Not Quite London., but was once ruled by England… - UPDATED 7/26 About This Page:

[Lemap760]

Robin your trip report is cracking me up. The stories of the women in the airport are hysterical. I guess someone didn't pay attention in math class.

[Hugmonster]

Oh my... You had me laughing so hard... More please!!!

[whoSEZ]

Robin!

More please.

[Fortissimo]

Finally! The Capitol and a secret Metro line!

Our plans for the day were to take the Metro into the city, visit the Air and Space Museum, eat lunch somewhere, visit the Capitol at 2, and then go to the Natural History Museum until it closed.

The only plan that didn’t change was the Capitol tour at 2.

We ate our free breakfast of eggs, sausage, fruit, French toast, cereal, juice, breakfast burrito, or anything else we wanted except donuts. Now who has ever heard of a hotel that serves free breakfasts not having donuts? Oh, we didn’t eat all that food; I just wanted to let you know what our choices were.

While eating, we decided to change our course of action for the day. Our plans were tossed out the window and new ones were drawn up. Instead of the Air and Space Museum, we were just going to take the Metro and get off somewhere and start walking. Now does that sound like a great plan or what?

We left the hotel at about 7:30 and followed the masses to the Metro. Last night we were really the only people at the station, but my how things change during rush hour! We quickly learned to stay on the right side of the escalator so we would not hinder those brave (or crazy) enough to run down the steps. I can’t even walk in heals, how do these ladies run down steep, moving stairs in them?

When we reached the Orange Line platform, the sign said the Metro was arriving in four minutes. You know what that means don’t you? All the people who ran down the stairs were waiting for the same train we were.

Other than people watching, the great thing about the Metro is there is a map of all of the stops and transfers by each door. The bad thing about the Metro is, when you are only 5’ 2¼”, you can’t reach the loops to hold on if you are not lucky enough to get a seat or near a pole. Instead, I just played the, “don’t hold onto anything while the train is moving” game to see how long I would last.

I made it to the second curve before grabbing some stranger.

Looking at the map by the door, it appeared the Farragut West station was as good as any to get off. So, we were herded out the doors and out of the station by the bustling crowd. As we reached daylight, we realized there were no mountains that told us which way was west. So, we just continued to move down the street with the herd.

As we reached the first corner, we noticed there were great signs pointing the different attractions in the area. However, we didn’t see one for the White House. A man overheard us and told us which way to go down 19th St. to Pennsylvania Ave. and then follow those signs. Seems we had already gone the wrong direction, as we went West when exiting the Metro Station instead of East.

When we got to Pennsylvania Ave, somehow we got on H St. and took that to 17th St. which we then took to Pennsylvania Ave. Thank goodness for the people watching us try to read a map in our guide book or who knows where we would have ended up! Seriously, DC needs a few mountains so we could figure out which way West was!

The first photo op of the day was the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, on the corner of 17th St and Pennsylvania Ave.





While we couldn’t visit the VP today, the Eisenhower Building is a gorgeous architectural landmark.

Just down the street we came to the White House, with only small crowds, several Homeland Security agents, and one protester:



The police puppy had just watered the bush right before I took the picture. For some reason I found this hilarious.





And our protester from across the street with the White House in the background:



While checking out the protester, we found a lovely park, Lafayette Square. Here, we found Andrew Jackson’s statue:




Part of the Jackson Statue with the White House and the Washington Monument peeking over it:


Security on the roof of the White House:


Finally, the statue of Lafayette:



As we ended our mini tour of Pennsylvania Ave, we passed a gated area between the Treasury Department and the White House:


The Treasury Department was the last building before we took a right down what I believe was 15th St.




Continued in next post sometime tomorrow...

[chezp]

Great to see you writing again Robin - what a wonderful update. It looks like a stunning day in those photos with beautiful blue skies.

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures Robin!! I too don't like that I can't reach any of the handrails on the Metro either!! Discrimination, I tell ya You're off to a great start!! More please

[Wendyismyname]

Great so far Robin!!! I am so glad I found this because my DS goes to DC in 2 weeks!! Love those pictures!

[jams67]

LOVE the trip report so far!! The pictures are beautiful!!

What happened with the worker guys?? You promised to let us know!

Julie

[Fortissimo]

Originally Posted by jams67

LOVE the trip report so far!! The pictures are beautiful!!

What happened with the worker guys?? You promised to let us know!

Julie

Thanks! I am working on the next installment, really I am! So hopefully you will soon find out about the workers.

[emtpej]

It's always interesting to me to see what everyone thinks of our little ol town on the Potomac...
Your TR looks good so far!