We were up, ate a quick breakfast and headed out in search for an internet site. We found a Coffee Shop and set up for an hour or so of catching up. Ben needed to get Sprinter tags updated and reserve a hotel room for our return trip. We will stay in Birmingham on Friday night and eat Sukiyaki- we found it at an upscale Japanese restaurant on the way down. Ben has been wanting Sukiyaki for close to a year and most Japanese restaurants do not have it on their menus.Anyway – Jane caught up on Farmville and checked a couple other things.
We left the internet café and headed to the outlet mall in Foley – about 10 miles. Ben had given Jane a rocking chair to replace our old fold up chairs for camping – and he wants one like it. We saw some at the Mullet Festival and the folks who owned them said they came from the Coleman Outlet in Foley. We drove all around the outlet mall and did not find Coleman.Jane however wanted to look around in Coldwater Creek so since there was a Tool/Hardware outlet close-by; Ben went there. BIG mistake on Jane’s part!She looked for the appointed 20 minutes and headed back to the Sprinter. Ben had two huge boxes … he had bought a chain saw AND a leaf blower!Said he had been thinking about buying one or the other this fall and for the great prices here he got both for less than he had anticipated spending for one at Home Depot.While there were several nice things at Coldwater Creek; nothing that just cried out for purchase…so, Jane didn’t buy anything.Ben always says he is not a shopper – he is a buyer.Well he proved that today – chain saw, leaf blower, and when we got to Coleman – his new chair!My time will come…..
After his buying Ben said he was exhausted. We headed to the Bon Secour National Wildlife Preserve. We ate a nice lunch at a picnic table and drove on a couple roads. It was too hot for hiking and not much wildlife was out midday, so we headed back to camp and spent a couple hours reading and figuring out where to put the chain saw and leaf blower!!When you travel/camp in a 20 foot Sprinter everything has a place and there are not many places to store extra things!
Ben unpacks his purchases
Laundry room at Gulf Shores State Park
We had a nice bike ride over to the activity area and took a few photos. The photo of the laundry room may not look exciting but this was as large as any laundromat you would see anywhere - and for campgrounds this is unusual. They did not have any shirts Jane liked to purchase for herself or Daniel, so we will hope the Naval Aviation Museum has something great.
Dinner was at the Original Oyster House – fair oysters, good flounder and shrimp and very good mahi-mahi.Thanks David for the recommendation.The evening was quiet with NCIS, other TV and photo processing and blog writing.Hopefully we will head out to the beach for a short time tomorrow before we head to Florida.
We were up about 7:30, had a microwave omelet, checked email, enjoyed coffee and then took down camp. We were on our way about 9:00.Jane got an email this morning from a friend with some suggestions for the Ocean Springs area. We had already done most of the things but did drive through downtown Ocean Springs looking for a special donut shop (closed on Monday). The downtown area is charming and reminded us of St. Simon GA – it is another “real” place.
We headed east towards Pascagoula. We drove around the Northrop-Grumman Ship Yards where we observed several vessels under construction. Signs up they were hiring “long term – through 2013”. The employee parking areas were full to overflowing.
Two views of Northrop Grumman Shipyards
Then we drove through town observing numerous beautiful old homes on the bay. When we stopped at an area near the bay for a view back to Northrop-Grumman, yellow and white blooming bushes were covered in Monarch butterflies. This is obviously their migration route!
Monarch butterfly migration
On the eastern side of Pascagoula was an entirely different type of shipyard and harbor. This area supported the oil industry. There were cranes, various ships, oil rigs, dry docks, and again plenty of workers and signs out that they were hiring. The area looked very busy to these two passersby.
Oil Rigs in Pascagoula Shipyard
After passing through Pascagoula we were soon in Alabama and turned south on the road that would take us to the ferry to Dauphin Island.We passed through several small towns – one Bayou La Batre was called the Seafood Capital of Alabama so we searched for shrimp…after a number of phone calls and drives down dead end roads we gave up…we even had directions from the city hall!We finally made it to Dauphin Island and drove on to the ferry site since we did not want to miss it. They were running with only 1 ferry so the time between ferries was longer.We got there at 1:05 and the next ferry left at 2:00. We had a nice picnic lunch under some trees while we waited. We were first in line for the ferry and by the time we left there were 18 vehicles on the ferry. The ride across Mobile Bay took about 45 minutes and we were able to see numerous oil platforms and many support ships. When we departed the ferry we went directly to Fort Morgan and wandered through the fort and the museum. The fort saw action in the Civil War, Spanish American, WWI and WWII – for the last two in a defense and support role. It was mostly an earthen fort with numerous concrete batteries similar to the ones on Corregidor.
