down to DC (lyn)

Our last college visit begins today.  Alexander decides he wants to see Georgetown, so by 8:30 this morning, we are on another Bolt bus heading for DC.

We arrive at Union Station just in time for lunch.  Union Station is nothing like most train stations. Picture an urban mall, complete with a full blown food court where trains and busses just happen to pass through.  I want something that if I were tracking would be low in points, I choose a teriyaki shrimp with vegetable dish from a Japanese vendor while Alexander opts for McDonald’s (which surprises me given all the choices).  My lunch is disappointing as the rice far outweighs anything else on the plate.  I eat too much of it plus some of Alexander’s french fries.

Next we head over to the American History Museum.  When I tell Alexander where we are going he asks, "How  did you hear of this museum?” I have to assume he doesn’t know that it’s part of the Smithsonian.  It's an amazing place and we stay till closing.

We take the subway to Foggy Bottom (about a 20 minute walk to Georgetown) but not without a major run in with a subway employee posing as the guardian of the exit turnstiles.  Apparently in DC, you need to hold on to the metro ticket you purchased upon entering the subway and use it again to exit .  Well we don’t know this (it works differently in NYC, no one tells us, and there are no signs indicating this) and so we toss our tickets in a big trashcan on arriving.  When we go to exit, we can’t.  A guard comes over to offer assistance.  He asks where we started from; we tell him; and his solution is this, “I’ll walk over with you to the ticket machines and you can buy another two tickets.”  If he didn’t look so serious I’d think he was kidding.  He’s not.  Alexander and I go back downstairs to check the trashcan, but we can’t find the tickets (it is a lame try, but we do make an attempt).  I come back and tell the guard I can’t find our tickets.    I refuse to spend another $5 and tell him I’m leaving, or if he’d like, he can call the police (which is probably an insult to him as I’m sure he views himself as part-police).  He finally relents but not before telling Alexander how well behaved he is and how ill behaved I am.

We make it to Georgetown and our hotel just in time for dinner.