Our Capitol adventure...

We got out of the motel by about 9:30 local time, which was fine. It looked like there was a lot of traffic on our route before then, but we didn't have too much problem with actually getting across the river. I snapped a few pictures crossing the Potomac and driving down Constitution Ave., next to the monument row...


(You can just see the Washington Monument peaking up through the trees on this one...)

The bridge across the Potomac:




And actually in Washington, driving straight toward the Washington Monument:


One of the random buildings along Constitution. National Science Foundation, maybe?


A quick snap of the Washington Monument as we drove past it:


Another of the random large, monumental-looking buildings as we tried to figure out where we were going:


This large Polynesian-looking head was out in front of one of the buildings. I'm guessing a museum or something of that sort, maybe part of the Smithsonian...


Driving right up in front of the Capitol Building:


Some other large random building along the way:


And what I'm guessing is the Postal Museum, based on the large banners hanging on either side of the door:


All of that was really neat, but then we started getting into some of the more run-down parts of town, and it seemed like we were getting quite a distance away from the monuments and such that we were planning to see. It turns out that I'd programmed the wrong address into the GPS, and it was guiding us to Northeast G Street, instead of Northwest. And it was quite a huge difference. I think it was actually H Street that we were driving down, and it was a liquor store followed by a bar followed by a tattoo parlor and a pawn shop, repeated ad nauseum. And it was under construction most of the way, so we spent more time doing a mile down that street than it had taken us to get from the motel to the White House. We finally turned the block onto G Street, and it was like night and day. Still not the place we were looking for, but it was like the front of the buildings were pristine and classy, and the back was a slum. I don't know if it was really the same buildings, probably not, but it was just a really odd juxtaposition. Here are some of the places on G Street that the girlfriend liked:




Now we've managed to find our parking garage, and we got what seems to be one of the last spaces available where we can actually get the car parked, so it's time to hit the bricks...