Jerry & Susan Take On DC

Welcome back to another exciting week of our crazy adventures! 

After months of planning, we arrived at the Cherry Hill RV Park in College Park, MD.  This park is amazing. It’s HUGE, and we are on site 1813!!  There are 3 playgrounds, a water park, numerous event centers and most importantly, a bus depot!!  

Why is that important?  Well, as you know, we have a Ram 3500 Dually truck.  It’s 9 feet long and very wide (as we say, Hunky’s got back).  There is no way Jerry is going to drive into DC and try to find a place to park.  We have learned all about the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. WMATA for those in the know.  Yes, everyone, it’s called public transportation.  And, we are enjoying the heck out of it! 

We purchased our Metro Smartrip cards that are used for everything.  The bus to the Metro Station picks us up at the park, takes us to the College Park Metro Station, then we get on a train to DC.  It is very easy to use and the routes are color coded.  We have been staying on the green line as it is direct to the National Mall.  There are many stops along the way that you can get off and on depending on where and what you want to see.  We use the Archives stop as it lets us off a block from the National Mall.  

The Metro is very BART like for those of you in the San Francisco Bay Area.  The big difference is how clean the stations and trains are, and how the stops are so incredibly convenient.  Another HUGE difference is the cost.  It costs us only $3.05 each for a round trip. That includes the bus and the train!   Yes, it takes about 45-60 minutes.  However, the lack of stress and fuel is so worth the extra time. 

We actually ventured off our normal stop the other day of the Archives Metro and got off in ChinaTown which is only one stop prior.  We felt so adventurous getting off at this station!  Something new and exciting.  We realized that there were so many museums and great restaurants around us.  We also realized that we could walk to the National Mall from this station.  Our next adventure is taking a different color line.  We are getting so brave!  

For those of you who have visited DC, you know there is so much to do here!  We are so happy we scheduled ourselves until May 1.  We were able to visit the Holocaust Memorial Museum.  That was a VERY emotional 5 hours, I must say.  So glad we were able to get tickets for that!  We have been to the  National Museum of Natural History, American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery, and The National Museum of American History, which we need to go back to as we didn’t finish it.

One day we walked 7 miles and saw the War Memorials, (WWII, Vietnam, Korean). All of them were incredibly amazing and so moving.  We then saw the Washington Monument (which we will be going back for an actual tour inside later in the month) and the Lincoln Memorial, which I remember seeing as a kid with my family.  Yes, I walked up and down all 90 steps with my new knee!  That was a huge accomplishment.  It was worth every step.  

On the 11th we are taking a night tour, from the RV Park, of all the monuments. That’s another thing that is so awesome about Cherry Hill RV Park. They have their own tours. Along with the night monument tour, we will be touring Georgetown and Arlington. We are planning on going to Mt Vernon for a day, then and Gettysburg, but those tours we will do on our own. We even just booked tickets for Ford’s Theater where Lincoln was shot. There is just so much to do and see! We will need a vacation after this!

To round off an eventful stretch of days, another very cool thing happened this week!  I met up with a friend I used to work with in the clothing business.  Sally and her friend Karen came over to see the RV and we had the best time. Karen is interested in the full-time RV life and wants to see what it’s all about.  We talked and talked, grabbed lunch at a great place and kept talking!  Sally and I  hadn’t seen each other in years.  We will be meeting up with them later in the month.  This is one of the reasons I absolutely love this lifestyle.  Look at all the people we are able to visit!  

Just One More…museum (I doubt we will get to them all)