DC day one

We are back from vacation and boy LOTS of walking was done. I am also half mole it seems also. You ask yourself, Mole? YUP. The Metro that runs in DC is mainly underground and underwater in some places. You take an escalator down the the lower levers anywhere from 4-8 stories underground, hop on the train going the right direction and then up an escalator to see what the world reveals as you pop out of the underground...just like a mole! Anyway, I digress.

(Pictures if the underground Metro. The red dots in the pictures are lights that flash when the train is approaching)

Our adventure started with a drive to Omaha to catch an early flight to Baltimore via Minneapolis. Once we arrived in Baltimore we took a short shuttle ride to the Amtrak station to ride the MARC train into Washington DC. Tickets were $6 each for one way trip which was about 30 miles in length and about 35 mi to go those 30 miles. Once there we meandered up out of the depths to Union Station. This is a HUGE building were you can catch a taxi, trolley to see the sites, Metro, Amtrak not to mention do some shopping, grab a bite to eat or even see a movie! We headed to our hotel and checked in. Nice place but it should be. The rack rate was $899 a night! We got ours for $169 a night for non busy nights, Friday and Saturday and then it jumped up to $269 a night for Sunday-Tuesday. It is a business town when Friday and Saturday are their cheap nights!

(Union Station)

We headed out on our adventure lead by our tour guide Jay, Kris's brother-in-law. He took us over the Metro to learn how to use it and we were off. First place was the White House. It was cool to see but was surprised at how small it looks and that the grounds were not all the big. There are BIG buildings on two sides of the White House with parks on the other two sides. We snapped a few pics then it was off to Old Ebbits Grille. YUMMY! Good place to have a bit to eat. I had some grilled oysters that were awesome for and appetizer and then had parmesan encrusted trout for supper. Very good but kind of noisy and VERY busy! It was well worth it! We headed back to the hotel as all of us were tired from our early traveling and ready to bound out of bed the next day to what was in store for us.