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IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

This is week two of our vacation in Washington, D.C. and we have done so much it makes me tired just thinking about it. First of all, if it wasn't for our good friends, Stan and Laura who have taken us everywhere and have planned our itineraries, we would still be at the airport scratching our heads. They have showed us around and have been the perfect hosts.

Last Friday, Laura dropped us off at the area of D.C. called the Tidal Basin while she parked the car. We started out at the Jefferson Memorial, walked along the water to the Martin Luther King, FDR and Lincoln memorials and then past the Korean and Vietnam Memorials, along the Reflecting Pool to the World War II Memorial. We finished that part of the hike with the Washington Monument which - living up to our history with famous places - was completely covered in scaffolding as they begin earthquake repairs. We also went past the White House before we stopped for lunch. It was a good six-mile day. But we didn't stop there because we also spent a few hours at the Smithsonian American History Museum before we called it a day. There is so much to see here and you don't want to miss any of it.

We took a drive out to the Marine Corps Museum at Quantico, VA to check that out on Saturday. We toured that facility where we learned about the Marine Corps involvement in the history of the U.S. What a beautiful building and such an impressive sight. Afterwards, we went out to dinner at a restaurant called the "Globe and Laurel" which was full of more memorabilia including police patches from every state that covered the ceiling. I felt like I was under arrest!

Sunday being Mother's Day, we took in a baseball game with the Washington Nationals. They were playing the Chicago Cubs (who I used to be a pretty good fan of but decided to change). Anyway, we ended up taking in the game with Stan and Laura and a couple of good neighbor friends, John and Marlene who are also baseball fans. Thanks to Stan he got us great seats along the first base line and we had a great time. After the game, we came back home and shared our spaghetti dinner with John and Marlene. On top of all that, Lara had sent me some chocolate covered strawberries for Mother's Day, so we had them for dessert!

Monday was our tour of Congress. We had planned ahead and had requested this tour from our Congressman, Kurt Schrader. His staff was very pleasant and showed us through the Capitol Building. We've seen pictures of the rotunda before, but it was even more spectacular in person. The tour was very informative and impressive and we were glad that we had the foresight to plan ahead for it. Afterwards, we had lunch at B Smith's which is located at Union Station. This is a restaurant owned by an African American woman and most of the items on the menu were Southern dishes.

We toured the Newseum on Tuesday. It was one of the stops on the tour when Leslie and Ashtin were here last year and they knew it was a must for us this time. It's a museum dedicated to journalism throughout our history. Dave was fascinated because he spent part of his career as a reporter. Not only do they have a permanent display, but they also have rotating displays. The one we saw was all about JFK and that time that was known as "Camelot". The display was set up because of the 50th anniversary of his assassination this year. The Newseum has 15 galleries and another 15 theaters - including one in "4-D". That was 3-D with seats that moved in reaction to the movie. They even had an exhibit featuring "First Dogs" - presidential dogs through the ages. It was six-stories of fascinating material. We spent the whole day at this place and they finally kicked us out at closing time.

We decided by Wednesday that we were brave enough to be out on our own and get around on the public transportation called Metro. We had purchased our passes earlier so we were dropped off at the Pentagon City station and caught the train to make our way to the downtown D.C. area. The Holocaust Museum, the National Archives and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial were on our agenda that day. Just as we made our way out onto Pennsylvania Avenue and were getting our bearings, the President's motorcade went by. Now that isn't something that you see every day in Wheeler! We found our way to the Holocaust Museum first and found out that there was a two-hour wait. But Dave spoke to an official and when she found out that he is a veteran, we were ushered right in. This is quite a thought provoking exhibit and they really went into detail on what it was like to be a Jew in Europe during the Hitler regime and the suffering that he caused. We spent a good deal of our day looking at four floors of exhibits. After that, we took a half-hour walk to the National Archives to look at the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. We weren't as lucky this time as we had to wait in line for over an hour out in the hot sun as they would only let in about 100 people at a time. It was a long wait and we got a little more sun than we wanted that day. The documents were old and hard to read and I am sure if we went on the internet we would see the same thing, but the point was to actually see them in person.

We walked further that day and found Judiciary Square where the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial was on display. I wanted to look for this mainly to go into their retail shop and get a gift for my son-in-law, Jason who is a police officer in Woodburn. As it turned out, they didn't have the right size of shirt so I will have to go on line to get it after all. It was getting into the rush hour by the time we finished there so we found the closest Metro station. The one we rode required a transfer to get to our stop, but we did okay and ended up where we were supposed to be without too many detours. We waited in the food court back at Pentagon City until Stan could pick us up. It was a great day.

Thursday, we decided to take a road trip with Stan and Laura, so we headed down south to the area east of Richmond. We took the scenic route and our first stop was at Irvington, VA where Dave wanted to visit the Steamboat Era Museum. It was quite a place and it was interesting to see how the steamboats played their part in the early history hauling goods and people up and down the Chesapeake Bay. At the museum's recommendation we had lunch at a very nice resort in Irvington called "The Tides" where we ate our lunch looking out at this spectacular view of the harbor.

We will be staying a couple of days in the area while we tour the early settlements of Williamsburg, Yorktown and Jamestown before we head back up north. I know this has been quite a lengthy report but so much has been going on and each day brings a new adventure. There is so much to see and I don't want to miss a thing.