Three words tend to describe Washington, D.C. in August - hot, hazy, humid. Some good fairy must be watching over this trip because it was NOT hot (at least in comparison to the heat wave we went through in Montana), NOT hazy & NOT humid. And, best of all, there weren't too many tourists. Parking Charlie at Arlington we took the get on, get off bus around the city.
We "did" the typical stops including the capital building (probably the only capital in the world where the statue on top has a bird for a hat - particularly one that looks like a cross between a pheasant & a turkey); the Smithsonian Air & Space (after looking at those first space vehicles one has to believe our first astronauts were a bit touched in the head - the lunar module especially looks like it was put together by a third grade class with limited resources); the Natural History Museum (they were having a special exhibit on Lewis & Clark - to be honest we've had enough of those 2 guys for one year - Mary skipped them entirely & went to look at fossils and bones); the White House (security was tight as protests were going on in the area opposing Israel's recent actions); the Reflection Pool with the Washington Monument being held up by John & Mary (my positioning was a bit off but you get the general idea); and other points of interest too numerous to mention (aren't you thankful for that?!)...
PS - Here I thought Mary had finished with the state business, but, wouldn't you know, we added Virigina today bringing her total up to 29 states visited this summer.