Well folks it was another hot humid day in the Capital, with rain forecast later in the day, so we scooted ourselves down to the Big Bus Tour stop to grab a yellow route bus. After a couple of stops we switched onto the Blue route which takes you to see sights such as the Lincoln Memorial and then out to Arlington where all the graves of fallen U.S military personnel are.
I’m not given to emotional outbursts, but when confronted with the seemingly endless rows of graves I defy anyone not to become misty-eyed and humbled. As we were in our bus there was a funeral cortege headed up to lay another soul to rest; our tour guide Sam said that there are approximately 24 burials every day.
You help yourself to earphones and plastic ponchos on the Big Bus tour, as some of the bus routes don’t have live guides on them (the yellow route was pre-recorded, but the blue route had a live guide named Sam on board). We took a poncho as we were sat upstairs and outside and showers had been forecast for the D.C area.
Another sight on the blue route is the Pentagon, and although you don’t get to appreciate its shape, you certainly can’t help but be impressed by the sheer size of the site; it’s colossal! Such is the amount of people working in the building that Wal-Mart even has a store inside for them.
When we hopped back onto the yellow route bus we took in the National Zoo and historic Georgetown. Because we’d got the evening tour booked we decided to have a decent lunch as dinner would have to be an on-the-hop number. Wending our way back to the Hotel we came across Joes Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab restaurant; having enjoyed our dinner there so much, we decided to go and have lunch there.
His Nibs had a burger, which was massive, I had the Seafood Salad, and Chickadee had the Crispy Fried Shrimp again because she’d so enjoyed them before. You really can’t fault the service in Joes, all the staff members are so nice, and they even asked if we wanted more bread as we polished off the first basket in disgustingly quick time!
With our tummies full, we had a bit of a siesta in our room; a shower to freshen up and some downtime to recover from the draining effect of the humidity outside. All too soon it was time to leave and catch our night tour bus at the designated meeting point. We were feeling quite smug that the forecast rain had failed to materialise; shouldn’t have spoken too soon should I?
As we waited for the guides to seat us, the heavens opened. I mean, really opened. There was even water leaking in on the enclosed downstairs level of the bus, due to the volume of rain coming down. However, we didn’t let it dampen our spirits and listened intently to our guide as she regaled us with the history of the buildings, the latest exhibits at museums, scandals and stories of notable presidents (we passed the Watergate Hotel that is the namesake of Nixon’s’ Watergate Scandal).
On the way back to the hotel we discovered a CVS Pharmacy open, so we got some nibbles to keep us going and some anti-histamine for a bite I received on 4th July. It doesn’t matter where in the world I travel, the local bugs all want a piece of the bird, and I swell up like a balloon. As I write, the tablets are kicking in and my arm doesn’t look like Popeye’s quite so much; the hydrocortisone cream is dealing with surface itchiness nicely too :)
The weather for tomorrow is not looking good, so we may have to change our plans for doing the red route bus tour and do something different, but I’ll keep you posted :)
