end of the road...but just the beginning

Hello all! I thought I would be much better at this blog but we have been soooooooo busy doing, seeing and running around that I have barely to catch my breath. The end of the road is here, in Manhattan, but maybe I should start back at the beginning....

We left North Carolina on the first of October in anticipation of Washington D.C. It was a beautiful drive and we stayed in a little hotel outside the city in Arlington, which is right across the bridge from D.C. Everyone was super friendly and offered help if we needed it. The metro is quick, clean and efficient and we took it from a station that was a five minute walk from the hotel. We traveled on both days to the furthest point possible and made our way back to the hotel on foot. We walked around in the evening on the first day and, as you can see from some of the pictures, it was quite amazing. The “mall” as it’s called is flanked on the western side by the Lincoln memorial and the eastern side by the capitol building. Between these two is about 2.5 miles. About the center is the Washington memorial and north of that, a mile or so, is the White House. Anyway, we did all that in the evening and then asked a local where we should eat. We walked about 30-40 minutes north along the river surpassing the place that the man told us to go as it was a cheesy tourist place that was suuuuuper expensive. We ended up in a fabulously funky area called Georgetown; so amazing, young and upbeat that we could easily imagine ourselves living there. There were tons of stores, cool little thrift shops and unique boutiques; all open until 8 or 9 pm. That first night we at in a little place that turned into a club at the end of our meal. The second night we ate Ethiopian food at the well known Zed’s. The second day we revisited much of what we had done the night before but this time we were able to go into the buildings. We went into the Supreme Courthouse, the library of congress, tons of museums and ended up in Georgetown for dinner again. One of the greatest things about DC is that all of the monuments, buildings and museums are free. You can visit as much as you like without exhausting your funds. We woke up incredibly early (me about 4am for a run…not on purpose) and Francesco about 5 to leave by 5:30 and miss the horrendous weekday morning rush hour which we had seen in the previous days. Successful, we began the next leg, heading up to Buffalo.

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