Washington, D.C.

Just a note about the order of the Civil War battles.  We are visiting battlefields completely out of order.  It's often confusing for us and we have to continually remind ourselves what year we are in.  So hang in there loyal followers.

I'll do one big entry for Washington, D.C. and then throw in a bunch of photos.  We camped in the woods and drove to a Metro stop and rode the sad and neglected DC Metro into the city.  We allowed ourselves two days and two museums and a complete tour of the Mall.

First day we emerged from the Metro station and walked to the Mall and Jeremy stood staring in disbelief at the magnitude and the space.  We started with the Air and Space Museum and were worn out by about 2:00 pm so we walked to and around the capitol and back to find Ford's Theater, where President Lincoln was shot.  We walked by the FBI, the EPA and numerous other government buildings.  Finally, back to the Metro, then the truck and back to the woods and the camper.  Now we are away from the coast and we definitely have fall.  The heater in the camper came on over night and the outside temperature was about 50.

Day two we head for the National Museum of Art and again stagger out in the early afternoon.  Today we head west on the Mall for the Lincoln Memorial.  We stood on the spot that Martin Luther King gave his "I have a dream speech" in 1963.  We then walked by the Vietnam War memorials and took a brief pass through the Museum of American History.  Back to the Metro and the pickup and the woods for another chilly night.  Traffic in the DC area is unbelievable.  At 9:00 pm, the highways were still crowded with cars leaving the city - commuters?

Our campsite in the woods.

The White House

The Lincoln Memorial

This was the busiest site on the Mall

The Reflecting Pool, the Washington Monument and the Capitol

The Capitol

Ford's Theater where John Wilkes Booth took revenge on President Lincoln after the Union had won and the war was over.