For any of you who might be following this blog, I apologize for the lack of recent posts. Two nights ago, I was very tired and didn’t try. Should have—I had a good Internet connection. Last night, I had a very poor Internet connection, so I gave up. Tonight’s connection is good, but extremely slow (about 2 minutes between click and a page loading). So much for “free high speed Internet”. But I will write one post for 3 days and post them tonight.
Monday, we drove from Bar Harbor to Philadelphia, an all-day drive down the Interstate. The 560 or so miles went well, and we arrived in Philadelphia late in the day safely. Nothing noteworthy occurred on the trip south.
On Tuesday we drove downtown and bought tickets for the tour bus company. The double decker busses looked like fun, so that’s the type we chose to use. The busses had 21 stops along the way, and passengers can get off at any stop and get back on at any stop. We didn’t get off the bus!
The sights were great, so many historic places in this city of Brotherly Love. Old and beautiful places all along the way. And, yes, we did see the steps that Rocky Balboa ran up in the famous Rocky movies (at the Art Museum). They also had a statute of him celebrating his triumphant run up the steps.
It was HOT, and there was a high chance of thunderboomers virtually all day. Well, the boomers did come, and the umbrellas we had been hauling around all day paid off; we stayed fairly dry even though others were drenched. We were walking to the Tomb of the Unknowns when the shower hit.
Got lunch and decided to do another round on the bus. So, we jumped on and saw the sights again, this time with a better tour guide. Same places and same sights, but slightly different dialogues.
After the tours, we jumped in the car to drive to Baltimore, a fairly short distance away. Got to Baltimore and found a place to stay for the night.
In Baltimore, we drove into town and, after a bit, found the Visitor’s Center. Tons of traffic, combined with one-way streets, made driving pretty difficult. After talking with one of the helpers, we decided a bus tour (that does not allow you to get on and off the bus) was the best for our time and interests.
We were there at 10:30am, and the tour was at 11:00, and parked in a :30 minute space at the Center. The guide suggested that we park in the International Hotel lot across the street, and said we’d have plenty of time to get parked and get back.
What he didn’t tell us was that you can’t get there from where we were. Thinking we could go around the block and come back, we found that a turn in a direction we needed was impossible, and we got on a street that became a ramp for I-95, with no exits except North to New York or South to Washington. I picked Washington, and drove south about 5 miles to the first place where you could get off and get back on headed northbound.
It all worked out okay; the fast out-of-town route worked in reverse, and we basically backtracked to the International Hotel (which cost us $25 for 4 hours of parking). We actually had 5 minutes to spare!
The tour was very good, informative, and interesting. At the end of the tour, we were hungry and wanted to find something good to eat. Looking for the right place, we walked by the World Trade Center for Baltimore, a 28 story, five-sided building with an observation floor on the 27th floor. We paid our $4 each and rode to floor 27. What a view! Large windows in every direction, with a great view for many miles. A good decision to stop and do it.
After the viewing, we found Moe’s Seafood and Pasta a few blocks away and had a killer lunch. Lump crab crab cake was excellent! Big Sis made a good call to go there.
Walked back to the car and decided to drive on to Washington. Decided along the way to stay in Arlington, near the Arlington Cemetery, where the tour busses have a pick-up. Tomorrow and Friday we’ll ride those busses and see the sights we can find.
So, three days into one post. A long drive and lots of sights from busses could summarize the three days.
Tomorrow—Washington DC.
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