Washington DC, Days 1 - 3: A vacation story in pictures, mostly ~ 3sg jef fery

Thanks to my unfortunate incapacitation and temporary one-handed state, I had to revise my vacation-recap blogging plans to be more photo-sharing and less story-telling. (It takes fewer left-handed keystrokes to browse and paste pictures.) This is the first of several installments, and just a sampling of the pictures. It will take longer than I anticipated to cover the whole trip...

Day One, Monday, 6/14:

After a long day that started very early in order to make our morning flight, we checked in at the Sofitel Lafayette Square (15th and H Streets), unpacked a bit, and sought out dinner. We didn't want anything too complicated at that point, so we walked around the corner to the legendary Five Guys Burgers and Fries. They've got best burgers since my beloved Back Yard Burgers (sorry, In-N-Out!) and terrific fries - but they're cooked in peanut oil, so sadly, you can't eat there if you have a peanut allergy. Fortunately, none of us do, so we were able to visit Five Guys twice - the second time was in New York City.

After dinner, we walked around the neighborhood until the humidity and approaching darkness sent us back to the hotel for showers and sleep.

Day Two, Tuesday 6/15:
This morning brought the first of many trips on DC Metro Rail, as we went off to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Granted, we come from the land of lousy-to-nonexistent public transportation, but we were favorably impressed by the ease of navigation and good condition of the DC Metro trains and stations. Once we were done with Air and Space, we made a brief visit to the National Gallery of Art - we returned for more of that on Friday - and then met my son Chris, a DC resident since June 2007, for a fantastic dinner of "low country cuisine" at Georgia Brown's, where the cornbread and biscuits were amazing and the BBQ Shrimp Salad was like nothing I've ever had before. If you like Southern cooking with a twist, you must try this place!

"The Castle" - The Smithsonian Institution itself! It's admin offices now.

The "National Museum" outgrew this building a LONG time ago...

Day Three, Wednesday 6/16:
We returned to the Smithsonian (via the Metro) to visit the National Museum of American History, where we spent most of the day. It's housed in a very modern building, but it highlights many segments of our country's history - politics and war, exploration, transportation, science and research, lifestyles, and culture. I think it's an essential place for all Americans to visit one day. That evening, we had dinner with Chris again at Old Ebbitt Grill, which is a piece of DC history itself, and then walked around the neighborhood some more.

On the way to the museum, we walked by the Old Post Office Tower; perhaps on our next trip to DC, we'll go inside. And we DO want a next trip - there are so many things we didn't get to do this time around!