June 30, 2012

Well, I guess we are not going to get to be tourists on this trip. We seem to be spending all of our time waiting for buses! It makes me appreciate having my husband here to play chauffeur. It took us a little over an hour to get to the DAR this morning and almost 2 hours to get back. At least the heat was a little better. We heard the big storm last night around midnight-lots of thunder & lightning - and found out today that there were rogue winds all around the area and some serious power outages. Luckily we were not affected. We spent another fun day in Constitution Hall; voting, shopping, eating, and researching. So far we haven't found anything too interesting. We met a lovely 82 year old woman from Missouri who taught us how to needle tat.

June 29, 2012

Well we survived the record heat of Washington today! Supposedly it got up to 104 deg. We did take the bus, and survived standing outside waiting for it to come. But, most of our time was spent inside - thank heaven!. We went to Colonial Dames to do research. It is in a lovely old house, actually not that far from our hotel. Then we went to buy cupcakes at Georgetown cupcakes because Dee saw it on TV. She says it doesn't hold a candle to GiGi's in Tampa. We ended up back at DAR in time for the evening program. It was National Defense evening and it was so moving and inspiring. Director David Petraeus was the key note speaker. His wife, Hollister, received the President General's Medallion. The other awards were to a woman in the military, an Army nurse, a 17 year old youth who has made a data base of Arlington tombs, and several awards to veterans. What a delightful evening!  

I may already be sorry that I started this! It is midnight in DC (only 9 at home), and I am exhausted. Samantha Shaffer spent the evening with us. Dee and I made it to Constitution Hall around 11 a.m. We found a new bus to take - but it stops running at 10, so we missed it and were back to plan A! Anyway, Dee wanted to do research in the wonderful DAR library, I wanted to shop and we both wanted to eat lunch, so we were successful in those endeavors! The All American DAR chorus performed our 3 pieces at the evening session, so I was glad Sam was able to join us. It was lots of fun and people seemed to enjoy the evening. Jan Cousteau, the wife of Jacque's son, Phillipe, who was killed several years ago, was one of the honorees. Sam came back to the hotel with us and we had a nice conversation while sitting outside in the courtyard near the pool. We put her in a taxi back to her car for her drive back to Baltimore.

PS I appreciated the comments I got - I am not sure what you need to do to make a comment. Any advice?

Wednesday, June 27, 2012-Washington DC

It's Wednesday night and we had our first full day in Washington. The weather has been lovely - they are predicting hot and humid, so I am enjoying it while I can. Our hotel provided a full complimentary breakfast, so we slept in and enjoyed that before going out to get our transportation figured out. DC has a SmartTrip card which you buy for $5 and then put money on to use for the subway or bus. Seniors can travel at half price, but you have to apply for the senior card at only certain locations. So, we had to go to Metro Center to get that. Dee bought one at regular price. It took most of the morning. We got a taxi to move to the Courtyard by Marriott where we would be staying for the rest of the time. The room is much smaller and they don't have complimentary breakfast. But it is a lot less expensive. So, we used our SmartCards and took the bus to Constitution Hall for the DAR Continental Congress. I went to DAR Chorus rehearsal and Dee registered us. We decided to look for a place for dinner and ended up walking about 5 blocks to 17th & G Street. We found a sports bar, which was kind of fun, just so - so food. Dee wanted to walk over to the White House. Something was going on (perhaps the awarding of Congressional Medals to the black soldiers of WWII) and the streets were closed. We got as close as we could to take a picture. By then we were exhausted, so found the bus to come back to our hotel. Tomorrow is another day!

It's already after 10 p.m. and I am still getting ready for my plane flight which leaves tomorrow, June 26 at 8a.m. I am excited to be off on a new adventure, but concerned that I have forgotten something (what else is new!)  I am using "Little Red" to write this post, so that is exciting, too.

I'm just starting

A new experience for me! I decided that I should try blogging as a way to record my trips. I will be leaving for Washington DC in 2 weeks, so I wanted to get this set up so I can write daily updates for family and friends. We will see how it works.