We drove east towards Gulf Shores stopping at a Seafood Market for 2 pounds of shrimp. We continued on to the Gulf Shores State Park. This park is really quite a place with over 400 campsites – all spaced well apart and with water, electricity, and sewer hookups. There is a WIFI router right beside our campsite and it shows 4 bars but you can’t get on the internet.There is a swimming pool, tennis courts, boat rentals, miles of hiking trails, miles of bike riding trails, and more. They tell us they have not worked to bugs out of the internet system yet but it should be park wide soon.
Campsite at Gulf Shores State Park
The old park was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan and this remodeled park has just re-opened in the last month or so.We will stay here 2 nights.
Dinner was the shrimp – one pound I boiled with some of my just purchased ”Slap-Yo-Mama” seasoning and we will eat it cold for lunches. For dinner I made shrimp scampi and some lightly breaded fried shrimp.We ate it along with a little brown rice and asparagus. It was all great!!!Tomorrow night we will head out to one of the places recommended by one of Jane’s Red Cross friends.
We took a bike ride to locate the Activity Room where the check-in people told Ben the WIFI worked – it didn’t… We watched some TV and Jane wrote up the blog and read. Ben got lots of good TV here with his antenna – in fact we have had good TV every night except the one night when the antenna had a loose connection.
Wow did we sleep late!I woke up at 6:15 but went right back to sleep and neither of us woke up until 8:45!We managed to get ready to leave for our road trip to Bay St. Louis by 10.We drove west on US 90 and will return on I-10 this afternoon.As you drove west there was more and more damage from Katrina. We saw numerous B/P clean-up crews along the perfect white beaches that rim the gulf along the entire Mississippi Coast.We chose not to stop at the home of Jefferson Davis – it is a beautiful white mansion right on the Gulf in the western part of Biloxi. Just did not seem the way we wanted to spend our $$$ it is not a national or state park but run by a private group.One of the Live Oak trees turned into a sculpture
We stopped to photograph the Biloxi lighthouse (at first of post) and watched for the dead “Live Oak” sculptures that had been sculpted from the trees by an artist over a year time frame. There were various fish, birds, animals and literature said angels. I never did see the angels.
Unique Light Poles throughout Bay St. Louis
We crossed the Bay of St. Louis and spent quite a bit of time driving around in Bay St. Louis. This small town on the west side of the bay is less than 50 miles from New Orleans and very French and very Catholic from our brief observations.We saw buildings and homes in various stages of recovery. This was the only place we saw any lots with the rubble still on the property.We spent a while looking for a restaurant in both Bay St. Louis and Waveland a little further west. Finally we decided since we were not really hungry yet we would head back east towards Pass Christian where we had seen a large shrimping fleet.
We stopped at Shaggy’s Bar and Grill that was right on the fishing pier. We arrived in the midst of the New Orleans Saints ball game which the owners and patrons of this locality definitely support! Most everyone had on Saint’s jerseys including all the waitresses. They had 4 or 5 large screen TV’s and the whole place would erupt when the Saint’s did something good.
Shaggy's Bar and Saint's Ball Game
We had excellent food. Jane had a shrimp po-boy and Ben had a grilled fish sandwich (since they had no oysters). Ben had to eat some of Jane’s po-boy but we managed to finish everything. Beautiful day with clear blue skies overlooking the Gulf – not sure anything could have made a better day.
