Around DC

Mike really wanted to see the marine Corp. Museum, so our second day we hop in the car and drive down to Friendship NY.
Again we lucked out - the expressway we needed was the road right next to our hotel. 20 minutes later we are entering the grounds. You could see the building from afar. Very impressive.

 I was caught up in all the recruitment poster everywhere from the civil war all through to the gulf war.

Mike enjoyed everything about this place. So much information to see. I am glad we planned on spending most of the day there.



 The best part of the whole thing for me was a room where you are standing on a boat headed for the island of Iwo Jima and you are listening to a speech simular to what they heard. "You are all soldiers and this is what you have been trained to do.... "
All I could think of was Dad and how brave and scared he must have felt.
We got to witness a soliders re-enlistment ceramony in the lobby when we were done. THAT was way cool.
We had to hike it up this wall so Mike could pose for a picture in front of this sign.

 And of course when we found this statue my "Iron Mike" had to stirke another pose.

After all this I really wanted to see the Iwo Jima mounument. We decided to drive there. It is located in Arlington Cemetary so we were pretty sure we could find it. Mike also had been there before. Easy!
THE TRAFFIC IN DC IS CRAZY!!!!!!!!
We just drove into the cemetary and would walk there. Nope - I found out it was 1 and 1/2 miles and my feet had 3 blisters each from yesterday and so we got back into the car and drove there. I loved it - so beautiful.

 

 

Since we were so close to the penatgon we decicde to try and see the 911 memorial. We knew we had to park under the road at the Pentagon Mall and walk there, but following the signs was impossible. We found the Pentagon. We found the memorial, but we never found the parking. We saw the memorial from afar. After circling the area several times - stopping to ask a cop - getting on the expressway - off the expressway too many times, we gave up and went back to the hotel to rest. We had a ballgame to get to that night.

 

We saw the Nationals whoop on my White Sox.

 

We had great seats. Dup had suggested going on StubHub and get tickets. So I kept checking everyday and he was right the prices just kept getting lower and lower. So the morning of the game I bought 2 tickets on the first base side. (we have more right handers than lefties for foul balls). The closest I could get was row D. Turns out row D was the first row on that side. I paid half price! Ordered a parking pass too and we were smooth sailing. The people around us were really nice and me with my Sox jersey on!

 

Again the perfect hotel location 20 minute drive with no traffic. 



Checking out of the hotel the next morning the guy asked me if everything was OK? I told him all but the outcome of the game.