Washington DC.

PART ONE: Washington DC. area

Three days in the Washington DC area certainly is not enough time to adequately cover all the main attractions. But we did our best with the help of our nieces and Charley's sister who live here. And great tour guides I might add. 

Our last glimpse of Mount Vernon, a stately mansion overlooking the Potomac River, was 50 years ago. At that time the mansion was white not cream colored. Also there was not a humongous gift shop or museum in sight. We were told the reason for color change is to make it more authentic. When the exterior of the Mansion was painted and sanded in 1797 the lead white paint under sandstone produced a cream-colored, textured effect akin to sandstone blocks. This painting and sanding campaign appears to have been executed by Washington before his death in 1799.

View of the Potomac River





Washington's tomb is on the property. 

A tour of the historical Georgetown area was informative and quite picturesque. The architecture reminded us of Savannah with houses all lined up with decorative touches of ornamental black wrought iron. The area is also laid out in a grid pattern like Savannah.  

This tiny, tiny entrance is to a basement apartment. Have no idea how furniture would be even be hauled in and make a very tight turn though a doorway. 

 Real estate is pricey here. Note the small blue house dwarfed by houses on each side. The house is only 9-1/2 feet wide and cost 1 million dollars.

 You might be interested in knowing this Georgetown house posted below was once owned by the Kennedys before he became president. 

This house below Jackie Kennedy lived in for one year after her husband was killed. 

The listed house price in early 60's was 10 million but sold for a bargain price of 6 million.   

Georgetown University (Healy Hall)
After walking for two hours we were happy the tour concluded at the famous Georgetown  bakery.

Making a choice indeed was difficult. But we managed with these yummy picks.  

Lucky we had a cupcake break as a three hour tour of all the exhibits at the Spy Museum while interesting was exhausting and overwhelming with a huge Sunday crowd.  

The International Spy Museum is a private non-profit museum dedicated to the tradecraft, history and contemporary role of espionage, featuring the largest collection of international espionage artifacts currently on public display covering 140,000 square feet.
We found it interesting to see so many food trucks lined up in front of the capitol. 

We were quite taken with the creativity of this outdoor food venue S'mores on a stick at the wharf. 

We ended the day at a restaurant overlooking the mall with numerous historical monuments in view. Indeed it has been a surreal experience for us being here.