Thursday 8/7/14 – Sean’s Birthday

The day we were leaving Miami was a little bit problematic. The extermination people told us they would be home by 9:00 to tent and Papa kept calling them until they returned the call at 1:00 to tell us they would not come by until 3:00. We wanted to keep our tradition of going with Sean to Chili’s for his birthday and we did so and then we had to go shopping for school supplies. At about 3:00, they called us to tell us they were already tenting the house. We darted back home and took the very last things we had to pack since Papa had already taken half the house (kitchen stuff and other things on a list) to tia’s house so that they would not go bad during the tenting.

After this stressful period, we went to tias for a pizza party for Sean and slept there so that we could be taken to the airport early the next morning. Papa almost died of the heat as the a/c shut down for some reason during the night.

Friday 8/7/14

We left Miami before dawn because we knew security regulations are strict.  Papa punched some numbers into a machine and got passes. We went through security and to our gate, Papa spoke with someone, got the boarding passes, and we were all set. Each of us had a carry one and a backpack and we had a problem even witih that since the plane was full and there was very little room. We had seats in row 30 which ws the very last row in the plane. One more row and we were OFF the plane.  We had little time to spare from seat assignment to boarding to take off. The return trip was even worse, but more on that later.

We arrived at the Baltimore International airport precisely as scheduled. Papa picked up the rental car (a Buick – that’s not a Buick – that’s what I told him!) from Budget and we were on our way. We toured the city, got severely lost in all the wrong places but it was enjoyable. We managed to find several areas we were looking for, including Fort McHenry which was were Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the Star Spangled Banner. This was an excellent beginning since there was a movement and program of the journey of the flag beginning in Baltimore all the way to Washington and we unknowingly participated in it by ending our investigation at the Smithsonian two days later.

Because of timing, we walked the premises but did not tour the Fort as that would have taken half a day and we did not have that much time.  We continued on down toward Washington but with a pit stop at College Park, Maryland, to visit the University of Maryland and its grounds and take a picture with Terrapin, a distant relative of our Tortuga. The campus was beautiful and Papa remembered a lot from it. We had lunch, of all places, at Five Guys, across from the university itself.

After lunch, we drove to Washington and our hotel, checked in, and then went to CVS across the street for supplies and provisions. We got milk, cold cuts, bread, cereal and these we consumed promptly in our room and were the lunches for the first couple of days.  The hotel were we stayed had been the Beatles’ headquarters 50 years ago when they visited Washington and an entire wing of the hotel had been separated for them  David saw the banner in a semi-obscure area but we later saw several similar banners depicting them at a press conference right there at the hotel. What a coincidence! The hotel had absolutely no amenities without a charge.  The cheapest breakfast dish was $18 per person which was totally out of our budget so we improvised by eating cereal, coffee and tea right in our room every morning before departing.

This first afternoon and early evening, we toured the hotel grounds and gardens and notices the beautiful forest right outiside out window where we saw a beautiful baby deer the next morning grazing. 

Saturday, 8/9/14

We went to Arlington Cemetery in the morning, and saw incredible sights.  We will use the word incredible many times in this narrative because everything in Washington, upon analysis, is indeed incredible.  We saw the changing of the guard at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier twice. This alone was worth the visit with the dedication, precision, passion, military presence, and solitude that this entails. We then visited the amphitheater, then the memorial to Maine, the perpetual flame at Kennedy’s tomb, and witnessed the sights of Washington from that perspective, resonating Kennedy’s words, “I could spend a lot of time right here,” and he has. It is amazing that all the tombstones line up, no matter how you view them, and from what angle.   

After the cemetery tour, we met up with Joshua and Maria and followed them to Maria’s house, where an aunt and uncle from Mama reside. They had cats so David and Papa had to escape from them and the three of us ended at the closest Dollar Tree Store to get a few needed things. Upon our return, Papa was given allergy pills and he got a little belter. We had a wonderful lasagna and Peruvian chicken lunch and then left to visit Old Alexandria.  We went to the harbor and saw a lot of street musicians, walked a little in the park and then drove off to make it back to Washington itself.

