SATURDAY SISTERS IN DC

Patty and Robin at the Lincoln Memorial

 After the shock and surprise of my sisters greeting me at Union Station when I arrived on Friday night, we made our way back to the Avenue Suites, where I had a suite reserved for my stay and which they had upgraded. Dinner from Trader Joe's, some wine and some Jack topped off the evening and we were up early the next morning to go exploring.

Bonnie had made us reservations for a White House tour so we hit the Capitol Mall for a few hours, exploring the Washington Monument (tours were sold out for the day), the reflecting pool, the Lincoln Memorial and the Korean War Memorial.

Bonnie and Abe

Patty and Bonnie had rented bicycles for the weekend at a rental place at Union Station and they were told not to lock the bikes to anything other than bike racks, so we did the Mall on foot. 

The White House tour was interesting, but also limited to a few rooms on one floor. There was an individual in each room to answer questions, which I am sure they welcomed just to break up the monotony of standing in the same room all day long watching strangers pass through.


Following the White House tour, we decided since we were still close to the Mall that we would try to get over to see the Vietnam Veterans Memorial before the motorcycle crowd got too heavy. Ha! We were already way too late! The throng of bikers had already descended on that end of the Mall and there was a huge line of people clad in black t-shirts and leather vests waiting to get up to it. They were everywhere! Damn bikers! LOL

Patty in the bike lane on Pennsylvania Avenue

So we grabbed some lunch then headed over to the Natural History Museum in search of dinosaurs. By then, we were getting pretty comfortable about riding the bicycles around DC. One of the more unnerving facets of this mode of travel is that Pennsylvania Avenue has a bicycle lane, complete with their own traffic signals, down the middle of the road! Took some getting used to, but once we did, we discovered that bicycling DC was awesome! There are bicycle racks all over DC where you put in your credit card and the bike rack unlocks a bicycle. You ride it to your destination, then drop it off at a rack there! So you see people all over DC on these red bicycles. And there are alot of people who bicycle DC. I was warned that the drivers were crazy and I was going to get creamed on my bicycle here. But the truth is that it is generally a very bicycle friendly city and bicycles are an accepted and integrated mode of transportation here. 

So I have to say that we were disappointed as the dinosaur display that the Natural History Museum was closed until 2016. There were, however, excellent displays of a whole lot of other things of interest and we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through there. The museum was packed with people.

Bonnie and Patty at Bandolero in Georgetown

Saturday morning we had eaten breakfast at Le Quotidien Pain (the Daily Bread), a trendy little bakery with family style dining. Sitting across the table was a well traveled local DC resident who we chatted with and was kind enough to give us a list of various eating establishments to try out. So Saturday evening we tried one of his recommendations, another trendy place in Georgetown with a southwestern flair. Although it was a bit dark and loud, Bandolero had fantastic food and excellent service. As with most everything in Georgetown, it was walking distance from our accommodations at the Avenue Suites. We finished up the evening with adult beverages in our suite.

All in all, a fantastic day spent with my two sisters, who I never expected to be here!

Peace!