Yesterday was a great day. If there was any confusion, let me assure you that Cas told me so on the Metro train back to the station where we got out to come to the hotel. He said, “Today was a great day, and I’m not just saying that because I have just had the best meal I can remember,” to which I replied, “Yeah, but it couldn’t hurt.”
Let’s rewind. Yesterday was our scheduled time to visit Mount Vernon, the historic home of President George Washington. It was a lovely plantation, and to be sure, pretty impressive for its time. It would still be a real estate dream for its grounds, its large number of bedrooms and its waterfront view. Today, we saw the whole thing. We got into the mansion. We saw the final resting place of the first President of the US. We checked out where his food was cooked, where his horses were stabled and where his vegetables were grown. It was quite the spot. Interesting side note- the place looks like it is made of large stones. They are actually wood cut to look like stone. The beveled edges make the look work out, and the paint they used had sand in it to make the panels appear stone-like. It was kind of a neat trick.
For our Mount Vernon adventure, we had booked three things- a grounds pass to visit, a tour of the mansion and a sightseeing boat trip. Well, the boat trip was cancelled. There was a problem with the boat, and our money was refunded. We decided to take that as a sign. I’d hate to go out in a boat that wasn’t ready to sail. If it was unworthy of the water, I don’t want to argue the point. We took our refund and headed to the more upscale of the two on-site dining options. There was a food court where all families with strollers and small kids seemed to gravitate, and there was a decidedly fancier restaurant where Cas and I spent our lunch dollars. We had a brie cheese appetizer followed by a pair of crab cake sandwiches. Forgive me if I go straight to the SpongeBob SquarePants references, but every single time I see a crab cake, it’s immediately a crabby patty. Go ahead- convince me it’s not a crabby patty. Regardless, that was one spectacular crabby patty. We’re pretty close to a whole lot of crab laden Maryland water, here, so crab has been a food goal of mine since we booked this trip.
With the mansion visited, the crabby patties down the hatch and the garden next on our list, we were nearly ready to move along, so when we saw what we came to see, we were off to the next destination. Cas had told a few of his colleagues we were headed to DC, and they had recommendations. Two of them apparently recommended a part of Alexandria, Virginia called Old Town. Specifically, an Irish pub came up. Why not, right? The place was called O’Connell’s , and the drinks were good. The bar looked too ornate to be American. We asked, and the wood features and detailing on the bar were imported from a bar in Ireland. There were pieces that came from libraries and churches, as well, leading us to jokes about hearing confession and pondering if they’d let us preach a sermon. It was a very cool bar, and it was our spot to ride out the first little wave of rainy weather we had in the evening.
After that, we headed to the wharf in Old Town Alexandria. We wandered for a moment, then we located an artists’ community called the Torpedo Factory. It had, in the building’s past, been a place where torpedoes were manufactured, Today, it’s segmented into storefronts where, in the working hours of the daytime, each one houses an artist who creates and sells from that spot. It was all very cool. We wandered there until the rain let up (and until they closed the building). When we walked out, there was a distinct rainbow in the sky. I mean, how cool is that? A real, honest-to-goodness rainbow. Hello, selfie!
After we left there, we walked up a cobblestone street (careful walking on that stuff!) to the spot where we could hop over to the restaurant where we wanted to eat dinner. We had picked out a place in Old Town Alexandria called The Wharf. It’s on King Street about a block or two away from the water. I am writing that down because everyone ought to go there. The food was amazing. We started with their crab cake, even though we had crabby patties for lunch. The waitress recommended we try that and the she-crab soup, and she was absolutely correct. After the appetizer, the soup arrived, and it was also spectacular. Our entree was one we split, as we usually find a full plate of food to be a bit much following an appetizer and a soup. That was baked stuffed jumbo shrimp with mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables. Cas is so nice, too, because he let me have all of the broccoli. He always does.
So that was the day today. Sounds like a great day, doesn’t it?
Something I find particularly interesting about traveling with Cas is that he has a natural intuition about public transportation in any place we seem to go. Today’s mass transit adventure took us from the blue in train to a yellow line train to a $2 city bus ride that went straight to the front of the Mount Vernon Visitor’s Center. When we left there, we had another $2 bus ride to the Metro station, where we took the yellow line to Old town, then a free “circulator” bus to the neighborhood we wanted to visit. After dinner, we went back to the Metro station via the same circulator bus and took the blue line back to the stop that is a block and a half from our hotel. When Cas and I got married, I did’t know he had such a natural ability to confidently figure out mass transit, but it is a nice bonus.
Anyhow, today is the big show. It’s July 4 in Washington DC, and we have a few things in our lineup. There’s a parade, a celebration with the US Navy Band (we pre-booked tickets) and a boat ride on the Potomac from which we will view the fireworks. There were about a zillion people at the National Mall on Sunday when we went to see the Lincoln Monument, so we figured it must have only gotten worse yesterday, and certainly, today is the day most of our fellow tourists are here for, too. I get it. I don’t blame them, but I am also very glad we’ve got a guaranteed spot on a boat where they had to sell tickets. Certainly, there are rules about how many of those tickets they can sell and how full they can pack that boat. We’ll tell you all about it later. For now, Happy Birthday, America!
And of course, here are our photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/i5YWxcScDLHgbJqLA
No comments:
Post a Comment