We drove past the monuments and stopped in front of the Smithsonians, across from the Treasury Building and toured the first of the museums, with time running out as they were closing by then.  We made it to the Smithsonian Castle and to the Air and Space Museum for one and a half floors and were told to leave and when we got back to our car we had a “welcome to Washington” $25.00 parking ticket for being 4 minutes over the time frame.

For security reasons all backpacks are screened at every museum. Some just poke at the bags, some have x-ray machines and some are very serious, like the Capitol tour where you cannot come in if you have water and/or food in the back pack. Here we left Papa with all bags outside and David, Sean and Mom went to see the Capitol. Maybe more on this later, on the narrative of the day itself.

Papa had every day planned out by order of importance and city quadrants.  He had lived here a long, long time ago and of course things have changed tremendously.  He continuously reminded us of how things have changed from what he had left.  The most impacting change of course were the secutiry issues after 9/11 where some areas were simply no longer accessible and how security barriers obstructed or prevented access to other landmarks.

Saturday had been an exciting and productive day.  Mom got us dinner at McDonalds, which was curiously underground and just half a block from our hotel.

Our hotel was very very expensive and charged us $41.00 a day for parking the car. The car was costing us $80 a day in rental and parking by the sights and monuments was about $18.00 a day if you got there early and then they were all remote. So car costs a day were $138 plus fuel and not as convenient as planned. So Mom and Papa had a decision to make and they investigated the Metro system and the fact that it was possible to use it very effectively and very economically all throughout, even to the airport itself on the last day. So the plan was to use the car for the remote areas on Sunday and Monday and return it late Monday, and use the Metro for the rest of our tour, saving about $800.00. We were all for that!

Sunday 8/10/14

Mom woke up early each morning and prepared breakfast and lunch sandwiches.  We packed Papa’s backpack with ice from the hotel machine, water bottles we had purchased from CVS the first night, and the sandwiches Mom had prepared.  This was the daily routine until we had used up all our provisions from CVS and WalMart which we visited another day and Mom had figure this out almot to the last slice of turkey.  Just like Mom and Papa had done with the Metro passes where we had about $1.00 left when we reached the last station to go to the airport on the last day.

Sunday we went to the Washington Cathedral which is Episcopalian and has a Gothic architecture. We toured the grounds and saw where some pieces of gargoyles had fallen during the earthquake of 2011. From there we went to the National Shrine, which is Catholic, and toured the first floor. We wanted to go the 10:00 Mass but got there late and the noon Mass was about to begin. This was a solemn Mass which included incense, and an entire procession of all celebrants, the choir, 16 eucharistic ministers and Papa’s group fo Knights of Columbus and the hospitality ministers.  Sean and David were not happy campers in having to go to Mass but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience a Mass in such a place.  Right next to Mom sat Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives and we later found out this is his typical Sunday mass and someone had taken his “regular” place.

This Church, the largest in the Americas, is dedicted to the Immaculate Virgin and there are representations and smaller chapel in the underground for just about every virgin in the world.  There was a St. Susana Chapel in a small chapel leading from the main chapel in the first floor but there happened to be a Spanish Mass happening when we were there so we had to wait and Mom wanted to see this particular chapel of course.  So Papa and David and Sean went out to the car, had lunch, and came back to meet up with Mom a bit later after she had seen her little chapel.

From here we continued on to the Franciscan Monastery, about 5 minutes away and that was a beautiful place. The gardens were incredible, going down about on story and there were replicas of very important things such as the Lady of Lourdes apparition grotto, a replica of Jesus’ tomb and other replilcas out in the patio.  The monastery itself was typical with the cloister and the church areas, including a   loft with a very moving crucifixion pastel and a life-like suffering Christ sitting in a throne.  This visit ended our religious part of our vacation and, although a little happier, David and Sean were still not happy campers.

