Washington, DC
May 12, 2024
After a couple of cool rainy days, the weather cleared for our travel day. We journeyed through pastoral rolling hills before entering the more hectic-paced Washington DC metro area. We stayed at a county park in Reston, Virginia, about 20 miles west of the capital city.
The campground wasn't the best we've ever been to (more of an RV park vibe than we normally prefer), but it was conveniently located a couple of miles from a Metro station, and all the people we encountered were very friendly. It took pretty much all of our leveling blocks to get the camper level.
On Wednesday, we went to Great Falls Park. Julie had found on the Great Falls Park website that you could ride a bicycle to the park on the Fairfax Cross County multi-use trail (accessible to horses, hikers and cyclists). We thought that would be a great idea because the trail more or less connected to the park where we were staying, and it was only about 5 or 6 miles to Great Falls.
Our idea of a multi-use trail (as seen in other parts of the country) where people, horses and cyclists share a path brings to mind images of a fairly wide gravely path where people, horses, and cyclists could, in theory, pass one another if needed. A path that has enough overhead clearance for a horseback rider not to be clotheslined. A path where a cyclist could more or less stay on one's bike for most of the trail. This was not that kind of path.
Fairly soon into our ride, we should have gotten the clue that our experience was not going to be uneventful. The trail markings were poor, and we ended up turning on a section that kept getting narrower and narrower with several patches of mud and puddles until we were eventually blocked by a large log.
Is this the right way?
Lots of mud and puddles
This can't be the right trail
So, we backtracked and took a different branch of the path up a steep hill with lots of rocks and tree roots. And more mud. And a stream crossing.
Pushing the bike up a steep muddy hill
The stream was running just deep and swift enough that we didn't feel comfortable riding across it
After a few miles, we thought about turning back, but we were already pretty heavily invested, and we didn't really want to repeat the experiences we just had in the reverse order. So we plodded onward. Through more mud. Through poison ivy. Through thorny rose bushes to ensure that the poison ivy entered into our bloodstream more effectively (they sure smelled good, though!). And another stream--a much larger one.
The spacing of these boulders was farther apart than it appears here. Rick had to lift his 85 lb bike over some of the gaps. Then he had to do it all over again with Julie's bike.
We finally reached what used to be a way to enter Great Falls Park onto a much-nicer looking trail across a road (we could see it), but the trail had recently been blocked off that point with a very tall guard rail and a sign that said, "Dangerous road. Do not Cross". We were becoming a bit disheartened, as we couldn't safely lift the bikes over the tall guardrail onto a busy, windy road with no shoulder. The only options were to either turn around and go back the way we came, or continue plodding onward another mile or two until we could enter the park at another point. Option #1 was eliminated, as Rick flatly refused to carry the bikes over the stream crossing boulders another time. So, onward we went.
After more mud and tree roots and ups and downs (but no more stream crossings), we ended up in Great Falls Park . And the trail improved considerably.
At long last we arrived at our final destination--the Great Falls.
The Great Falls of the Potomac River
We made a beeline to the bathroom where we did our best to wash our legs to reduce the likelihood of a poison ivy rash (it seems we were successful!) and then hit up a picnic table for a snack and a place to formulate our escape plan. All we knew was we WERE NOT going back the way we came.
We found a route that avoided busy streets and took us through beautiful neighborhoods in the town of Great Falls. We ended up doubling our miles, but decreasing the pain immeasurably.
MUCH better experience on the return!
We passed many impressive homes
This yard had FAKE SHEEP!
Our final path!
That evening, we took the Metro downtown to meet up with Ken, an old friend of Julie's from her college days. Ken has lived in DC for 30-ish years, and he gave us a walking tour of the Georgetown area. The weather was like a warm summer's eve, and we had drinks, dinner, and ice cream al fresco. It was great to catch up with Ken after so many years!
The historic C&O Canal and Towpath
Georgetown waterfront
Ice cream with Julie's college friend Ken
Since the weather that night was so perfect, we strolled with our ice cream along a street with quaint historic row houses, some of which were lit with actual gas lamps. Julie wishes she had gotten some pictures, but she was too busy talking.
After such wonderful warm and sunny weather on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were rather lackluster by comparison--cool and cloudy with intermittent sprinkles. We thought of making the trip out to Harper's Ferry, but didn't. Maybe some other time.
On Saturday, we got back on the Metro and did the touristy Mall things.
They just don't make monuments today like they use to --and maybe that's not necessarily a bad thing
The White House seems smaller in person. We remember thinking this same thing when we were here about 25+ years ago.
We had planned to go to the White House Visitor Center, as they have a few exhibits that sounded interesting. However, when we approached the building, we noticed a line snaking an entire city block from the entrance. We opted to pass on the visitor center, as we didn't want to see it THAT desperately. As we passed by the near-endless line of people, we were a little concerned that there might be lines like this everywhere. (We later found out that they were giving out free tickets for the spring White House garden tour.)
This line of people went on all the way to the end of the block along the right side of the building
Washington Monument
WWII Monument
Lincoln Monument They were doing a major renovation, so it wasn't very photogenic this day
We spent a few hours in the Smithsonian American History Museum. Here are some highlights...
First Ladies' Gowns
Star Wars Costumes
Looking closely at C3PO, we chuckled how the "wires" were just pieces of braid and such.
Old batteries and what-not
All kinds of toasters
Vaccum cleaner and other household items
A high efficiency engine (for its time)
Venezuelan money worth more as origami than as currency. Not sure why this was in the American History Museum???
Who'd ever think that a Chrysler minivan would make it into the Smithsonian?
Fun Chicago "L" exhibit
I guess we must be "trailerites" 😉
I'm glad most of the campgrounds we stay at look better than this!
Julia Child's kitchen
We also went through the fairly extensive exhibit on all the country's wars and saw the original star-spangled banner and a bunch of other things. Afterward, we headed to the nearby National Art Museum sculpture garden and had a surprisingly good (and not exorbitantly expensive) lunch from the adjacent café. The weather was nice, so we sat outside near the fountain.
Sculpture Garden
It was a little hard to get up and get going again, but we managed to do so, and we made our way to the Capitol and the Botanic Garden and the Postal Museum.
The Capitol
Botanic Garden
It was pretty crowded, so Julie didn't take too many pictures
Postal Museum in the old post office building
The don't build post offices like this anymore
Our final stop for the day was the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, just a quick Metro ride away. It is the largest church in the US, and it features over 80 chapels that relate to the peoples, cultures and traditions of the Catholic heritage in America. The architecture, windows, lighting, and mosaics were exquisite.
Union Station
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
The gold mosaic detailing throughout the church was made up of many different kinds of small metallic gold tiles
There were so many more mosaics and other works of art, but it was time to get going. There is a really nice virtual tour of the entire church here, if anyone is interested.
Just as we were getting back to the Metro to head "home", it started to rain. We were very fortunate to have had a nice day otherwise.
The sun came out right as we drove into the campground
Sunday (Mother's Day) was not a particularly nice day. It was mostly cloudy and barely over 60 degrees. We chatted with our kids and our moms and then took a short walk to the park lake.
And that's all for this week!
There is a google group email list which can send you an email when there is a new blog post. Instructions for signing up here: Subscribe OR directly join here: Google Group