October 29-30:  Washington DC 

View of the capitol building and Washington Memorial from the Lincoln Memorial

     Thursday we walked into downtown DC to stroll the Mall.  We decided to stay outside to take in the Memorials - especially all the news ones that have been erected since we were here many years ago - and so passed by all the museums in favor of fresh air.  It was sobering to see so many Memorials dedicated to the wars this country has been through.  The price of freedom was a running theme through all of them, but I would look at the dedications to those lost, wounded, and killed as the price of war, and I would have liked to see more promotion of the dedication to the sacrifices and hard work this entire county showed in support its involvement of World War II.  It’s not called the Greatest Generation for nothing.  People really pulled together during that time and no one forgot what was going on or why - they willingly agreed to rationing, to doing without, to doing work they never dreamed they’d be doing, to paying higher taxes to support the war, and to contribute even more to its payment by buying war bonds.  That’s impressive.  That should be memorialized too.

World War II Memorial

Korean War Memorial

    It was a lovely day and warm.  We walked from the Washington Monument to the Jefferson Memorial.  We were both impressed by the memorial to Martin Luther King Jr (controversial though it may be) and with the extensive memorial to FDR.  I’ve included some of my favorite quotes from these two men.

Martin Luther King quote

FDR quote

     We finished up our afternoon with a stop at the grocery store, splurging on a pint of Ben and Jerry’s The Tonight Dough, which we ate in the nearby park.  Then it was back to the Capitol Yacht Club to freshen up for our dinner with Dan’s high school AFS brother from Germany, Thomas.  Thomas happened to be in town for the weekend and picked us up for a quick drive to Georgetown for dinner.  Here we not only had a great meal at a seafood restaurant, we had a look at one of the remnants of the C & O Canal.  Oh, and it was great to catch up with Thomas!  Afterwards, we sat in the lounge of the Yacht Club to catch part of the Thursday night NFL game - Patriots vs Dolphins.  We weren’t disappointed with what we saw.

     Friday morning we decided we should take advantage of the brisk NW wind and head back down the river.  As we made our morning plans to do some last minute shopping, we heard cawing come from above and found crows sitting in our cross trees.   Hmm - think they knew the name of our blog?

     Dan went to the grocery store and I went to the fish market our friend Erica had recommended to us.  He loaded up on fresh produce and meats and somehow a container with my favorite kind of cake - German chocolate - “fell into” his cart.  I met a great guy named Tony at the fish market who set me up with his friend Pete who helped me navigate my way around and supplied me with some fresh red snapper and just-picked lump crab.  Dan and I met up again at the Yacht Club where we  turned in our keys and thanked the people there for all their hospitality and we returned to the boat for our trip back down the Potomac.

Medium-sized crabs for sale.

     A nearby motor yacht hailed us to ask if we were leaving, no doubt spying the tell-tale signs of provisioning, and informed us that the river was closed.  Some kind of environmental spill, they said, and the USCG was not letting boats through until 9 am in the morning.  Dan hailed the Coast Guard on the radio to ask about it, and we received permission to leave as long as we weren’t coming back.  Curiously, as we entered the supposed closed portion of the river, we saw no activity: no official boats guarding or cleaning up or even checking up on people.  There were continual securite notices on the radio about the 4 mile zone surrounding the Ronald Reagan Airport (some kind of leak or spill from the airport, we guessed) but as we passed by there, we saw nothing out of the ordinary.  The airport was in full working mode - planes landing and taking off regularly and nothing seemed amiss. 

     We had an easy passage down river, and enjoyed all the sights we’d missed a few days ago when it was raining and foggy on our trip up river.  We dropped the hook around five-thirty in the Potomac Creek, a place known for where Pocahontas was captured by the English settlers.  This weekend the time changes.  We’ll have to be looking for our anchorages an hour earlier...

Sunset in Potomac Creek