So begins our stay in DC

I will try to keep a fairly good record of our exploits and adventures here in the Nation's capital. It is exciting and I am particularly happy about the amazing opportunities there are for pictures!

Our trip began at the bus stop outside of the Barlow Center. I took an exterior shot of the Center - the top 2.5 windows on the right are ours.

Once on the bus we went past some of the "Occupy" folk which was interesting. And then we came to our stop just outside of Union Station (where I will also be getting off to work at the FJC).

Our first grand site was the Capital.

So here we are. Washington DC is very different for both Kass and I, but we are finding a way to call it home as quickly as we can. Our first full day in DC consisted of going to Safeway on the bus, eating a modest lunch, and then going to the the Mall for the second time. We began at the capital building and headed towards the Lincoln Memorial (2 miles) before walking home another 2 miles or so.

Our first stop was the capital building. We are going to tour the inside next week but just looking at the exterior was amazing! And it was a beautiful day which really helped out.

We moved along to the US Botanical Garden and looked at many plants and flowers. It was quite nice and I had a good time taking pictures. We saw some Joshua trees, and other things that reminded us of CA and the high desert too. These were some really cool flowers that Kassie told me are called "orchids."

After the Botanical Garden we walked past a few Smithsonians - making a note of the ones we would really like to check out in the coming months, and came to the Smithsonian castle. Basically it is a really cool information booth.

We saw some neat stuff in there (including Smithson's tomb) and obtained a helpful map. When we came out we thought we had enough juice to go into what seemed to be the smallest museum on the Mall - the Gallery of International Art. Well, as we walked into the tiny building and allowed the security guard to look into our bags it dawned on us that the whole thing was underground. We descended lower and lower and it soon became apparent that it was a huge museum - and indeed we had no energy to keep going so turning back was our only option.

We came out of the underground mine of greatness and began heading home. This led us past the Washington Monument.

It was so beautiful in the evening sunlight. I felt inspired but my legs (and Kassie's) continually reminded us that they were hurting very badly. So we walked the rest of the way past George Washington University to our wee home. It was a great day!