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A gorgeous day with temps dropping a little so not as hot and sticky as it has been.
We went into Richmond and walked around the new canal district, a reduced version of the pre-civil war canal. Its a civil war and slave trail so there were lots of plaques with snippets of history, all very interesting. Along the way we saw more geese like those we saw flying yesterday as we entered Richmond.
At midday the canal boat tours begin so we got on the first boat for a very informative cruise along the canal. A bit of a highlight was seeing a beautiful blue heron and some turtles. We found a cooperative dragon fly who posed for photos, even happy to sit on my finger for pics!
There is a spot where 3 railway lines cross each other, apparently the only place in the world where this happens. There was also a rickety looking bridge that prior to one of the major floods they've had here was able to be raised and lowered to give access for boats from the canal to the river. It's now ceased and is permanently down, it was designed directly from a Leonardo De Vinci drawing.
After several devastating floods over the years they've now installed a massive flood wall with big gates they can close off if a flood is imminent.
We headed towards DC and checked in for 3 nights at the Hawthorne Suites, huge suite, full size kitchen, full hot breakfast and shuttle to the shops (not needed) and the metro, probably will use that. As we drove into the hotel there was much excitement (from Pete) as Marine 1 flew overhead.
We dropped off our gear and went straight to Arlington. On the way we passed the pentagon, OMG, it's huge!,
We walked almost all of the cemetery, saw the changing of the guard, JFK's burial site and the bringing down of the flag - we got admonished for not putting our hands on our hearts when the marine was taking the flag to its over night place. I wanted to say sorry but we are foreign! Only problem with that is it was one of those times you have to be respectful and silent lol Ooooops our bad lol
After Arlington we decided to take a peek around DC. We drove there, only a few minutes from Arlington, over the Potomac and we were there. We parked near the Capitol Building, checked out the huge monuments nearby, the reflecting pond and the outside of the Capitol Bldg where we stood to watch the sun go down.
Before we headed back to our hotel we drove around the White House and noted the roads were shutting down, people were gathering and it felt like something was going to be happening soon. We couldn't decide, stay in DC, go back to the hotel, what to do? We opted for the latter, did some shopping, cooked dinner and did laundry - the excitement never stops lol
Turning on the late news we found out what all the buzz was, Obama was flying back from the Russian G20 talks this evening. Glad we didn't bother finding a park and hanging around lol
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