HOME
We stayed at a hotel a block away from the FBI Building, and only a few blocks away from the Mall. That Tuesday afternoon, we went to the National Gallery of Art, the National Museum of Air and Space, and the National Museum of Natural History. We found a nice little restaurant in Chinatown for dinner where we ate eggplant stuffed with shrimp, such as we had only had at dim sum in Boston. That evening, after dark, we took a walk down to the Lincoln Memorial, past the Vietnam War Memorial and the Korean War Memorial. We walked back up by the Potomac River and looked across at the Jefferson Memorial as well. The Washington Monument was still open, so we were able to ride to the top of it and look out over the city.
The next morning, bright and early, we were at the FBI Building ready to take a tour. We kept looking for Mulder and Scully in the halls, but they wouldn't let us go down to the basement to see his office. We didn't see Skinner, either, so it was actually a little disappointing. After the tour (at which a nice German tourist asked if Hoover had really cross-dressed), we walked down to the Capitol. Congress was not in session, and the weather was very cool for August, and the sights were not as crowded as they would normally have been. We saw most of the rooms in the Capitol which are open to the public, and then we broke for lunch. We ate at another wonderful little place in Chinatown, where we had a huge plate of tasty crabs with ginger and scallions for only $6.95! Then, we headed back to the Smithsonian. We went to the National Museum of American History, and, as we were getting a little tired with two days' of walking, had an ice cream soda in their old-fashioned ice cream parlor. The Museum was about to close--our two day, whirlwind tour of Washington had come to an end. We drove back up the East Coast, spent the night at my parents' house in New York, and drove back to Boston the next day.
THINGS WE LEARNED ON OUR TRIP: