We had some ‘down time’ out here in Ocean City, after the
very sad news of the passing of my dear Mum back home. On the upside now we
feel she is watching over us each and every day now on our adventures and her
memories will be treasured forever. We
spent most of our time in the apartment as the minus 6 degree celcius
temperatures inhibited what we could and could not do. We enjoyed being able to
make some home cooked meals, play cards together and get back on our feet. One
day we did venture out to the beautiful Boardwalk at Ocean City and took a
stroll on the empty beach and viewed all the closed up stores for the Winter months.
Off to Washington DC – National Harbour. What a BEAUTIFUL
place. Very classy, very clean, lots of families, convenience stores,
restaurants and attractions all within walking distance (not the 35 block
walking distance that we have become accustomed too either)! At National
Harbour they have the largest, Christmas tree we have ever seen. Every half an
hour at night they have a light show on the tree. National Harbour is the
fastest growing area on the East Coast, with MGM opening a casino just 4 days
before we arrived and they already have extracted money from me –( David)
!!!!!! WE had an appointment to drop the car rental to Downtown D.C., the next
morning, about 20 mins from our hotel. Easier said than done with the roads all
frozen over and the Aussies way out of our depth in driving these conditions,
so we found the closest drop off point, about 5 mins away and at a very slow
cautious pace we made our way there without incident, although many others
weren’t so lucky.
We have spent the first 3 days in Washington mainly
exploring the area we are staying and shopping for some more winter clothes
before the cold weather really sets in, at our next stop Boston. We also shared
a Dinner with a friend we used to work with back home in Maryborough – Marty Noonan
and his lovely partner Jenny. 20 years since we would’ve seen each other and through
the wonders of Facebook it allowed us to reconnect earlier in the year.
Monday night football at Fed Ex Field tonight, Redskins V
Panthers, then sight seeing for the next few days, stay tuned………..
Well, let’s not focus on the football, have now been to 2
redskins games at Fedex Field and they have lost both times, so I don’t think
I’ll be going again anytime soon………
Sight seeing has been different this time around, a 45 min.
train ride in, get off in the middle of the city, walk to any
site/attraction/museum we want and away we go. Last time we did the hop on/hop
off tour and as detailed it was, it felt rushed, so has been great to actually
take it all in. Have visited 5 museums, all of which are free entry, as they
encourage students, tourists and anyone else to be able to learn without having
to pay. Last time they had only just started work on the Martin Luther King Jr.
monument, so was actually nice to see it finished. We have also been to the ice
sculpting exhibition here in National Harbour, 6000 lbs of ice, 32 semi
trailers to bring the ice in and countless hours of sculpting by the artists,
not to mention the -13 degree temperature to view it, felt like I was at work
driving the fork lift back in the McCains freezer. Finished our time in
Washington with some more shopping, mainly for Xmas stuff and sorted our gear,
packed our bags, look out Boston, here we come ………..
Had logged on with too many devices at the hotel, so had to wait till we hit the airport for some free wi fi, that's why it's taken awhile for this post.......................