Delicious Shrimp Po-Boy
We turned north to get on I-10 and headed towards Gautier to attend the Mullet Festival.At the festival there were a large number of vendors – all kinds of local arts and crafts with the emphasis on crafts…there were some interesting educational displays also. The Pascagoula Red Cross had their ERV there – it had been a gift from Kuwait. I believe after Katrina many of the gulf coast chapters received these from Kuwait. One other exhibit that caught my eye was the sanitation company that was a sponsor of the event. They had a big bucket of aluminum cans, paper boxes, and plastic drink and water bottles. If you could get 2 out of 3 in a trash bin then you got a prize – a garbage can drink container or another prize.Interesting way to get their recycle message across! The kids were lined up to play along with their parents…
Mullet Festival in Gautier
Can't see the Mullet very well....he's ready to toss
There were numerous food vendors too including the men’s club of the town that was serving Mullet Platters.Ben bought 5 small pecan pies that will serve as his desserts for the next few days! There was a little of everything with emphasis on local – there was a main stage with different music groups each hour. Both who played while we were there were good. The highlight of the festival was the Mullet Toss. You stood in line and threw a mullet fish as far as you could across a field marked off in 10 yard lines.They even had a lineman who ran down and measured each toss and they wrote down your score…I never did find out what the prize was but people sure were taking part – adults, kids, teens.Ben says he does not imagine there is a PETA Chapter in southern Mississippi or they would have closed the event down!
We stopped on our way back to our campground to buy gas (lowest price on the trip 2.73) and look around in a grocery. Jane wanted to look for Creole seasonings and a couple things for dinner.
Scene at Davis Bayou
Back at camp Jane took a nature trail hike and some photos, Ben fixed the TV antenna, and we visited with neighbors. One guy was very interested in the Sprinter and another one was moving from Santa Fe NM to TN. He is an acupuncturist so we learned about his profession and we told him not to forget the Tri-Cities as he looked for a new home in TN. He was considering Chattanooga and Knoxville.
We had a great dinner of lemon pepper catfish, squash&onions, and the very last of our 2010 tomatoes. They have been really great this year and I hate to see them go…
This has been a nice area but we will head east into Alabama tomorrow after exploring the Pascagoula area. Ben hears it is an area impacted by the moratorium on oil rig drilling.
We did not get cold at all during the night – wonderful sleeping temperature, quiet, peaceful. We were up about 7:30 and Jane made a micro-wave omelet. New venture and very good considering -beat 3 eggs, ass 4 cheese cubes (chopped) and 2 slices of pre-cooked bacon torn into small pieces. Add salt and pepper.Divide the mixture into 2 microwaveable cups.Cook 30 seconds – stir and cook another 15-20 seconds.If not done – cook another 15 seconds. One of the best parts is you have NO dishes to wash! It was a beautiful morning with blue skies and a slight breeze.We packed up and headed for the visitor center that was probably 2 miles away. They were hosting a huge litter pick-up today and there were young people with bags everywhere! We got our passport stamps and looked around the exhibits.
We were on the road about 10 headed to the Small Craft Area in Gulfport where the Ferry would take us to West Ship Island – on Saturday there were two ferries – one at 9 am and one at 12 noon. First we passed through Biloxi with it's numerous casinos.
One of the numerous casinos
Along the way we observed remnants of the damage of Katrina. There would be a huge home, a vacant lot which obviously had been a huge home, and then another home in some stage of repair. There were not very many businesses or motels along US 90, the road near the shore. It was easy to see the remnants of many. The damaged buildings were mostly removed but it was obvious where new structures had been built or land was standing empty. Lots of for sale signs!
This ferry trip and Ship Island were known as highlights of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. There are several costal barrier islands about 10-12 miles off the Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida Gulf Coast. They become one National Seashore….we would ride a people ferry taking about an hour to reach West Ship Island where the National Park Service has arranged for visitors to the beach and Fort Massachusetts.We boarded the ferry at noon and arrived at the island an hour later. The trip was pleasant and very smooth. The crowd was diverse from a few retirees like us, families with children (even several small babies) and young people.I am going to estimate there were 60-75 people on our ferry.We saw lots of jelly fish in water and one string ray.
One of numerous sites inside fort
Outside Ft. Massachusetts
Upon arrival at the Island we immediately had a tour of Fort Massachusetts. The fort was built over a long period of time from early 1800’s until after the end of the Civil War.One battle was fought here during the Civil War but both the South and North held the fort at different times. The brickwork was outstanding and the one cannon left was one of the largest ever seen by us.During Katrina – the storm surge was 22 feet above the top of the fort!
Arriving at the beach
After the tour we walked the ½ mile to the coast set up our chairs, enjoyed gazing at the gulf, some wading, and walking along the surf. There were almost no signs of the oil spill. There were some very small tar balls (1/4 -1/2 inch) the tar was soft and could be easily mashed with the foot. The water was crystal clear.
