Back in Washington DC

I can’t believe that I was in Washington DC just a little over two months ago and here I am again. This time I came with friends, Holly and Bob, and my husband, Don. We left Los Angeles last Friday (June 19) and got into Reagan National Airport late at night. We rented a car and drove to our hotel in Alexandria.

The next day, Saturday, was spent getting reacquainted with Washington under the guidance of Holly’s daughter, Samantha. She has lived on the east coast for several years and was having fun revisiting her old haunts and sharing stories with us. We had breakfast at Edie and Bob’s Restaurant, which is an old Washington standby diner. They must be doing well because they now have two more locations!

We have spent the last few days looking for new spots to tour. We visited Theodore Roosevelt Island in the Potomac River. One walks across a bridge to the island and through a heavily forested area to get to the monument. There is a large concrete moat surrounding the concrete plaza with the concrete statue of Teddy Roosevelt on a concrete Dias. There is a lovely concrete fountain in the middle with no water, as the moat has no water. The circular area is surrounded by a circle of pine trees and there are four concrete tablets with sayings from Teddy. It is quite an impressive monument, but in need of some care.

It was quite hot and humid, so we decided we had had enough walking and spent the rest of the day driving around in the comfort of our air conditioned car! We saw Georgetown, Georgetown University (it looks a lot like UCLA), drove along the George Washington Parkway and saw the lovely views of the Washington and Jefferson Monuments, watched the people boating on the Potomac River, drove by lots of embassies, and, of course, drove along the Mall. Traffic was a mess, and signage is spotty, so we spent lots of time making u-turns. But everything we saw was so clean and green and lovely. We ended the day with a spectacular thunder storm.