On July 1, 2006, I traversed up I-95 to visit Washington, DC. I rode the Metro--DC's public transportation system and then took a trolley tour of the city. Since pretty much the entire day was spent moving in some sort of transportation or other, I won't be in alot of the pictures.

This is the Metro System. The metro system was rather intimidating, as I am *was* a public transportation system virgin. Now, after this one trip, I feel I can navigate the mean trains of DC with the best of them.

After catching the Metro at the Dunn-Loring Merrifield station, and one successfull transfer from the ORANGE line to the RED line at Metro station, I disembarked at Union Station, the Center of all that is in the DC public transport system. From this station, you can go anywhere.

Union Station is pretty kewl, and would remind me of that mall in Cleveland that Ruth and JoDee went to that time they went on their Drew Carey Tour of Cleveland...you know the one that's downtown that was deteremined was used as the facade for the Winfred-Lauder store. Yeah, that one...Well, I WOULD remember it IF I had known Ruth and JoDee back then.

Union Station is ALOT like that--there were alot of high-end speciality stores and restaurants, and buried in the basement, a standard mall foodcourt. This is where I partook of my humble chicken and rice luncheon.

After lunch, I went in search of the DC Trolley Tours. After much meandering, it was found. This is Bernie (the Bookworm), one of the two Trolley drivers I met during my visit. Isn't he nice to let me pose with him?

The tour started at Union Station, and alot of history was mentioned. Something about the statue and the avenue and flags, and something else I can't remember right off hand. Anyways, here's the first picture of the tour.

Proceeding along, the tour was boring. Well, maybe not boring, but it went WAY too fast, and I was kind of disappointed by the lack of things to do. Okay, maybe that came out wrong--if you are a new visitor to DC, then I would probably suggest the tour, as it gives you a great way to see all of the monuments (albeit from a quickly moving trolley), and provides a general layout of the city. Here are some pictures of monuments taken from a moving bus. Please enjoy my "monument montage" gallery.







I did make it to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. As you can tell, even in a museum, I can still find where they keep the handbags.
And of course, I HAD to check out the prime shopping in the one of the many gift areas. And just like always, they NEVER have my size!

Read me again soon!

Pic's from DC coming soon! :-)