Today it is cloudy outside and looks like it could rain at anytime. The temp is a little warmer but still in the low 40’s. We will tour the Tidal Basin today with the blooming cherry blossom trees and see some of the memorials around it like the Lincoln Memorial, the WWII memorial, Vietnam, Korea and FDR’s. We drive downtown early in the morning in order to get a parking space close to the White House. We needed the van as it carries our change of clothes for our private tour of the West Wing which will be late this afternoon.
After doing the monuments, we walk over to the Smithsonian buildings and have a rest and a quick snack. Then we tour the Air and Space and then over to the National Gallery. From there we go to the Archives where we wait in line for about 40 minutes to see the Constitution. While in line it starts a light rain but it doesn’t last long. After that it was up the street to find Ford’s Theater and the Hard Rock where we will have lunch. By the map, I wasn’t really sure where the Hard Rock was but Mike H. had been there on a previous trip and knew it was in the general area of Ford’s. I decided to ask one of the guards in the Archive (big mistake). After getting directions from her on my map we head out. At this point I must interject, and say that “Earl was right”. He said the Hard Rock was on 10th street, but I was taking the gang up 7th street according to the guard’s instructions to who knows where. Turns out this was the second time this trip that a DC local gave us incorrect information. It’s all coming back to me now and I’m remembering that you never ask a local for directions because they don’t know a lot about the local tourist attractions. Earl wasn’t going to let me forget that either and wanted to make sure he got his “Earl was right” included in the trip summary.
We did make it to Hard Rock for lunch but were unable to get in Ford’s Theater as the line was quite long and our timed tickets said 4:15 which would have conflicted with our West Wing tour. After lunch we started meandering back to the van which was something like 15 blocks away. LONG blocks too. On the way there we spotted the Old Post Office on Penn Ave., and stopped in for a look. The first floor is shops and eateries so we browsed around a bit before heading out. There is an elevator to the top floor observation deck but the line was long (as are all lines in DC) so we were unable to go up. It’s a good place to get postcards and lapel pins as one shop is devoted to nothing but lapel pins.
Back at the van we take turns getting dressed for our West Wing tour. The dress of the day is coat and tie. Carlos has forgotten to bring his from the motel so he opts out of the tour. The rest of us go on the tour with our same guide from the Saturday WH tour. He takes us to the press room where the president gives press conferences. I get to sit in Helen Thomas’ chair which is front row center. Earl sits in the Fox News chair. Big surprise there. Fortunately I’ve brought along some Lysol and was able to detox him before getting back in the van. We also get to look into the Oval Office plus the cabinet meeting room as well as the situation room. And we get to use the bathroom, which turns out is a really big deal for all of us. While on the WH grounds by the Rose Garden, we keep seeing the curtains on the second floor, where the first family live, being pulled back. Since the president is out of the country we take this to be the president’s daughter’s looking out at us as we see someone’s hands. I wave up but get no response, probably because they are distracted by Earl combing his hair…
At the end of the day we drive back home up Wisconsin Ave. and Embassy Row. Too bad I saved this for the last day as it started to rain plus it was now dark and the boys didn’t get to see much of the Embassies.
At the end of the day, Mike H. calculates that we have walked 35 miles in just three days of touring. The ride back to Louisville on Monday will be a good time to rest our feet.
Until next time,
Mike A.
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