July 16, 2002

Today would be a repeat of the extreme ‘touristing’ nightmare that we experienced in New York City two days ago. Pat’s quest to see every possible landmark in every city we visit is making him somewhat cumbersome. I can understand the desire to see the interesting and important sights of our country but seeing everything a big city has to offer in one day makes for a long day. As you may be guessing, I was tired by now…actually ‘exhausted’ would be the word.

Today also happened to be the day Dave was moving out of his apartment so he couldn’t spend any real time with us. He did do us a big favor by taking usdowntown before he embarked on what I’m sure was going to be a hell of a day. He left us at the National Air and Space Museum where we found a place to store our baggage while we looked around. Of course, it needed to be about 100 degrees with impossible levels of humidity so movement didn’t come with much enthusiasm (complaining? Yes, I am). How do you people live with this shit?

We hit up the museums–we saw art, we saw science, we saw flight. Then a distant view of the Capital building followed by a long walk to the Washington Memorial, followed by a full-out sprint to see the President get out of a helicopter and into a limo, then a quick walk and a look at the White House, then another long walk to the Lincoln Memorial and finally the Vietnam Veteran Memorial. Next, a cab ride back to the museum neighborhood where we would have to figure out how to get back to our plane. Good Times. An hour of confusion, then a trip on the subway, another expensive cab ride and finally back to the airplane. Next stop Nashville, TN. I was hoping day seven would improve with a good night seven…it did. Nashville is a great town that I’d recommend to anyone looking for all sorts of live music and fun.