My boss was kind enough to flake on me and then offer to pay for Dave's airfare. My wonderful mother has been staying with Drew at the house (with a field trip to their home for the weekend), and is taking Drew to and from Ms. Stephanie's.
So here we are - Dave and I alone in DC. Dave has been able to watch the World Cup in a local pub, venture to an Oriole's game in Baltimore... all while I had to work. But we've made the most out of this trip. I'll spare you a single photo heavy blog, and spread everything out over a few days.
First up - the White House. We cheated a bit, and after setting up for my conference we hopped on one of the free conference shuttles to take us to a hotel near the White House. It cut down on some of the walking we were in store for.
Here's the US Capital Building from right where we were dropped off the shuttle. The White House is about 2 blocks from where we're standing (The Capital is a bit further down the road).
Here's the white house at about 10am Friday. No, President Obama wasn't home. He was in Toronto for some meeting or other.
After leaving the White House Dave and I made our way around the big Ellipse/grassy area toward the Washington Monument which stands tall over the Downtown/National Mall area.
Dave kept marveling that it wasn't as wide around as he expected. Looking across the National Mall you can see the Lincoln Memorial - and the Reflecting Pond.
So that's where we headed! Oh can I just mention how foul the Reflecting Pond smells?! Ewww. Not only that, but there's no way I'd take one step inside it - with all the green algae and everything. Nasty.
Here's a shot of Dave and I (using my camera's timer) overlooking the Washington Monument and Capital Building from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Over on the grass area there were Military bands and singers performing in honor of the beginning of the Korean War (June 25, 1950). How cool is it to hear our National Anthem sung on the National Mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial/Washington Monument?
Then we marched up the steps to the Lincoln Memorial - only to realize that Dave left his Gatorade Bottle down below. So down he hiked - which is a bit of a trek mixed with the fact it was warm and muggy out. However near his Gatorade bottle, was a black wallet. He stood there for a moment waiting to see if anyone would show up, before making his way back up the steps to meet me.
I told him not to open the wallet - for fear someone will be looking to see where it is and spot Dave going through it. So I went to find a Ranger or place to turn in the wallet. Dave in the meantime disregarded my advice and went through the wallet (to look at the ID but came across a lot of cash). We then turn in the wallet, and the Rangers asked for our name/phone number - presumably to either come after us should the owner claim anything was missing or reward us if they were happy.
Right then we turn around to look at Honest Abe, and that's when Dave spots the woman he thinks the wallet belongs to! So he taps her on the shoulder and asked if she lost a wallet. She didn't speak much English, but sure enough - it was her! We then went back to taking our tourist pictures feeling so good that we turned in her wallet!
Here am I and honest Dave standing in front of Honest Abe after finding the rightful wallet owner.
After the Lincoln Memorial it was a short walk over to our last stop on our "tour" - the Vietnam Memorial. It's just amazing seeing all of those names imprinted on a wall, knowing they never made it home. I think seeing this during a current war really puts everything into perspective.
After visiting the Vietnam Memorial we walked in search of food. By this time it was after Noon, and we hadn't eaten a single thing that day. We started making our way back toward the hotel, and finally found a place to eat near George Washington University. Afterward eating we went back to the hotel for a well deserved nap - we got in to DC the night before and didn't get to sleep until after 1am ET, and had to be awake around 7am to get ready for the conference and then get our sightseeing in.
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