Alexandria, Georgetown and the White House

Ok, so first of all, if you have not seen the story about the goat in the English military, check this out, it still has me shaking my head in confusion...are they really serious!?: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/06/24/goat.demoted.ap/index.html

Anyway, now that we have dealt with that, my day today was full of plenty of other random things and I have gotten back on the picture taking bandwagon. I know you were all worried.

I woke up this morning at 6am, because I forgot to turn my alarm off. After slamming at it a couple of times, it went off, and I was pretty satisfied it wouldn't turn back on. I can't actually be sure it will ever turn back on...could be interesting. So, I really woke up around 9, and spent some time organizing my life and making some free phone calls and eating some brunch, and all of a sudden it was 1. Perfect time to begin the day. So, I decided to take the long trip south to Old Town Alexandria. My trip should have started on the 70 bus line, but apparently there was a parade, so I had to walk back past my house, sweating already, to the other side of the neighborhood to catch the 52, thus beginning the DC break-in of my black Reefs. I got to the metro station and took the ride down to the King St. exit. Ten blocks later, I was exploring Old Town Alexandria.
The streets were cool, there were these sections that were redone with cobblestone to look the way they did in the 1700s. The streets were so cute, there were flags from different time periods, and lamps that were lit with flames. And all over the city there were big signs pointing out historic sites.

















This was the house of Robert E. Lee while he was growing up, and until he went away to Westpoint. Apparently he came back and tried to sneak in to the back at one point, looking for something he had left behind (snowballs, maybe?). Anyway, it was weird to think that such a huge person in history roamed these exact streets at one point (well, the cobblestoned area, at least). I walked some more, and eventually, as in any town, came across this:
I guess every town has one.
I then found this statue that I thought was pretty interesting. It is called The Confederate Soldier. In 1861, when Alexandria was occupied by Unioni forces, 800 soldiers marched out to join the confederate army. This statue marks the point at which they gathered, and is also a memorial to the fallen soldiers. One hundred names are cared into the base, not that I could see them, since the statue is conveniently located right in the middle of an intersection.
So after wandering around the streets for a while, I made my way down to the water. Right on the water is this cool building called the Torpedo Factory, which was used to manufacture torpedos for WWI and WWII. Now it houses a whole bunch of artists' studios. You can walk around and see them working and buy stuff from them. All sorts of random stuff, paintings, jewelry, pottery, fabric, etc. It was a nice way to spend some time just hanging out and seeing some cool stuff. I kept walking up the caost of the Potomac River, there was a nice breeze blowing, and a nice park to hang out in.

Also, I noticed there were a lot of random things along the outskirts of the park, with no plaques or descriptions, which seemed random to me, since there was probably a lot of history that was left as a mystery. For instance, there was a huge anchor, like as tall as me, and also this propellor (I think?).
I then decided to take a boat tour that would drop me off back on Georgetown, a lot closer to downtown than Alexandria is. Here I am, humid curly hair and all, getting slowly burned by the sun on the top of the boat:

So first we boated by the Reagan National Airport, which was actually rather impressive from the water. I know this picture doesn't do it a lot of justice, but it looked really cool. Then we passed the Pentagon, but it was so flat that the pictures show pretty much nothing. I did get some good pictures of the Washington Monument (with the Jeffereson Memorial next to it) and I got a good view of the DC skyline, although with the dark skies, the pictures did it no justice. It was nice to get a new perspective of where all these things are located and also to be able to get a new view of them. Next, we passed the Lincoln Memorial, which I haven't visited yet, but is very impressive from the water, it is huge! We also passed Arlington, but really, that picture is just some green and some trees. I hope to make a visit in person to the cemetary to revisit the flame and such before the summer is over, I remember it as very impressive and very emotional from the last visit. Finally we passed the Kennedy Center (Joy, get ready, we are going in next week), which is also huge, and looks awesome from the water.

We then docked at the Georgetown dock: and I started my walk back toward the bus stop. Little did I know just how much of a walk I had in front of me. I think it was probably a good two miles. Well, it would have been two miles if I had gone straight there, but I decided to explore some more, and probably doubled my walking distance.


I sort of stumbled upon the C&O Canal, which i have heard about, it was so cute. It reminded me of sailing on the Thames River in England, although the canal was much smaller. All the homes and shops running up the canal were brick and a lot of them had nice flowers and benches out front. It was very relaxing, and I think will be a frequent visitor of the walking trail next to the canal. Someone actually suggested riding bikes up the trail, but it sort of seems like a lot of work renting bikes in this city.








I walked the streets of Georgetown for a while, I took this picture to try and picture all the cute hanging baskets full of pink flowers. it just looked so cool, it reminded me of somewhere I have been, but I can't quite put my finger on where it is.
So at this point in my day I become that girl who takes pictures of things that have no real meaning to her. For instance, this statue of George Washington in Washington Circle. And then I passed the White House, which, I might add, I was very unimpressed with. It just seemed SO MUCH smaller than I remember it, and then I really expected it to be. But, here is a picture anyway, for anyone who might need proof that I was actually there. I also took this picture of a random light on in the White House, because it seems, despite what some of us might think, that someone was actually doing work in the White House. Amazing, I know.
And with that, my exploration came to an end. I took the bus part of the way home, walked the last mile because the bus only goes so far. It rained on me for a while, but I gave up on the rain coat, because that was just making me sweat more and I could no longer tell the difference between rain and sweat. A good cold shower later and some dinner and I was good to go. TOmorrow, a possible memorial tour in the works, or maybe just some museum time.