B/P clean-up crew area
We saw tents down the beach about ½ mile so walked down to see what was going on. It was a B/P Oil Crew.There were 50-60 men and women with gloves, tools, and booties over their shoes. They were working in teams -resting under the tents and then digging and sifting through the sand.There were two barges right offshore – one with port-a-potties and another that had furnished food (we saw it when we got off the ferry but did not realize what it was).One of the young men managing the barge with the port-a-potties told us they move up and down the beach cleaning a 100-200 foot area in a day. They will go over the same area of beach more than once to remove all tar balls. The contractor that brought us to the island uses a second ferry and brings these workers back and forth from the mainland each day.As we were leaving at 5 PM – their work day was over too. All the tents were taken down, the bags of trash, tar etc were carried back to the barge on ATV’s.It certainly looked like they had the operation well organized.
We enjoyed the time in the sun and surf.The 4 hours on the island was about right – we were not tired and did not get sunburned at all. Jane put on some sun-screen after the first hour but Ben never did.
We saw monarch butterflies in abundance on the island and a dolphin along the ferry on the return trip. As we came down the pier to the ferry we saw a guy dumping his throw net on the pier. He had a 10 gallon bucket full of mullet from an hour or so of fishing! The trip back again took about an hour and was uneventful.
When we got back to Gulfport we headed back to Biloxi and looked for a seafood restaurant. We selected the Port’O Call Seafood Restaurant. It was OK – we had a seafood platter and divided it with each of us having gumbo and a salad. It was just the right amount of food. It was not bad at all but it was not good enough to go back.
When we got back to camp it was pitch black at 7:45 PM – we got set back up and Ben watched a WW II video and Jane edited photos and wrote this blog.
Tomorrow we will venture west to Bay St. Louis and then drive back on US 90 to see more Katrina Damage which they say is significant. The other notable things to see are numerous sculptures that have been carved from the many dead trees.Then in the afternoon we are going to the Mullet Festival!
We were up and on the road by 8:30 today.We took I-59 South through Montgomery, then lots of small towns, finally we passed through Mobile and turned west on I-10 towards Mississippi.We saw lots of cotton fields today – some had been harvested and bailed – others were ready for picking.
Cotton Fields
Somewhere we saw a huge Confederate Flag flying along the highway – and I do mean HUGE – it was as large as the ones at Perkins if not larger. We stopped at the Mississippi Welcome Center and Jane fixed lunch.We have lots of “leftovers” from the DB 50th Reunion.Jane was in charge of the caterer for Friday night and we have meatballs, cheese squares, celery, and carrots to add to the normal lunch fare.A new sandwich for us is smoked Gouda, smoked turkey, and red pepper jelly….mmm good!
We had to begin thinking about where we were going. We had two choices for campgrounds – Davis Bayou near Ocean Springs or Buccaneer State Park near Waveland.We set out to find the Sea-Bee Museum near Gulfport since it was only open M-F. We finally found it but were not able to get the proper clearance to get in before it closed at 4 …Had to settle for taking a photo of the Sea-Bee mascot.
Sea Bee Mascot in Gulfport MS
Next we headed to find a Best Buy – Ben had remembered the TV but forgotten the remote – so now we have two remotes.
We finally decided to back track to the Davis Bayou campground. It was 20 miles west to Buccaneer and 20 miles east to Davis Bayou – so we sort of flipped a coin!The Gulf Shores National Seashore is spread along the coast from Gulfport to Pensacola. This campground and a visitor center are here in Ocean Springs and there is a ferry out to the barrier islands from Gulfport. There are several festivals this weekend and we want to go out to the barrier islands. If we have time we will go to one of the casinos.Jane cooked supper – an invention of chicken, onions, celery, garlic, jalapeno, and some gravy over microwavable brown rice.We also had some of the last tomatoes from our garden.
Ben rode his bike around the campground; Jane walked around the loop and worked on the blog although we won’t be able to post to the web here.We have good 3G signal on the I-Phone but not a good WIFI signal.We can get several TV stations with the antenna. The cost here for electricity and water is $16 a night – for us with Golden Age Passport only $8.You sure can’t beat that!
Now we have to get out all the travel notes and plan the next couple days.Temperature is 67 degrees with clear skies. It should be great temperature for sleeping.
