Tuesday, August 10, 2010

DC at Night

Well, we decided to take a night tour of Washington DC.  We booked the tour with our concierge.  At the end of the tour, they will drop us off at our hotel.  The tour started at the Old Post Office, so we got there a couple hours early, ate dinner at the food court and just rested a bit until we needed to board the bus for our tour.  We also rode the elevator up the bell tower of the Old Post Office and saw the entire city from up there.  Paula was a little nervous going up to the top because she is a bit afraid of heights.  The worst part for her was the elevator is made of glass, so she can see everything below her as she goes up it.  She was a trooper though and made it to the top with coaxing from her grandchildren.  The Old Post Office is a national landmark, so it is managed by the National Park Service.  We rested in the food court area long enough to be blessed by a tour group of 10 year old Jewish kids.  They didn't know what state they were from (pretty smart kids)!  It got pretty crazy, very fast.  It was quite entertaining for those of us ready to fall asleep from the heat.  We boarded our bus at about 7:15pm.  It was right on time and air conditioned.  They also served water bottles from a big cooler for everyone on the bus (smart idea)!  Our tour guide, Barbara, was about 75 years old.  She was a whipper snapper and knew a lot of details about the city.  We liked her a lot.  We were able to see so many sites in DC.  It was fun to see them all illuminated at night.  I hope some of my pictures turned out.  I will post them soon.  Here are the sites we were able to get off the bus and view:
  • US Capitol Building
  • World War II Memorial  
  • Jefferson Memorial  
  • Vietnam Memorial  
  • Lincoln Memorial 
  • Korean War Memorial  
  • Iwo Jima Memorial  
  • White House
These are the sites we drove past, but were unable to get off the bus to view:
  • Washington Monument
  • Arlington Cemetery
  • Watergate Complex
  • The Air Force Memorial
  • The Kennedy Center
  • The Washington Mall
  • Smithsonian Museums
We took the "OnBoard" Tour bus which was recommended by our concierge. 

These are some of the things we learned on our tour:
  • Paula has trouble walking down stairs with her trifocals.  She missed the last step at the Lincoln Memorial and fell to the ground.  She is doing fine, but is a bit sore on her behind today.  She blamed it on Wes because she was trying to keep track of him.
  • We didn't know our night tour would go until 11pm.  Boy were we tired when we finally got back to our hotel for the night.
  • Wes doesn't want to spen $2.00 for a bottle of water, but will drink from someone else's water bottle if they buy one.
  • You have to pay $40 to park your car at the hotel in Washington DC...for one night.
  • When you stay at fancy hotels, you have to tip the bell boy who brings up your luggage.  You also have to tip the guy that parks your car for $40/night.
  • Taking the metro subway system...where to start...it is a good thing Paula and Wes are with us, because they would never be able to figure it out by themselves.
  • Don't sit on the back of the tour bus, because the ride is BUMPY!
  • David and Xiang were probably excited to have some peace and quite without the noisy Westberg's for 2 days.
  • Oh, I forgot to mention in my earlier blog that Wes had a diabetic attack in Cinncinati at 2am.  Paula sent him down to the check in desk and the guy gave him a candy bar.  He didn't want to wake us up, so he took matters into his own hands.  He forgot to take his pill before dinner...Paula got blamed for that.
That is all for now.  I will post pictures when I connect with Xiang's computer.

Michelle



3 comments:

  1. I would think you would all look exhausted by now with lack of sleep but you all look pretty good or is someone touching up your photos???

    ReplyDelete
  2. Took me forever to try and figure out how to get on this blog thing in the first place and now I have an error on one of the comment pages and I do not know how to close it,they want me to report the problem but they don't tell me how to do it. Plus every time a person wants to post something you have to type in a secret code word they show you.Maybe when I log off it will go away.....Anyway hang in their mom and dad you can and are doing it.Keep having fun and for cripes sake dad it is OK to spend a few bucks especially on food and water to help your blood sugar in all this heat. Do you know how much it will cost if you end up in a hospital out there?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am reading just got a bit behind. Sounds like you are all having fun. Love all the pictures, keep them coming. Calvin please hold Grandma's hand when she walks down the stairs.

    ReplyDelete