Week 44 - Washington DC - 06-17-2007

Greetings Fellow Americans,

After six nights of dry camping at the Elks, we spent a night in a North Maryland campground. It was a peaceful, woodsy campground. We were just across the bay from Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, DC where they were having thunderstorms and tornado warnings.

The next morning we crossed the Chesapeake Bay and went into Cherry Hill RV Resort in College Park, Maryland. It is a nice big park with pools, spa, sauna, all the good stuff. We spent two full days touring DC. Our tour was the Open Top Sightseeing double decker bus. It made 25 stops and you could get off and on as many times as you wanted. In two days we walked 21 miles. You would need weeks to see it all. But we think it will be better appreciated in small doses.

We took a 6:45 a.m. shuttle bus into Union Station . Union Station was amazing. When you get off the bus, you feel like you are in any old bus and train station. Then you go inside the four story building to shops and restaurants. Parts of it look like a museum, with marbled floors and staircases. Now we see where our tax dollars are going.

Union Station

Lincoln Memorial

The Capitol Mall

The 550 foot Washington Monument. The first 156 feet were built from 1848 to 1854 and then they ran out of money. They continued in 1879 to 1884. Notice the different colored granite at the 156 foot mark.

The White House

The Old Post Office. In 1926 they built the new federal buildings around it and wanted to tear down the post office, but they ran out of money. In 1970 they allocated the money, but protesters managed to save the building.

Inside the Old Post Office.

The view from the twelfth floor tower of the Old Post Office. The red-roofed building is the Ronald Reagan building, the largest building in DC.

The Unknown Horseman, at least to us! After researching using Google Images it appears to be Major General George B. McClellan, a leader in the 1846-1848 Mexican-American War.

The Washington Harbor condos, nice!

The Thomas Jefferson Memorial

The US Capitol

The National Cathedral. Built from 1907 to 1990, it is actually an Episcopal church built and maintained entirely from private funds. It has 112 gargoyles and 1130 grotesques. A gargoyle is a grotesque with the special purpose of directing rain water off the walls of a building.

Arlington Cemetery: JFK Memorial, The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the view of the Washington Memorial which is visible from almost anywhere in the DC area.

Next week we head to New Jersey, Philadelphia PA and New York City.

Goodbye and may God bless America.

Love, Pete and Ellen

Photos from Jun 2007