That afternoon we visited the impressive Washington monument but no tickets were available for going to the top so Papa made a plan to come early one morning as they were typically all gone by 9:00. From there we walked along the reflecting pool to the Lincoln monument, as equally impressive. We headed back to the hotel knowing we would come again to the area the next day.

Susana and David went back to the forest we had seen the night before and followed some of the paths as part of a jogging routine. They enjoyed this tremendously and it became part of an afternoon process that even included Sean a couple of days.  Papa was the only one that could not go since he had to rest his feet and legs (if not the whole body) from the very very serious walking we did each day we were there.

Because we had already decided to return the rental car the following day we decided to make a night trip downtown and see the monuments at night.  We travelled as far as Capitol Hill and saw the spectacular capital, Supreme Court and Library of Congress at night, in addition to the splendid monuments and we were all impressed by the beauty.

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Monday 8/11/14

On this day we decided to go where we already knew was more difficult to go by Metro so we went to Georgetown, when around the university, close to where The Exorcist had been filmed and to the river walk park for lunch with the sandwiches Mom had prepared. From there we traveled down the Kennedy center to the middle of town, to the Jefferson Memorial, to the Tidal Basin, to Wal-Mart for supplies and food and back to the hotel.

Washington has a knack for not having great informational signs and Papa was having a fit over that.  He was very proud of Mom’s co-piloting which got us out of wherever we were but did not want to be to wherever we wanted to be.  She truly did a great job.

While Papa returned the rental car, Sean, David and Susana went back to the forest for their walk. They saw more deer and an abundance of fitness freaks doing their thing. Papa drove to the Budget office but walked all the way back, 20 blocks because the scenery was so beautiful he did not want to take the Metro and miss the variation of neighborhoods and the Smithsonian Zoo entrance.  We never made it to the zoo and it will be something we need to go to in a future trip.

The closest Metro station was a mere half block from the hotel. A well meaning citizen saw us trying to decipher the apparently complicated wall charts and gave us a briefing. His suggestion of a day pass would not have worked out for us but he meant well. Of all the people in Washingotn, we saw him again in opposite directions of the Metro and gave each other a thumbs up.

A Metro officer advised us to buy a plastic card that cost $10 – 2 for the card and 8 for passage and just replenish as needed.  This worked out to perfection as we controlled the amount and did not go over at all. This was our plan now through Friday.

Tuesday 8/12/14

The day started with a horrendous downpour. Despite this, we followed our plan of moving around in the Metro since we already had no option as Papa had returned the car. WE courageously waited a little for the rain to subside, it did not, so we left anyway as our days were truly counted. Papa wentto CVS for pnchos and umbrellas but they were sold out.  The hotel would sell us their wonderful $40 umbrellas of $30 ponchos but we would have had to take Papa to the closest hospital. We took the Metro to the Metro station (the name of the transfer paint) transferred cars and went to the Smithsonian station.  When we arrived, it was pouring and as a pure case of supply and demand, someone was selling umbrellas for $7.00 as we got out of the stairs and into a shelter. Another seller came by with the same umbrellas for $5.00 but we were looking for ponchos that were not happening. The $7 seller came by to offer the umbrellas but Papa told his his competition had them for $5 and he let us have them. We bought a Smithsonian poncho for $5.00 also.

We finally made it to the Smithsonian Castle as a starting point and then tried to move to the Air and Space museum but the rain was just too hard.  We stopped for lunch at the sheltered Hirshhorn Museum where a service German shepherd came out from the building backwards and for a long time all we could see from our perspective was his butt. After lunch we made our way to the Air and Space Museum which was a great place to start our museum tour.

We made it back to the hotel with the sun barely out and did not venture into the forest.  Mom and Papa found a great pizza place and that was out dinner. We had pizza from that place two of the nights since it was truly good.