Due to a mix-up with a container Ben was to inspect in Unicoi on Wednesday he had to inspect it early on Thursday morning. He left home at 7:30 and had the inspection done and was back home by 9:30. He did all his paperwork and we were on the road at 10 AM! Not much to say about I-81 and I-75 and I-59 – but it was a pleasant drive with sunshine, nice temperatures, and the mountains and hillsides sprinkled here and there with red and yellow trees. The trees are far from their peak but were beginning to turn brilliant colors so maybe they will be at their peak when we return in 10 days.
We stopped along the way somewhere for lunch at a Wendy’s. The new Baja Salad is very tasty! We had a riveting mystery to listen to so the miles clicked quickly by. GPS led us directly to our “free” hotel room south of Birmingham. We get “points” on Bank-Americard that we use for hotels when traveling to and from destinations instead of using them for airline tickets….We enjoy camping when we are at a destination or have short travel days; but not so much for one night especially in a city between long days of driving. GPS then directed us to the nearest Dreamland BBQ which was on our list from reading about traditional BBQ joints. It was unique, the ribs were good but the sauce was Alabama I guess – vinegar/mustard/little tomato – good but not my favorite. We ate our fill with slaw and potato salad; and got some banana puddin’ for take-out. We had planned to stop in Tuscaloosa to go to the original Dreamland BBQ but it was a BIG Football Weekend and there were NO rooms to be had – at least not for “free”!
We had been looking for a week to have a getaway to DC - some time to visit museums, maybe see a show, and eat some interesting food.We used to live in DC – over 40 years ago – and have always enjoyed going back to visit but it has been 5 years since we were there last….
We left Thursday morning and had to make a short stop for Ben to inspect some machinery in VA (near Claypool Hill). He had been unable to complete his overseas inspection assignment on Wednesday due to a mistake on the part of the vendor. They worked round the clock to “fix” their mistake so Ben could inspect it on Thursday. We took US 19 and 460 and it was a most enjoyable trip to Blacksburg before we got back on I 81 to continue the trip north to DC. Southwest VA is beautiful and when you see it only from I 81 as many of us do – you miss so much. The inspection took only a few minutes and we were on our way.
We ate a good lunch at Panera Bread in Blacksburg and quickly headed on towards DC.The afternoon clipped by as we continued on I 81 and I 66 to the DC area. We arrived in the metro area right at rush hour and found ourselves on the beltway in 5 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic going our way! We were only on the beltway about 10 miles as we headed south at the Springfield exit. We usually stay in Crystal City near the metro station but this trip we were not able to get a reservation for a price we liked so we searched for a hotel near a metro station and found the Best Western in Springfield had a shuttle to the metro station about a mile away.
We easily found the hotel with the assistance of “Garmin” our GPS lady. Ben took a nap and Jane read the restaurant reviews. We were tired so selected a close restaurant and an adventure – Afghan food at Kabul Kabobs.( http://www.kabulkabob.com/) Jane has an i-phone ap that searches for restaurants near your location with customer reviews and it usually gives us good information. The “shuttle van” took us directly to the restaurant and would come pick us up when we phoned after dinner. We had a moment of apprehension when we walked in the restaurant at 6:45 and there were no diners!We ordered and by the time our food arrived there were others coming in…when we left about an hour later the place was over half full. The dinner was very good. We had Bouranee Baujaun (fried eggplant with youghert and afghan bread); salata of diced cucumbers, tomato, sweet onion, and cilantro with a lemon dressing; Chicken Tandori kabobs, Mantu (steamed dumplings with onion and beef inside and a carrot and pea sauce); and for dessert the house special Baqlawa made from walnuts and pistachios.I asked for the menu back to write all this down!The very best were the eggplant, the dumplings, and the Baqlawa.After all that eating and Jane having missed her walk today; we walked back to the hotel – less than a mile. We did however cross I 95 South (on a crosswalk). It was a total of 20 lanes at this location!!! We remember living near I 95 (Shirley Highway) in the late 60’s when it was 4 lanes!
