Washington DC - Day 1

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

Day one on our own and armed with our Metro SmarTrip cards we head out. There are a couple options for those camped here wanting to travel into DC. A Metro bus stop is right in the campground. One can catch it and take it to a Metro station to catch a train into town. The problem with this approach is that it takes a fair amount of time to just get to the train station and would be 4 bus fares each day. Another option is to drive to one of two nearby train stations, park your car and catch the train. On weekdays, it costs $5.10 to park all day. 

We choose the later and head to the Greenbelt station which is exactly one exit down I-495. This first day works out very well since it is Columbus Day and by being a national holiday, there are fewer commuters and the parking is free. Being the end of the line, there is little chance for confusion. In about 25 minutes or so and 11 stops later we are at the Archives stop. 

An Empty Greenbelt Train Station

Top of the National Archives Building

Sculpture Garden while waiting for bus

From here we walk a few blocks to catch a special bus called the Circulator. It follows a big loop around much of the Washington Mall area. We hop on and basically stay on it for nearly the full loop with the idea of getting familiar with the area but now in the light of day. Now that we have a general understanding of the area, we pick our first stop. The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
This place was truly fascinating. There is so much to see that even after 4-5 hours here it seems like we only scratched the surface. It was also a very busy place, likely because many people had off for the holiday. Here are some of the highlights from our visit there. 

We still had an hour before other places closed, so we headed towards the Capitol to see the nearby United States Botanic Gardens. Since we were tired from all the walking earlier in the day, an hour was enough to see the many interesting and beautiful plants. (Make sure you click on the images to see the full resolution.)