Washington D.C.

After being home from Cincinnati for only 4 days, we were back on the road again. This time we were headed to the Women's Lit Festival in Baltimore, but first we wanted to stop off in Washington D.C. Rachel has a good friend from grad school who is now working at George Washington University. Ashley agreed to play tour guide for a day and let us crash at her place.

We got into town around 4:00 and headed right towards the big sites. We parked the car and just started walking towards the mall, and before we knew it we were standing in some of the most famous spots in the world. Here we are at the Washington Monument.

From there it is just a short walk to the new World War Two Memorial. Jackson liked all the water at this one. As you can see in the picture, he wouldn't even look away from the fountains long enough to get a quick photo.
The monument has a pillar representing each state or territory that sent men or women to fight in the war, so of course we had to get a picture of him in front of the one for New York.

From there we walked along the reflection pool to the Lincoln Monument. This was the first time Susie had seen it in its full glory. When we'd been in D.C. for the NCTE convention, they were cleaning Lincoln, and he was all covered up with scaffolding. This time he was looking good, though Jackson found him a little intimidating. Perhaps he senses his family history in relation to Lincoln.

It started to rain a little, so we just parked on the monument steps to enjoy this spectacular view.
While we hanging out there, a woman approached us and asked if we had a camera. She said she was a photographer and she thought Jackson was so beautiful she just had to take a picture of him but she didn't want to freak us out by just snapping a picture with her camera. So, she borrowed ours and took a few for us. We do have to agree with her. This is one cute kid.

After that we passed by the Vietnam Wall. This is always the most heart-wrenching of all the memorials. This time there were letters to the soldiers lining the wall. A group of elementary students had researched and written them when studying Memorial Day. They were very touching messages to tell those names on the wall that they would never be forgotten.

After paying our respects, we got back in car,and headed down to Old Town. On the way we drove by Arlington, which I have a different and complex reaction to each time I see it. We also buzzed very close to the Pentagon, which never fails to make me just a little nervous. Still, when we got into Alexandria, we lightened up considerably. There was every type of ethnic food imaginable. We settled on Spanish because Rach can never pass that up, and we were not disappointed. The tapas at La Tasca were beyond fantastic, and we wrapped up the evening full and happy.

The next morning we were in the mood to be a little less touristy, and we were having such a great time hanging out with Ashley that we decided to just bum around DuPont circle. This is the land of our people, so we always feel at home there. We sat on the patio at Starbucks and did some people watching, then we walked down to Lambda Rising, one of the icons in the independent book store world. We were pleasantly surprised to see a familiar cover on the "Best Seller" shelf. Check out the bottom left corner.

Rach signed a few books before heading out, and we all did a little window shopping, but nothing in that area is anywhere near our price range, so we headed back to the tidal basin area to check out the FDR Memorial. The FDR Memorial is by far the most accessible (duh!)

and has the best quotes. It really makes it clear how much our current regime is lacking in the public speaking department. This one says, "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have to little."

It was also a very inspiring start to the presidential campaign season.

We wrapped up our stay in our nation's capital by visiting GWU to meet Ashley's colleagues and share in their Friday afternoon BBQ. Jackson was the hit of this event as everyone fawned all over him. Here he is bouncing on Ashley.

From there it was on to Baltimore.