"Life is the great adventure ride. Twist the throttle hard."

July 25 – The night we arrived in DC

We walked down to the National Mall from the hotel. The White House is only 6 blocks or so from our hotel.  We’re going to take 2 days off from riding, unwind a bit, and see the city.

To me, the memorials are the most powerful part of touring Washington, and the Vietnam Memorial is always my first stop.  Seeing the Wall is a very moving experience. 

July 26 – In Washington

I gave Chris a day away from dad.  Maddy and Chris toured the Natural History Museum and Smithsonian while Sam and I walked around the city. 

The highlight of the afternoon for me was a pub Sam and I found.  Just stitting down, relaxing, and having a cold beer with Sam was great.  Later I got my directions messed up, and we ended up at the Kennedy Center, so we went in.  Nothing was going on, but it was fun to walk around inside.  As luck would have it, a show Wickedis playing tonight, so we bought tickets. It is the prequil to The Wizzard of OZ.  Maddy bought us dinner at the roof-top restaraunt at the Kennedy Center. 

We found out Chris does not like goat cheeze. I wish I had a picture of him when he tried it.  The musical was outstanding, and we’ll never look at the Wizzard of OZ movie the same way again.  (The Wicked Witch is actually the good guy). 

After the theater, we went to the Lincoln Memorial.  To stand under Lincoln’s statue and read his Gettysburg Address incribed on the wall is special. 

July 27

We were going to take a tour bus around town to various sites, but after looking into the cost for 4 people, it seemed cheaper to take a taxi between stops.  First, we walked to the “Crime and Punishment Museum” which is also used as the set on CSI.  It is just bast the Chineese district.

The Crime and Punishment museum was a very interesting stop.  Much of it a tribute to law enforcement.  They had a police-car driving simulator to show how hard it is to drive fast through traffic in a city.  Only one of the three of us made it through without crashing. 

Uschi, can you pick out your husband in this line-up? 

We walked down the block to see Ford’s Theater and across the street to the house where Lincoln died.  I remember being in that house in 1972 on a field trip to DC.  Unfortunately, it was closed.  Back then, they still had on display the blood-soaked pillow where Lincoln’s head rested.

After lunch at the Hard Rock, we took a taxi to the Air and Space Museum.  The 3-D movie about the Hubble space telescope is a must see.  The displays of space-craft, moon rocks, engines, and technology is great.  The need more displays about radio though.  Without radio, would we have made it to the moon?  I did learn something new… Did you know, back in 1957, America had not yet launched a rocket into orbit yet?

We then went to the Washington Monument to put up our tired feet, and watch the sun go down.

After dinner, we took a taxi to the Jefferson Memorial and the Roosevelt Memorial.  The night-view of the mall is great, and there are fewer tourists.  What are the odds we got the same taxi driver twice in a row?

That wrapped up our tour of Washington.  Thanks much to Madison for joing us in DC.  She’s a very fine young lady, and a real trooper putting up with us guys.  Like most Sonnenberg vacations, it was a lot of things crammed into too short of a time, but I think we all had a great time.