We woke up Monday , Day 5, to find that we were almost at our destination – less than an hour away! It seemed a good time to slow down and do a load of laundry and get ready for Washington DC. All cleaned up, we had a short hour drive to Prince William National Forest where we had reservations for 4 nights. This would be our headquarters for both downtown DC sight-seeing and a few battlefields in the outlying area. At our campground we picked up a Metro Pocket Guide and reviewed the information for getting around the city on this public transportation system. Our location at Prince William was just 20 minutes away from the start of the “blue line” metro at Franconia-Springfield. Without much problem we navigated to the parking spot for the metro, and luckily had a roll of quarters to pump into the parking meter for 5 hours’ worth of parking at the rate of 15 minutes for 25 cents! Walking to the jumping-on place, Tom and Caleb figured out the machines to purchases passes, and bought us each a $20 ticket to last over the course of the next couple days. Our destination was to the National Museum of the American Indian, a relatively new (18th) addition to the Smithsonian collection opening in 2004. The museum is just down the street from the Capitol building and within a 4-block walk of the Metro. For 3 hours we enjoyed the museum presentations featuring Native American beliefs and history as well as contemporary Native life. This was really just a “practice run” on the Metro to help us get grounded for the rest of our excursions, and by 5:30 we were in the car and heading back to the Silvermine at Prince William.
I do need to mention that Washington, DC is experiencing its first extended heat-wave with temperatures all this week predicted to be in the upper 90’s and heat index over 100 degrees. So it was today with a high of 98 – we are grateful that the Metro is air-conditioned as well as all of the museums that we want to see. The outside “mall” and view of many of the monuments is out in the blazing sun, but we think we can plan to sprinkle those in between our AC’d tours! Be sure to check back to see how we do in the next few days!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
October 2021
We don’t go camping any more . . . we go ‘streamin’ ! The “SIlvermine and His” is our 2018 25' Airstream Serenity with Salsa interior and front twin beds., and ‘streamin’ is the name we use to describe our adventures. Stream along as we document everything from weekend trips to longer summer excursions and full-blown vacations. You know what they say: if you’re not in an Airstream – you’re just camping!
Tom & Ella Brown |