Friday morning we had a good complimentary breakfast at the hotel – they had all the usual items along with scrambled eggs, hot potatoes, and oatmeal.The shuttle took us to the metro station and we got Jane a metro ticket and Ben added money to his ticket from several years ago.The metro is much as we remembered it – and the stations clicked by King St; Braddock Rd, Crystal City, Pentagon City, Pentagon, Arlington Cemetery, Rosslyn, Foggy Bottom, Farragut East & West, McPherson Square, Metro Center, Smithsonian…that is us!The trip was about 40 minutes. This week the Smithsonian is having their Folklife Festival and are highlighting Mexico and the South Pacific. They have crafts, food, and music from each of these areas in tents on the mall. The festivities did not begin until 11 so we headed to the Museum of American History. We enjoyed numerous exhibits –new and old – for a couple hours. The restored “Star Spangled Banner” US flag exhibit was interesting. We had lunch in the cafeteria and then headed over to the Museum of Natural History where we spent several hours wandering around the various exhibits.
When we were ready for a rest we headed outside and found a bench in the shade along the mall and drank a couple of the bottles of water we had in our backpack. We headed over to see what was going on in the Smithsonian Folklife tents. We watched some dancers from Laos and then a Mexican corn festival dance.
Mexican Folk Dancers on Mall
The dance involved 4 guys climbing up a pole and wrapping ropes around it so they could “fly” down. There were also women blessing the pole and a sacrifice of some sort of chicken that had been made that morning in another event.
It was very hot so we headed on towards the National Gallery of Art where we were planning to attend Jazz in the Sculpture Garden at 5:00. We arrived about 4:30 and luckily got a seat on one of the benches surrounding the reflecting pool (that is an ice skating rink in winter).
Our Seat for Jazz Concert - completely filled with people later
We had understood most people needed blankets to sit on the ground so we had our blanket in the backpack and it made the marble bench softer!We thoroughly enjoyed the next few hours. The music was great – a jazz band with singers. The food was very good – we had ordered a basket via the internet which included French bread, meat, crackers, cheese, a couple of dips, grapes, strawberries, and a bottle of sparkling water. Ben picked the basket up with no problem.
Our Basket Dinner
The café was doing a great business – the best sellers appeared to be pitchers of beer and sangria! The people watching was also great – young professionals seemed to find this the place to meet and greet on a Friday evening; tourists and every kind of people you could imagine. The rules were only that you could not bring in drinks and you could not touch the sculptures. People were sitting everywhere with the grounds covered by the time we left around 7:30.More information- http://www.nga.gov/programs/jazz/ .
Philippine Folk Dancing
As we passed the Folklife tent we noticed they were doing Philippine dancing so we watched it a while before heading to the Smithsonian Subway station and our ride back to Springfield. When we arrived we called the phone number we had been given and the shuttle van was there within 10 minutes to transport us back to the hotel.This service was available until 10 PM so we knew it would not be available for us after the concert at Kennedy Center on Saturday night. Another i-phone ap that Jane uses daily is the “footsteps” program that serves as a pedometer and calculates miles walked…our total for the day was 6.9 miles!
Saturday morning we were slow getting up and were feeling our age – Jane’s back hurt and Ben felt like his blood sugar or electrolytes were out of whack. Breakfast helped and we were off to hunt the nearest REI to buy Jane a pair of hiking shoes. Wearing her 20+ year old hiking boots on the adventure into the back reaches of Warrior Park hunting for dragonflies a couple weeks ago told her – these are too small! We found ourselves at the mercy of Garmin again and were soon in downtown Falls Church. Nice drive because it was Saturday!We found the REI and selected shoes – which took some time -but Jane ended up with low top instead of high top Merrill hiking shoes. Maybe Jane will be lucky and not break her ankle along the way as Ben did in AK. The good quality soles should also lengthen the life of the shoes when used for walking as well as an occasional hike.We headed back towards Springfield and stopped at Mike’s American Restaurant for lunch. This was again a good choice and turned out to be the #1 restaurant in Springfield. Jane had Mexican eggrolls and a fantastic salad and Ben had a burger and fries.Ben wanted a short nap before we headed out for our afternoon venture into DC.
About 3 we headed to the metro stop in the Sprinter and easily found an area to park since it was the weekend. We hopped on the metro and transferred at Pentagon to the yellow line to reach Gallery Place. Our museum of the day was to be the recently remodeled National Portrait Gallery. This had been one of Jane’s favorite museums in years past and is located near China Town where we planned to eat dinner. Ben’s i-phone ap - a walking GPS – helped us out for finding the museum and restaurants. We spent about 2 hours in the museum enjoying portraits of US history. Looking at many of those who led our country in its’ early days had very special meaning today as we are in such difficult times in our national government.They have added modern time leaders (variety of types) in among the historical individuals. It was a surprise to see a room of Elvis art alongside the early leaders of our country!They have done an excellent job of updating this museum and there is a lovely courtyard in the center of the building.
