Inside THE Beltway

Just got back from our nation's capitol....my home town. Son, Wayne, had a conference in Alexandria, Va, and took me and his family along so I could give daughter, Hannah, a tour of Washington. The first night there, we rode the trolley down King Street to and from dinner. Gates loved the trolley, which he nicknamed "the School bus". Daughter-in-law Niki, learned to navigate on the metro :)

This is what King Street looks like at night. It has many little eclectic shops and restaurants. It reminds me of Georgetown in Washington, Annapolis, Md, and Downtown Charleston, SC. Old, historic, quaint, chic and expensive.

This photo is out of chronological order.....go figure. It is Hannah in the capitol with the statue of Helen Keller.

Actually, our first stop on our "tour" was the Museum of Natural History. Gates was looking forward to the dinosaurs, not realizing they would not be alive! Still he was pretty impressed by the triceratops skeleton head.

It just so happens I have an old boyfriend who is a US Representative. We dropped by his office and he assigned his assistant, Joe, to take us on a personal guided tour of the capitol. Joe wangled us a ride in the congressional train that runs underground from the house office building to the capitol. Very cool!

This our new best friend Joe. He was a great guide; he knew just what to show us that a fifth grader would enjoy and appreciate! Thank you again Joe! I think Representative Stearns should promote you POST HASTE!

We left Washington as the STORM OF THE CENTURY hit. They were expecting 24" as we skedaddled out of DC. We drove in heavy snow flurries until we hit the North Carolina line.

All in all it was an action packed trip. My grandchildren behaved admirably well; I got to spend 16 hours in the car with my son and his family. We talked a lot and the children got to see a little bit of my hometown. It doesn't get any better than that for a mother and grandmother :)

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