Washington D.C., Day 1

Today we started our nine day vacation in Washington D.C. and North Carolina. For the Washington part of the trip, we are visiting my uncle Jason at the Armed Forces Retirement Home, and then we will be leaving on Tuesday for Southport, North Carolina to visit Maria's friend Lori.

We left Simsbury this morning at around 7:20am. Weather was overcast with an occasional light mist, but it never really developed into anything more than that. Despite a few traffic slowdowns and maybe two stops more than I would have hoped for, we made very good time and arrived at around 2:30pm. Jason was there to greet us as we arrived and showed us to our guest rooms.

After we dropped our stuff off and quickly freshened up, Jason took us for a brief tour of the buildings and his apartment, and then a drive around the campus. Since we had arrived a little earlier than we had originally anticipated, he also took us over to the National Basilica which is just down the road, adjacent to Catholic University. After that, we came back to the rooms for about a half hour to get a snack, freshen up again, and get ready to go out for dinner.

Jason, Kevin, John and Bill in front of President Lincoln and his horse, Bob, on the grounds of the AFRH.

Dinner was at a rather upscale Portuguese restaurant nearby, in Chevy Chase, MD. The food was excellent, and we got back to the home at around 9:00pm to turn in after a very long day.

Tomorrow will also be a long day, as we are planning to go over to the Mall after breakfast to start seeing the sights. Primarily, the monuments and the Smithsonian. I think the boys are going to have a lot of fun. At least I hope so.

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