July 16 Washington DC

All our tickets were printed and in my luggage. We had nothing in print. Had to figure out how to transfer all our information to Rita's android. Went on YouTube for some tutorials on the Samsung.

 Left the hotel around 10:00AM and took the Hop-on Hop-off. Took the Yellow Bus through Georgetown and Virginia. The tour wasn't that impressive, the only thing that I found interesting was driving by Watergate. We then transferred to the Red Bus which covers Washington. The tour guide was really good and funny. We had reserved a tour of the Capitol months ago for 3:00PM.

At 1:00PM we were on the red bus, which is supposed to complete it's route in 55 minutes. The Capitol is about half way on the route, so you figure you should be there around 1:30PM. Planned to get off at the stop before the Capitol, which is Union Station, get something to eat and drink. The traffic was so bad we arrived at Union Station at 2:30. No time to get off. We arrived at the Capitol at 2:40PM. We had to walk to the other side of the Capitol building, to the visitor center, which is about 1Km. away from the Bus stop. Go figure. They put the bus stops on one side of the building, and the Visitors Center on the other. Is it the Washington Bureaucracy that make these decisions? It was STINKING HOT and we had to walk at a good pace to make our reservation.

We made it. As a matter of fact, they put us in the 2:50 tour.

Impressive! Remember, I thought the Canadian Parliament was a Mushroom Barn, the Capitol is bright and delicate (couldn't think of another word). The Rotunda was covered up inside and there was scaffolding all over, but we were lucky because they are going to shut the tours down next week, and there will not be any tours until sometime in the middle of September.

The other pictures are in my Samsung, and since I don't have the cables, I can't post them at present.

Walked all the way around the Capitol, to the bus stop.

Got on the Red bus went around and then transferred to the Yellow bus. It was the last bus of the day. We were lucky, I don't know about Rita, but I was bagged. As we were arriving at our stop it started raining, we grabbed some Ponchos that were provided by the tour bus.

Walked to the wine store, then decided to have dinner  at a fancy Italian restaurant that was on the way to the hotel. The restaurant was full, and people were looking at us funny wearing our ponchos, while we were talking to the Maître D. We didn't feel like waiting for a table nor spending a fortune on dinner, so we left. Found a Pizza place.

It was a bit of a dive, but we could afford it. Had our Pizzas with beer, and then went back to our hotel, which was just across the street.