Be Glad You Have a Room, Lady!

Yesterday was a real good day, even though I had a problem with Abay, the manager at the Howard Johnson. I got more and more concerned as we drove toward our motel from the airport. It was becoming very getto-like and sure enough, we pulled into a very run-down parking lot and it was our motel. I had some hope that the rooms would not be as bad as the outside, but noooooo. The whole motel was under some kind of construction, and it really needed it. the lobby was really scarey, I can't explain how bad it was. And the lobby was also where our continental breakfast was to be served. Lizzy was about ready to bolt. Abay, the Pakistani manager, said we could only get one room because the other one was not ready. Mind you, this is at 5:30 p.m., and our rooms were not ready. So when I was complaining about the place and rooms (one was upstairs and one was downstairs), Abay said to me' "Be glad you have a room."
That really ticked me off and I said, "I'm not glad I have this room." Anyway, I checked us in, very reluctantly and then we got to our rooms. We were not happy. We left the motel to get to the metro. We had to walk down a very scarey road, cross a very ugly bridge over railroad and metro tracks and then down a hill. So the first picture is of our motel outside.

This picture below is of the outside of union station, our metro stop.

this is walking around the capitol grounds. Beautiful trees, flowers, shrubbery. And the weather was great last night.
This is a picture of Les and the capitol looking south.

Lizzy and Dennis reclining on the west side of the capitol building steps. this is where Obama gave his inagural address. Notice the segue thingys in the background. We could rent these for a three hour tour for $70. I think the Captain and Gilligan were extra.

As we were walking toward the capitol, Dennis tried to cross a street over to the capitol grounds. A policeman stopped him and told him we couldn't go through, because a motorcade was going to be coming through. My ears perked up and I asked the policeman who would be in the motorcade. she very reluctantly told me that it was going to be the Israeli Prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. So we stayed close and got some shots of the motorcade. Cool huh? I don't know which vehicle he was in, but there were two large limos with the flags on them. to start there were about 8 policemen on motorcycles, and then there were about police cars, then some secret service cars, then the limos, then about 4 suburbans full of secret service, then ambulance and more police motorcylces and cars. I didn't take a picture of everything, only where I though Netanyahu would be. Anyway, it was exciting.
This is Josh waiting for the prime minister.

This is me at the botanical gardens. I loved this place.

Les and Josh on the west side of the capitol looking toward the Washington Monument. They are setting up some kind of concert stage for Memorial Day.

there are some huge magnolia trees around the capitol. Lizzy is smelling one of the very large blossoms. They are so fragrant.

This is Josh in front of the Supreme Court.

Les and Sara at the Union Station waiting for the Metro.

We are having a great time. So glad we were able to come and do this together. My feet are really aching from all the walking and I'm really tired. It's nice weather, a little on the hot side, but we are all having a ball.

By the way, we checked out of the ghetto motel and came to a better one across the street and down. We are all happier, and it will be less money too. Much better!