Wednesday

Alrighty then, can't sleep so I'll give a brief run down of yesterday's activities (keeping in mind that 'brief' can be a relative term).

We got up bright and early, sat around talking about where we were going, had breakfast and started out. First tho, let me make a note about the weather, it has been overcast since we got here and a bit on the chilly side for me, low forties high 3o's. Light winds, under 1omph. So, we were planning only one real outside activity and the rest were going to be things like museums and such. With that in mind, I didn't wear my heavy coat, didn't want to be toting it around when I didn't need to. I wore my sweatshirt/hoodie and the down vest that came with it and a undershirt. We had discussed this and figured that if this was not enough, we would be close enough to the hotel to come back and get the coat if I needed it. And we were off for our first real day of playing the tourists.

We walked over to the Law Enforcement Memorial.

Very nice. WAY too much engraved stone tho, meaning: TOO many names engraved on said stone.
Pretty. set up well, makes you want to walk around and find names just to feel connected. Silly feeling probably, but that's what it did to me. So we walked around there for a bit, found David's name, took some pictures of it, made a rubbing, took some more pictures and then said, "Now what?". lol. moving right along, we found the Memorial visitor center/store. They had some really kewl stuff in there too. lots of stuff for sale, to fund the Memorial...
so of course, we had to buy some stuff. That's the nature of the beast...spend spend spend.

From there we started to look for the Bead museum...this proved to be a bit elusive, we walked around for a while, asked a few people, none of whom had ever even heard of it let alone knew where it was, (never did find it) then decided it might be a good idea to pick up an umbrella. So we stopped at CVS. Then we found out that, in most cases, people who offer to help you are not being particularly altruistic, they want a handout, got a really good speil going too. Learned that lesson pretty well...so moving on. We took off to go to the DAR (Daughter's of the American Revolution) Library to see if it was true about being a descendant. By now it is drizzling a bit, not too hard, but enough to make me open the new umbrella. It turns out the DAR is further than we thought...took us quite a while to get there by walking (per mapquest it's 1.60 miles from our hotel, so...). It is getting a bit colder and the drizzle has turned into a light rain by now. I was not really very comfortable, but it's a little late to head back to the hotel and start over, so we push on. We see the white house on the way, thru the rain and overlooking the construction, it's really a pretty awesome sight. We finally get to the DAR and have to go thru security to get in...take off the camera, empty your pockets, put it all in the little baskets, blah blah blah...you would think that we are going to fly out of there! We get to the library portion and discover that it costs money to go in and research...we choose to ask the gentleman at the desk a couple of questions and he takes pity on us and does the main research for us...no where in his vast database is there any mention of my grandmother, mother, sister, cousins....oh well, it was really just a lark anyway. So Trav asks a few questions, (we Know that his grandmother has applied and all the paperwork is on file, he is trying to find out if there is any more info than what he has acquired elsewhere to add to his genealogy packet) and the man sends us down to the microfiche area. He spends some time looking thru that stuff, actual scans of documents and such, when he finds that some of the research was done by someone else and his grandma 'piggybacked' on that info...so he goes and looks at that figuring that there will most likely be something new and guess what? The supporting documentation from that file is not the right stuff!!! There is a mix up and the correct info is somewhere else and what is there is for a different family. That was a bit disappointing, but what can you do? Smile and move on. The lady working there said that she would start the process for getting it straightened out but that nothing could be done right then.

Some where in this last segment, about the time that we walked into the library part itself, I realized that I was missing a ring...the one that is forever falling off had done so again...so off I went to look for it while Trav talked to the nice man at the desk, I thought it most probably had escaped when I had removed my gloves, or when I was in the ladies room. It was not there and the guards had not seen it either. I looked in our bag, and all my pockets, no luck. Again, what can you do? move on, what else...so we did. I left my name and phone number with the guards, just in case some honest soul (of which there are a great many) happened to turn it in we would come back and pick it up, or pay shipping if it showed up after we went home. And out into the cold we go again.

And it IS cold! and rainy, and the wind has picked up, and it is not a nice day anymore. But we haven't a clue about the bus or rail system and can't seem to get a taxi to stop, so walking was our only known method of travel at this point. Trav called the number on the bus stop sign and we would have had to walk almost as far in the other direction to get to a bus as we were going to have to walk to get back to the hotel, so, nope, let us move on.

We didn't take too many pictures at this point (translation, I took NONE) as that would have put my camera out in the rain as I would have had to put the umbrella down, sigh. We walked for a while then we saw a sign for the DC Visitors Center, we went that way to the Ronald Reagan Building. Another security checkpoint! We walk to the other end of this bldg. and it's a LONG bldg only to find that there is no one at the visitors center right now so we walk all the way back to the other end and find a place to eat and sit down and warm up. And from there we had to find a bathroom. While I was in the ladies room, Trav called the Law Enforcement store to see if maybe I had dropped my ring there and not at the DAR, the guy set the phone down while he looked around, but didn't find anything, I thank him for looking tho. So then Trav looks thru everything we had, the bag, my camera case, his fanny pack, my vest pockets, everywhere he can think of, nothing. He sits back and thinks, "Well, it's really gone this time." Right after he thinks that he happens to glance down at the floor...When I get back he explains about his call and his search then turns me around and says, "Just look around" I look and see nothing...he says "Look down" and right there, right next to the chair I had been sitting in...was my RING!!! On the floor - almost a mile from where I had noticed it missing and NOT somewhere that we had been before! so where did it come from? We figure that it had come off in the bathroom and had been resting comfortably in my jeans, down by my boot. I had my pants kinda tucked into the top of my boots to stop the wind. I must have knocked it loose when I scratched my ankle right before heading off the the restroom. That ring is a real story all it's own, and some time soon, I'll try and list all the places it's decided to go without me, but not today. lol. Suffice to say, I have it back and it is now behind another ring that is NOT coming off without help!


Ok, back to our travels...we head back to the other end of the building to see if there is anyone there and there is. She suggests that we use the train system as opposed to the buses as she has lived there all her life and is still confused by the bus system. She directs us to the nearest station (about a block away) we go down into the station, look at the map, figure out our route, buy the ticket, wait a couple of minutes (they run roughly every 10 minutes) got on, transferred to the next leg, and got off a couple of blocks from our hotel, at Union Station. We get directions to the hotel and set off, about 15 minutes later here we were! Whew what a relief - safely back and warm and dry. Makes one appreciate the simple things in life a bit more. That little jaunt only took us about 6 hours! (I'll tell you about going to dinner some other time lo))

Today will be better, we have a clearer idea about transportation and the layout of the roads, so we should have less trouble. I'll let you know about that later lol.


Well thanks for sticking with me all the way to the end, hopefully you enjoyed the journey. There will be more to come, I'll try to keep you up to date on the "Adventures of Trav and Lori"

bye for now.