Wahoo From Washington DC!

The Chas-n-Heather Express rolled into the heart of the problem this past Monday, otherwise known as Washington DC. Politically, we understand why it's its own district -- what state would want a sprawling, poorly-laid-out, crime-ridden burg full of professional alcoholics and sex deviants who almost all work in large, tax-free buildings? :)

Luckily, we stayed in the superbly-planned bedroom community of Germantown (see below) and spent a lot of time seeing the good side of Washington (ie the tourist sights) and even more time delightfully visiting with Maizie, Mike and their twins Gunny and Maisie (yes, different spelling).

This meant that instead of hunting down the offices of our (former) representatives and taking a whiz on their office plants (and that was the toned-down plan!), we instead had a wonderful time, learned a whole lotta history, and walked quite a bit.

Maybe I should say we walked ... a lot!!

I thought we had walked a fair amount in Asheville, but that turned out to be just a warm-up for the marathon we put in on the rainy day we toured around Washington itself. From the National Archives, we walked to the Washington Monument, through the WWII Memorial, the entire length of the National Mall (not to be confused with the Mall of America -- this one's a shallow elongated pond) to the Lincoln Memorial, then around another lake to the FDR Memorial (it's funny how he keeps popping up in our travels!), to the Jefferson Memorial and then finally back to the Smithsonian Institution's Metro station. We believe that adds up to about seven miles. Whew!

Of course we took pictures! They'll be up shortly They are up!