Wednesday 8/13/14

On this day we got out of the Metro straight for the Washington monument to get out tickets. If we had left Washington without going up the monument, we would have never heard the end of it from papa. We did get out tickets for 6:00 and then we went to the American History museum to the  Natural History Museum which we could not complete during the time frame allowed.  We are convinced it would take two days at least to really experience each museum.  We never came close to the Aquarium, Portrait Gallery, American Indian Museum nor Gallery of Art. There was not enough time for them.

We ended up at the Ford Theatre to see and hear and explanation of the assassination of President Lincoln which was very moving.

On this day we were able to go up the Washington monument and Papa was fright. The view was spectacular and it was such a clear day we saw to Maryland and Virginia. The Cathedral and the Shrine appeared to be blocks away when they really were not.  A guide explained that the contest or challenge papa had made to come down the steps had stopped in 1976 when some people painted graffiti in the hallway.

By now we were Metro experts and moved all over in the system. We had a nice dinner in oure of the local restaurants and that was the end of the long and productive day.

Thursday 8/14/14

This was our final day since we would be flying out the next day. We went much further in the Metro to get out at Capitol station to visit the Library of Congress, the Capitol itself, the Folger’s Shakespeare Library the Supreme Court and the last part of the Natural History Museum we did not complete on Wednesday.

At the Library of Congress, we were able to see the scholars’ study tables Papa had mentioned he used to study in and it was amazing.  Papa spoke to the curator of the Shakespeare library and he allowed us a peak into the reading room where Papa used to study way back when.

We were impressed by the supreme court and the explanations we got there and the massiveness of the buildings.  By this time all four of us were experts in recognizing the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian column styles even though David and Sean where at times confusing them with gracias, provecho, permiso or Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  One of those three things kinds of things.

Because we had water and food in our backpacks, we were not allowed to go to the Capitol at all. We sacrificed Papa to wait for us with all the backpacks as we made a short self-guided tour. This is also we need to accomplish in a future trip, as well as the treasury, the White House and others.

We did walk past the White House for pictures, by the FBI but did not see Skully nor Mulder and by the IRS but could not get past security and no reason to either.

We finally made it to the hotel and David, Sean and Susana made their final trip together into the forest while Papa went back to the hidden McDonalds for dinner.

The wonderful Metro planning Mom and Papa had done had  worked to perfection all week long, so no need to worry about the trip to the airport.  The next morning, we would take the Metro at our regular station, go to Ronald Reagan Airport where the Metro had a station right at the terminal, and we would be on our way.  However, when Papa checked the passes to confirm the time of departure, he realized we were leaving from DULLES airport in Virginia, not Reagan in Washington. Panic! He looked at the map and the airport did not even appear. He went downstairs to the concierge whom he had befriended by then to figure out a plan. The taxi ride to Dulles was 96.00 for the four of us. But Metro could still work. We had to take the train at our regular station, transfer at the Metro station downtown and take the Silver train to the end of its route.  From there transfer to a Silver Ride bus which would take us to Dulles in about 20 minutes. The cost was about 9.00 per person. In our book, 36 beat 96 anytime.

Friday 8/15/14

We woke up earlier than we had planned since the airports had changed.  David went in his walk/jog of the forest areas and then we were off to the airport. We took our rolling bags, duffle bags and back packs  into the Metro. We took the train at our regular station, transferred at the Metro station downtown and took the Silver train to the end of its route just as we had been told.  From there we transferred to a Silver Ride bus which would take us to Dulles in about 20 minutes However,  there had been problems with the track of the Blue train which shared part of the track with the Silver so there were delays that morning. The only morning there had been delays! Finally, the trains started moving again and we went to the end of the line, which took forever since we had to make each and every stop (which by the way is precisely 20 seconds from door open to close) took the bus which was about to leave, made it to the airport, got our passes, cleared security with problems but cleared it, barged into the plane before they called our seats (which was good because there really was no more room for bags and we were back in row 30 again , and we were off!