6/24/2012 Continued
Mind blowingly delicious!
When we arrived at Rick’s (Kim’s good friend) house, right between Baltimore and Annapolis, he greeted us with a glass of great wine and amazing hospitality. As soon as we unpacked, he had us sitting at the kitchen counter eating delectable appetizers of warm bread, olive oil and coarse sea salt. Then came spicy shrimp in a butter sauce. Next was savory bay scallops and sweet pea pods! And lastly, the crème al a crème, huge Maryland lump meat crab cakes! They were beyond amazing! This was truly a gourmet meal. We caught up on what was new as we ate ourselves to bursting. And while the plan was to go have a drink somewhere after dinner, we were all so full, we just decided to hang out and watch scary movies. It was a great relaxing evening.
In the morning we got up early and headed to Washington D.C., ready for another day of exploration and extreme walking…which we definitely got. We took the park and ride and got of the train at the Eastern end of the Congressional Mall. Here we saw the Congressional Library, the Supreme Court, and the Capital building. Unfortunately, there was a lot of construction going on in the actual “mall” area (all of DC seemed to be under construction), so we had to make our way around all of that and try to ignore the bulldozers and cranes amongst some of our country’s most famous and glorious buildings. We peeked into the Smithsonian Castle and got a taste of what some of the museums would have to offer and found out where we could pick up an accurate map of the area (our iPhone map was not cutting it).
Jesse's first time seeing the Washington Monument in person.
We continued through the Mall until we reached the Washington Monument (mind blowing…who knew it was soooo big!?!). Then we headed out of the Mall to meet up with Kim’s friend Caroline for lunch. We hadn’t seen her in about 6 years, so it was great to catch up over some tasty Greek food. She gave us some good tips of how to get around the city. We said our good-byes and headed back to have a gander at the White House. Once again, the construction was making things a bit difficult, but we got to see quite a bit of it.
We moved on to the WWII Memorial (huge and impressive), the Independence Gardens, the Vietnam War Memorial (somber and heart wrenching), the Lincoln Memorial (incredible and breath-taking), the Korean War Memorial (beautifully done) and the Jefferson Memorial (awesome, but why so far away?). But we didn’t stop here! Next we headed to the Holocaust Museum. Sadly, it was too late to get in and see the main exhibit, but we were able to see two other exhibits, one about Nazi propaganda, which was very interesting
After the Museum, we jumped on a train to Arlington Cemetery. We hiked through the sobering and immaculately groomed grounds, stopping at President Kennedy’s grave and to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where we got to see the changing of the guard. It was all very cool.
By the time we got out of the cemetery, we were both pretty beat. We decided that we just had to call it a day. We took the train back to the car, and when we got home Rick, god bless him, had Filet Mignon, baked potatoes and asparagus warming in the oven. We had a few drinks again that night, watched a great sci-fi flick from the 50’s called “IT, The Terror from Beyond Space” (I think that was the title) and turned in fairly early.
6/26/2012
We got up early again and headed out to check out what the cities in Maryland had to offer. First stop was Baltimore…Home of “The Wire”. A little research told us that one of the most haunted places was Fort McHenry. We went to check it out. It was a beautiful day, so we didn’t see anything that led us to believe that there might be any ghostly inhabitants even though many American soldiers died there during the Revolutionary War. But the fort was interesting anyway being the place that the national anthem was written and the first 40 foot American flag was flown. Not only that, but it was interesting to creep around the battlements and check out the cannons that kept the British ships (and later the Confederate ships) at bay.
We cut across the city to see Edgar Alan Poe’s final resting place, and even made a quick stop at the home he died in. By then we were getting a bit hungry, so we decided to check out another Triple D suggestion. Unfortunately, this was the first let down. The food was overpriced, portion size was out of control, and the food was only so-so.
Next we got back on the highway and went over to Annapolis. This quaint town had a lot to offer. Our first stop was the oldest congress building in the country, where they still hold voting for the Senate and House of Representatives when there is construction in DC. It was really neat to stand in one of the oldest buildings in our country…we had to assume that there might be a spook roaming around somewhere.
When we’d finished checking that out, we headed towards the bay. We walked down narrow streets lined with tourist shops and ice cream parlors; we took advantage of both. And eventually, we made our way to the Middleton Tavern. This was another of the oldest buildings in Annapolis, and the country. This had been an inn and tavern before the U.S. was even a country. George Washington and Benny Franklin had conversations over beer right where we were sitting. It was awesome.
We had a really cool bartender who was kind enough to tell us about the ghost that haunted the inn and even his own personal experience when the ghost crept up behind him while he was closing one night. After a nice glass of beer and some good conversation, we picked up a pizza and headed back to Rick’s for our final night in Maryland, which was as wonderful and relaxing as all the others.
We had a really cool bartender who was kind enough to tell us about the ghost that haunted the inn and even his own personal experience when the ghost crept up behind him while he was closing one night. After a nice glass of beer and some good conversation, we picked up a pizza and headed back to Rick’s for our final night in Maryland, which was as wonderful and relaxing as all the others.
6/27/2012
This morning we had a bit of a delay waiting for packages to arrive, getting lost looking for a library to use the internet, and dealing with DC traffic. But eventually we were able to make our way into Virginia. Because of the delays, we weren’t able to make some of the stops in Richmond and Williamsburg like we had intended, but we did make it to our couch surfing host’s home at a reasonable hour. They were so nice to us, having made us an awesome dinner, done research for local hauntings and simply made us feel really welcome. We really regretted not having more time to spend with them. But, alas, we had to make it to Savannah, GA by the next evening.