Wow.  We saw so much yesterday that it took me a day to recover.  I have to admit that I’m not the best tourist.  I’m very good at going to a resort, relaxing and reading all day long.

But I’m not very good at going to a city, touring around and taking 537 pictures.  George is very good at both.  He spent the last four days seeing as much as possible.  I think he went on four guided tours and took more than 600 pictures.

But yesterday I agreed to go on a tour.  I wanted to see as much of the city as possible so we got tickets for a Big Bus Tour.  I’d taken a similar tour in London and thought it was a good way to see the city.  We got there first thing in the morning and took the first bus of the day.

It was beautiful.

But it was also really f*cking cold.  And windy.

My hair was in huge knots by the time we got back.  It was worth it, though, and I was really happy we saw as much as we did.

The only bad thing about touring with George is that I had to take a million pictures of him.  When I sight-see, I’m okay with NOT documenting every single thing I look at.  George does not agree.

That is the Jefferson Memorial.  I think I took that picture.  And then I had to take a few pictures of George standing by him.

George has to get his picture taken at almost every place.  I think he believes that if he doesn’t get his picture taken, he wasn’t there.  Also, he has to take 100 other pictures before we leave.

This is so irritating.

So while he goes around taking one million pictures, I try to figure out where we’ll go next.

That’s me on the left, reading the map.  I’m pretty sure I ditched George shortly after that picture was taken so he’d leave the memorial and move on to something else.

THE HIGHLIGHTS!

George with FDR and FDR’s dog, Fala:

I didn’t think it was nice that George was crushing Fala’s head so I made him do a different pose.  This is what George picked:

Much better.

One of our favorite stops of the day was the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.

It was beautiful and so impressive.  It was only fitting for us to get our mixed-couple picture taken in front of it.

Amazing.

The Lincoln Memorial was another important stop.

George was dying to stand where MLK, Jr. stood during his “I Have a Dream” speech.

The view from that spot was incredible:

We toured through Georgetown and Dupont Circle, went to the White House, Ford’s Theatre and the Pentagon (just drove by because they don’t let you off the bus there).  Our last stop of the day was at Arlington National Cemetery.  And it was so much more than I’d anticipated.

We saw the eternal flame burning at JFK’s grave:

The view from that spot:

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier:

The whole experience took my breath away.  It was beautiful and incredibly sad all at the same time.  To see all the headstones and people looking for relatives buried in the cemetery was overwhelming.  But in a really good way.

And while we were there, we saw our very first cherry blossom tree in bloom.

I’m hoping to see a lot more of those before I leave.