Ken Nelson

Location: Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.
Day 17 Pictures
All trip pictures.

Our day starts with the ritual buying of Metro cards so we can roll around the subway system here in D.C.  Then, off to the Red line to wait for the train. Here it comes!

We took the Red line to Union Station. It is a big rail station that also has a busy metro stop and a lot of food / shopping options.  We were there for the Duck Boat tour:

Notice it is raining… that is a theme of the last few days of our trip )-:  But we are well dressed for the environment thrown at us:

We’ve taken Duck Boat tours in Boston & San Diego. This one was typical  – a broad overview of the town, corny jokes and some views from the water you don’t normally get.

We motored around the U.S. Capitol and then up Pennsylvania to the White House:

All I can say is that aisle seats on DUKW boats are not great spots for pictures….  But I have a plan to remedy that the next time the weather is good for bike riding….

Then across the 14th street bridge to the VA side, and down the GW parkway towards the marina they enter the water in. Here is the Washington Monument from across the river:

The cool thing about a DUKY boat is you roll along on the road and then you decide to go in the water, so you just drive in. Hit a switch and the motor drives a propeller and the wheels still spin to (I’m told, you can’t see them).   In we go:

And we motor around the Potomac, slowly, but seeing things you normally don’t see

 
Pentagon as seen from Potomac River

 
Yellow line crosses over towards Rosslyn, VA stations

Refreshingly in our post 9/11 world, we got alarmingly close to the runways at Reagan National Airport:

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(not taken with much zoom on the lense)

Pretty nice tour although we had two complaints… the first is that once in the water Brian and I were gassed by fumes from the snorkel letting the engine exhaust out of the water – giving us monster headaches.  Second, they give each person – even the CHILDREN – duck lips that make very loud duck sounds:

After the initial fun, which we understood, only two persistent children (not mine) persisted in constantly blasting them. Unfortunately, they sat right behind my left ear. )-:

Then off to eat at America ( a restaurant with recipes from all 50 states). We eat there regularly when in D.C. I’ve never had the same thing and I’ve always enjoyed the food.  By this time, Brian was in full migraine. So Paula cabbed him home while Jenny and I went off to buy some gifts at Appalachian Springs, and then “metroed” home.

Later that night, no pictures, Paula and I did our normal DC thing of walking 3 miles or so around the various Dupont Circle neighborhoods.