Hi Everybody, it's Laela, I'm guest blogging today. I know I am no Rob with the crafting of the words, but please give me chance. Here we go......
Yesterday while walking about town we saw a bike tour and a Segway tour. (D.C. is not really set up for walking around like the other cities we've been to.) With Rob's meat toes we wanted to do the Segway tour, 'cause when else would we get a chance to ride around on those thing, but D.C. has a law you must be 16 to ride Segways. So after some poking around we found a bike place that had tours leaving at 10 a.m. If you've been reading this blog, you know that Rob has complained and complained about his girls sleeping in (what he doesn"t tell you is that we haven't been getting to bed until 1 or 2 am each night), and 10 am is EARLY for us, but we got up and made it over there. What the site didn't say was to call and make reservations, and they were booked. However, they did have day rentals of the bikes without a tour. Turned out to be the best idea EVAR.
First spot we rode to was the International Spy Museum. I am highly recommending this if you travel to D.C. It had interviews from former spy's, and all these cool little gadgets. We spent almost three hours going through there. It's a little off the beaten path, but there were plenty of people there. It is not free, like the Smithsonian, but we got our moneys worth.
We took two steps out the Spy Museum and started debating lunch. This has become a daily chore, because we never know what's close, or what's good, or what Miranda will eat, and what we'll eat want. Miranda hates trying new things, and Rob and I just want to try all the local foods. The two visual choices were the Spy Cafe, or Gordon Biersch. Gordon Bierchs had beer so it won out. Miranda got out of her comfort zone and ordered some stir fry. I was so proud of her.
After lunch we visited a bunch of places on the bike real quick, please keep in mind that it's summer and nothing is open to the public. We saw the Capital Building, the Supreme Court, and the Library of Congress. There is a fantastic fountain outside of the Library of Congress. I made everybody stop so we could get our picture taken. (I still think the Worthington Library is better, cause the people who work there are The Best.)
We then took the Behler show over to the Museum of Natural History. Miranda was really excited to visit here. It had some cool/gross stuff all over the place. From there we rode over to the Jefferson Memorial and the FDR Memorial. Each Memorial is awe inspiring in their own ways. The Jefferson is classic, but the FDR is modern, and makes you contemplate the issues FDR had to deal with. Ann told us not to miss it, and she was completly right.
We made two more stops before we turned the bikes in. We visited the Vietnam Memorial and the White House. The White House looks so small from Pennsylvania Avenue. There a police everywhere around the street. The police are friendly and will let you hang on the rails (just in case you were wondering).
Here is the portion of the show where I tell you that the bikes rocked. It's the only thing that worked out around here. The metro, while easy to figure out, has the weirdest paying system, and I'm sure we WAY over paid for the amount we used it. Not to mention the metro stops are few and far between, and the escalators were never in working order. I know your thinking "what a stupid thing to complain about" but if you're with Rob it becomes an issue. I also want to say the people here are either SUPER rude, Über snobby, or overly helpful. The city may be clean, but it's not my favorite.
So we've called it a night. Everyone has taken a shower and are relaxing on the bed. It has been very hot everyday we've been gone. We are headed into Virginia tomorrow. I think we are all looking forward to getting to the beach before we head home. In case you haven't heard, we miss you. It would have been great if everybody could have come along for the party, but life doesn't always give us what we want.
Thanks for reading, I'm sure Rob will post his regular scheduled Blog later.
