The National Mall

We had a good night’s sleep and were ready for a day of touring. Papa’s cousin made us breakfast and also packed us lunches to take with us. Instead of driving down town, they told us it would be better to take the Metrorail.

But one little stop before we did that. I developed a severe rash on my cheeks and neck. I didn’t want to be touring around and it becoming worse so I thought it would be best to go to an urgent care clinic to have it looked at and get some medication before we left for the day. After that was done (allergic reaction to something!) we bought the medication at the pharmacy down the street and started to walk to the Metro. We had told Papa’s cousin that we could walk, but ¾ of the way down she drove up beside us and took us the rest of the way.

Well, we got off at the Smithsonian stop and started to walk. Papa has always wanted to see the Spirit of St. Louis airplane at the Air and Space Museum so we headed that way. It was easy to get around with the map we had. We saw the Air and Space Museum, the National Archives where they keep the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. I wanted to go to the American History Museum, but it was closed for renovation. It’s not scheduled to open again until Fall. As we walked, we could see the Washington Monument and the Capital building and took lots of pictures. We listened to Jazz in the Park across from the National Archives and had a good time just walking around and watching the people. The sound was wonderful all over the park and it was full of people sitting with their feet in the huge round fountain and on all the lawns and benches eating their dinner.

We took the Metro to Alexandria (we were expert Metro travelers by this time) and made reservations at a nice little steak house there on King Street. We thought it would be an easy walk from the metro to the restaurant, but quickly found out we were starting on the 1200 block and needed to get to the 200 block. And we had walked by all the taxis at the Metro station. Now what? That’s when a taxi came down the busy King Street, Papa waved him down and we got in. He took us straight to the door in 5 minutes.

At the restaurant, they brought us upstairs at the “best table in the house” we thought. It was in front of a window with a view of the busy “old town” street below. I ordered Southern Fried Catfish, Papa ordered steak, and we both had Bourbon Pecan Pie for dessert. Mmmmm! Dinner was lovely and romantic and Papa didn’t care if my face was a mess with this “severe dermatitis.” We were happy.

We took the Metro back to the Vienna station where Papa’s cousin’s husband picked us up, brought us home, and we sat and talked before heading upstairs for bed tired from a wonderful day.