Catching up with old friends
Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Sun 19 Jun 2011 16:29
Sunday 19th June
2011
Saurday morning
started with breakfast at the yacht club, where we were given maps and guides
and some pointers on where to begin our sightseeing. Then it was back to
the boat for a tidy up and to decide what to do with the rest of the day.
A phone call to Martin & Trudy soon had this decided, as we arranged for
them to come for drinks on the boat and then we would go back to theirs for
dinner and stay over. Sightseeing could wait a day, as the boat needed a
good tidying up if we were to have visitors!
Having collected
them in the rib, we gave Martin & Trudy a tour of the boat (takes all of two
minutes!) and then enjoyed drinks in the cockpit before setting off for their
house,some twenty minutes away by car. We had an extremely
enjoyable evening catching up on news and reminiscing, hearing about their
lives in the US and sharing some of our sailing experiences. They have a lovely
house and we stayed in the guest suite downstairs which was rather
luxurious!
Martin &
Trudy on
Scott-Free
Their house in the Washington DC suburbs
Martin &
Steve catch up on news of mutual
friends
The guest suite...
with a very
comfy bed - we slept like logs!
As it had been a
late night, we were none of us up very early this morning. Martin made breakfast
of scrambled eggs with salmon, and then gave us a lift to the Metro station so
that we could get back to the boat. There is a marathon on in the city
today and it would have been impossible to get back in by car as many roads have
been closed off, so we had our first experience of public transport, which
proved to be easy, cheap and comfortable.
Safely back at the
boat, we dumped our bags and decided to go for a walk up to the National Mall
and get our bearings a bit. The National Mall is ten minutes' walk from
the boat, and is a long grassy area lined on both long sides with museums of the
Smithsonian Institution and on the short sides by the Capitol at one end and the
Washington Monument at the other. We really couldn't believe our luck in
being able to anchor in a sheltered stretch of water this close to the centre of
the nation's capital. The next few days will be busy as we take in the
sights.
The Capitol
stands at one end of the National
Mall...
...and the Washington Monument stands at the other.
The Smithsonian
Castle on Independence Avenue backs onto the National
Mall
and serves as an
information centre for the museums of the Smithsonian
Institution.