WHAT I DID ON SUMMER VACATION

What a trip. In all the driving we did, we could have gone to Iowa and then some. It was a lot of fun, though, and definitely worth the trip.

We left directly after I got off work for Alexandria, VA, where Dan has a college friend that we were crashing with. We encountered torrential downpours and hit the NYC area right around 5pm--awesome. $30-40 in tolls took us on the NJ turnpike, through Delaware, Maryland, and eventually into Virginia. We saw an amazing sunset in Delaware. There was a lot of construction, and therefore traffic, in Maryland. We arrived around 11:30 at night and had our car cased by a scary thug while we were unloading it. He asked if we had a cigarette while peering into our car, presumably to see if we had any valuables worth breaking the windows for. Thankfully, we do not.

Thursday Dan had a rally to attend, and I decided to head off to Georgetown. I never go on adventures on my own anymore, so it was exciting to be in a new city and figure it out without anyone else to help me. Washington is extremely easy to navigate, especially the metro system, so it wasn't challenging. Georgetown was pretty stupid, mostly filled with high-end shops. I walked along the canal, which was green and smelly, and then found cover from the nearly 100 degree heat in a mall. I explored more, and eventually ended up in a Barnes & Noble cafe. I spent an hour or two reading there, and then went back to meet Dan. After a fiasco where we couldn't find each other in the train station, due to it's size and the fact that Dan's phone didn't have reception, we headed to Annapolis to meet a friend for dinner.

I had a soft shell crab sandwich for dinner. Now, when I ordered it, I was thinking "Oh, yummy. I like crab." When this came to the table:

I was somewhat surprised. This is not an actual picture of my soft shell crab sandwich, but you get the idea. It was delicious, definitely the freshest seafood I've eaten. YUM!

Friday was spent seeing the sights in Washington. We didn't have very much time there because we had to drive up to Western NY that night and didn't want to be in the car too late, but we saw a lot: The White House, the Museum of Natural History, the Washington Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam Memorial. You could spend a week there and not see everything, especially with all of the museums. Which, by the way, are all free. I didn't like D.C. that much, but I would like to explore more of the museums.

TO BE CONTINUED...