We headed into Chinatown and picked one of the Chinese restaurants “potluck”. Jane was not using her i-phone quite as much today since yesterday almost ran out of phone battery due to overuse of aps.We selected the “wok and roll” restaurant (http://www.wokandrolldc.com/) for absolutely no reason to find out it was rated as #1 Chinese restaurant in Chinatown on the Virtual Tourist ranking. Of interest is the restaurant is located in the Mary Surratt house where the assassination of Lincoln was planned. We had a very good but not outstanding dinner. The lemon chicken and vegetable tempura were very good.
From the Wok and Roll we hopped back on the Metro after adding a little money to our fare cards and headed from Gallery Place to Foggy Bottom station.At Foggy Bottom we emerged from the metro station to immediately see the Kennedy Center shuttle bus – hopped on it and in less than 5 minutes were getting out at Kennedy Center. It was 7:40 and the concert began at 8:00…what great timing!
Metal "Fountain" outside Kennedy Center
The concert was our second choice for entertainment tonight but we were not willing to spend $80 for tickets for “Sophisticated Ladies” at the Arena. This concert was Classical Mystery Tour (http://www.classicalmysterytour.com/main/index.htm) with the National Symphony Orchestra. Our seats were in the balcony because we again were not going to pay $80 for seats on the main floor!We enjoyed the music just as well from above.It was a great concert and reminded us of many songs we had forgotten through the years. The group was good using costumes and mannerisms of the Beatles. Interesting to me this group was here for 3 days the same time the Beatles Tribute Rain was at WolfTrap!DC was certainly getting their Beatles “fix” this weekend.
The Kennedy Center is exactly as we remembered it – we had visited several times over the years. When the concert was over the shuttle took us back to Foggy Bottom metro station and we waited only 15 minutes for the blue line back to Springfield. We had anticipated a longer wait after 10. When we arrived back in Springfield it was about 11 and we easily found our way to the sprinter and were back to our hotel in about 15 minutes. Our observations about the metro was it ran very smoothly. There seemed to be issues with the escalators at many of the stations and it was not as clean as I remembered. I did not keep track but I believe we walked up or down at least half the escalators and noticed they were advertising outages of escalators or elevators at various stations constantly. I am not sure how old the metro system is but must be time for a fix of this part of the system. There also seemed to be more trash (cups, water bottles, paper) left of the trains than I remembered from past visits. But even with these issues the metro system is a great way to get around in DC.
Sunday morning we ate breakfast and headed out for the drive home. We had some issues with Garmin as she took us south down I 95 to Culpepper and then across to Luray and New Market. It was a nice trip and allowed us a stop at Fredericksburg Battleground National Park for a Passport Stamp. We had been here years ago but of course that was in the lost passport book.We were going to stop at Manassas Battlefield but because of Garmin’s route we missed that!
We had thought we might stop in Luray for lunch but did not seem to find a suitable location so went on to Harrisonburg and stopped at Arby’s. Ben had seen an ad on TV for a sandwich he wanted to try. The food was mediocre at best and we should have known better than to have stopped there. We turned our CD book back on and made it down I 81 arriving home about 5:30.We had breakfast for dinner since there was not much food in the house ready to cook!
We enjoyed our trip and know our planning ahead via the internet enabled us to get around easily and attend several events we might not have known about otherwise. The Kennedy Center shuttle enabled a visit there that would have probably been outside our ability to walk. Driving and parking would have been much more expensive than the metro plus much more hassle. Knowing where the REI was enabled us to plug an address in Garmin and get there easily, and we would have never known to attend the Jazz in the Garden without the internet search. Reading restaurant reviews helped us when we could use the i-phone ap and using the pedometer was interesting. Technology is great!!
We enjoy traveling in our Sprinter Van (converted for camping) whenever we can. We are a recently retired nurse and engineer who enjoy the outdoors, nature, great food, and new places.
Evening Scene at Gulf Shores State Park
Ben unpacks his purchases
Laundry room at Gulf Shores State Park
Bayside near some of the campsites
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