting where he was assassinated. The guide there gave a very interesting and informative version of the events that lead up to his death, both surrounding him and what was going on in the country at the time.

The Petersen House was very different from what I remembered. It had much more there about Lincoln’s last hours and the hunt for John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s assassin. But it did not have the bloody pillow that contained Lincoln’s blood; that had been moved to the Ford’s Theater Museum. Lincoln’s funeral procession from Washington DC to Springfield IL actually took him through Indianapolis as one of the stops.

It as getting late in he day and we didn’t want miss our ride back on the van so we decided to fast forward our tour a bit and not stop at any more stops. We would see a lot of them later on in the week. I got video of most of this leg, so not a lot of pictures.

Stops 12 through 21 on our tour took us past the White House (but not much of a view), the Jefferson Memorial, the MLK and FDR Memorials, the Lincoln and Vietnam Memorials, east on Constitution Ave., past DC Wharf, and back to L’Enfant Plaza.

What to do for dinner? Good question. I’d heard and remembered from our DC trip in high school that there was good food and some shopping in Georgetown so we decided to head that way to close out the day.

Driving into and out of Georgetown was very cool. We saw a lot of the old townhouses that was all so different from each other. And we got to see a lot of the different embassies that were in that area. Again, I was driving so not a lot of pictures of this. (And no one else in the family can operate a camera apparently.)

Georgetown itself was a very nice little town. We drove around a bit once getting into town. Eli was a bit fascinated with all of the different expensive cars there.

Once we stopped it was a trip to a souvenir shop and dinner at Johnny Rocket’s for some burgers, hotdogs, chips, fries…and chicken…which was priced way higher than it should have been. Yikes.

After Georgetown it was an easy drive home through Metro DC which was very cool at night. We’re planning on coming back one night to see the monuments.