We're back from a week-plus vacation to DC and Williamsburg, Virginia, and rather than try to recap it all at once (which has worked out so well for past trips to Devon, the Dominican Republic and Indiana), I'm going to do a day-by-day recap, with each day this week subbing for one day (or more) of the vacation.

So today, it's Virginia Vacation Days 1-3: Friday through Sunday

We left Boston on Friday night, hit the expected rush hour traffic but once we got through it was smooth sailing... until we got to New York. I think we averaged 4 miles per hour on the Cross Bronx Expressway. While that's never the speediest stretch of road, we've had bad luck through here the last three times we've driven through, so it may be time we take the Tappan Zee route permanently. Stayed the night at a Holiday Inn Express in Edison, New Jersey, where the front desk guy apologized for not getting us a ground floor room, which we found odd.

At least until the next morning, when a tour group where the average age was about 70 descended upon the breakfast bar en masse just as we were finishing up. We got out before they started to riot for Postum.

We made it to DC by 11 or so, and after getting thoroughly lost (as usual) and finding no luck with parking, we finally stopped in West Potomac Park and embarked on an afternoon walk around the monuments. This included several I'd not seen before, including ones for George Mason (a little creepy being larger than life-size), FDR (impressive, but we walked through it backwards, which I think diminished things a bit), the Korean War (very well executed) and World War II (which I liked, probably fitting that it was more traditional than the Korean or Vietnam memorials). We also saw Bob Dole at the WWII memorial, who was doing meet and greets with members of a veterans group.

The walk was over three miles, and it being over 90 degrees with significant humidity we were pretty wiped by the end, and looked forward to cooling off at the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel. Which we couldn't find, although we probably drove under it at least once before sorting out which ramp we had to take to get up to hotel level. It's not a bad hotel, but it clearly caters to business folks, between the charges for everything and the lowel level shopping area that was closed up tight on a Saturday afternoon. Both HUD and Transportation have buildings in the area; HUD's may be the ugliest government building in the district. You be the judge.

We then took the Metro over to Union Station to have dinner at the Capital City Brewing Company. I have serious subway envy when it comes to the Metro, and while it is showing its age a bit it does at least have certain amenities that the T lacks, such as signboards that tell you when the next train is arriving and automated fare machines that work better than the Charlie Card system, even though they're at least 20 years older. I know everyday riders would be able to give me its faults, but as a casual rider I still enjoy it more than my daily trip.

Sunday was to start with a trip to Mt. Vernon and then the drive to Williamsburg. We decided to squeeze in a quick stop at Arlington National Cemetary. That quick stop wound up being almost three hours, forcing us to scrap Mt. Vernon. We got turned around leaving Arlington, putting us back into DC, which was more or less shut down thanks to the National Triathlon. We spent nearly an hour getting to a place where we could get the hell out, and I'll admit that I lost my shit at least once. I usually don't over traffic, but this time the whole delay was so obviously avoidable that I couldn't contain myself. There were no detour signs or police officers to direct traffic or provide directions. Actually, I did see two officers, but they were firmly entrenched in their cruiser (too hot to get out, I suspect). A better metaphor for federal governance could never be created. The wife navigated our escape, and we got down to Williamsburg in late afternoon.

The afternoon saw us take a quick view of Williamsburg as we tried to get to two different CVS branches to get prescriptions filled. It's probably a good thing I never visited when I was planning to go to law school at William and Mary, as I never would have decided to stay at BU if I had. Although the number of shopping centers may have put me off.