July 21st, 2010. Driving from Long Island, NY to DC
I see now why I gave up keeping a Journal. It"s quite a job to keep up with writing what we've done. But because I don't remember things as well as I used to, I'm glad to have something to look back to.
So now, we're in Washington DC on the start of our 3rd day, and this blog is about the trip down here!
We left with good timing, and I held my camera poised to see the sights along the way. Afterall, we'll be passing through NYC, and Brooklyn, and Queens and New Jersey eventually and bit of
Pennsylvania before we get to Delaware, Maryland and finally DC. I saw it was less than 45 miles to get to NYC. So I thought it would only take us a little more than a half hour to reach the city. Funny, as a kid, it always felt like a few hours! Well, even 'though we left well after commuter traffic, we still hit some traffic and it did indeed take more than an hour to get to and through NYC. We'll come back here on our way to the airport on our last 3 days.
Russ researched and found a place in Philidelphia, Pennsyvania to have a a real Philly Cheesesteak. The place was called Tony Luke's and we arrived around 2:30. It was surprising to us to still see a line outside this place. It was located practically under the freeway, and it was outdoor seating only. Pennsyvania was also as hot and humid and the rest of the East Coast, so it surprised me even more to see the people still lined up. They must agree that this was a good place to eat. I had the chicken cheese steak, and decided against the traditional CheezWhiz type of cheese and opted for Provolone instead. I just can't bring myself to eat that processessed stuff! The rest of our family felt the same although they had the beef Cheesesteak. It was good, nice to be able to say we had an authentic Cheesesteak, but we actually enjoy tritip sandwiches from the westcoast better!
We didn't have nearly as much traffic as we thought and came into Washington DC without a problem. Last year, we stayed near the Dullas Airport in Virginia, and had a long commute everyday into the city. This year, for only a few more $ and no hotel breakfast we stayed in a hotel just within walking distence of the Lincoln Memorial. Before we could do any exploring, it was time to give up our car and once again rely on public transportation. It was fun having the Buick Enclave, but buses and light rail trains (they call it the Metro here) is always an adventure. We took the car to the Ronald Reagan Airport and rode the Metro "home".
July 22nd, 2010
We woke up early because we were going to meet with George Radonovich or rather one of his staff members. If you write to your congressman, you can get scheduled for a tour of the Capital building and other places in DC. If you write far enough in advance, you can even get a White house tour. We didn't time it right, so we needed to do some of the other places on our own. We got a bit of a late start, and when we got to the Capital building, there was a long security line in front. There are medal detectors and security screening in every government building now. So we thought we'd be late for our personal tour. LOL, we were not as important as we thought we were. We just got in the line for the general public tour. The letter we were sent was just a guarentee to get in, nothing more. The tour was brief but interesting. There were statues of famous Americans everywhere. Every state needed to contribute 2 statues to represent their state. California had Fr Junipero Serra, the priest who founded the 21 missions in California, and Ronald Reagan, our former governor, and 40th president of USA.
From the Capital building, we took the underground tunnel to the Library of Congress. My dream had been to see this Library of Congress since I was in the 5th grade. Somehow, I got the idea that every book that ever was published in the USA would be here. I thought that even visitors could request books to look at and read while there. I thought it would be rows and rows and warehouses of books as far as the eye could see. I thought one could never check out any books but rather read them there. Well only one of my myths was accurate. It's true that you can't check out any books. They must all stay here and research is done on wonderful old desks.
Also, any person who has a LOC library card, could do research. There is an application process to get a card, and then the research is only done in one main room. Sometimes a book you request is in a warehouse in Virginia and it would take a while to arrive! So when the tour took us to the place where people receive their requested books, it was closed to visitors but we were able to view the room through a window from a room above. No pictures were allowed in this area as this could disturb those doing research. Not every book that ever was published in USA is there, however, they all get LOC numbers. Sometimes the author donates the books, but if not, it's not there! They never buy books for the Library, not after they bought the Thomas Jefferson collection. All are donated. And not all are accepted since space is limited. Now I understand why presidents have such large libraries, and why they don't just donate the books to the Library of Congress. They simply don't have enough space for all of the books! That's why they open their own libraries in various parts of the country.
pictures to follow later...
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