How I Spent My Summer Vacation--DC Reminiscences

July 14 -- En Route

Here I am back on Amtrak.  Every year I ask the all-important questions:  1) Will I ever ride on Amtrak again? and 2) If I don't, how will I ever get anyplace?

I rejected driving all the way to Boston and all the way back, due to memories burned into my mind of the trip I took in August three years ago to drop my son off at Harvard.  It was the trip back, stop-and-go from an hour outside of New York in Connecticut, with bouts of rain, a swerve and near-crash at a toll booth entering New York, hair-raising driving through New York and the Washington Beltway.  That did it.  Every time I try to tell myself driving isn't bad, I flash back.

Flying is just out of the question, until they stop scanning naked bodies looking for the retro-terrorist that's going to try something that's already failed.  Oh, and since they can't seem to take off and land a plane on time anymore.  Oh, and don't forget how much it costs to deal with this tortuous process.

So I packed my lunch and dinner and midnight snack, loaded a bunch of books on my new eReader, and headed for the Amtrak station.

I would say it was delightful, but I reserve that rating for getting two seats to spread out on.

The trip was, however, not merely uneventful, but on time.

I landed in D.C. with over two hours till my connection.  It was a beautiful though warm early evening, and I had cleverly stowed my luggage from Charleston to Boston, so I headed outside.  As much as I gripe about American politicians, I inexplicably love the Capitol.  But I walked away from the Capitol this night, since I had wandered around it the last time Amtrak left me a couple of hours to fill.

I hadn't planned on taking pictures, opting for a simple walk in the humidity.  But I reconsidered when I approached:

From a former life

My old stomping ground, kind of.  Way back in the days when I believed psychologists could make a difference, while fighting my way through the most competitive (as in hard to get accepted to) graduate education in the country, I actually had a student membership to the APA, and went to any events I could.  And conveniently, I was living in Maryland, ever-so-close to the pulse of the nation.  Wasn't I hot?

Without giving too much thought to just how long ago that was, I remembered the Kennedy Center, which to be honest I enjoyed far more than the museums and monuments.  For just a few years I "did the Capitol" with anyone  who came to visit me.

And then I backtracked to a picture I debated taking before I had been motivated enough to actually hunt for my camera:

While it's still there

Because who knows how much longer it will be there.  There must be a lobbyist or two with eyes on this piece of real estate.

But of course it was inevitable.  I ended up at the Capitol, taking hundreds of pictures in the beautiful sunset.

Never enough of it

My biggest disappointment, and something I just don't understand:  Why there is not a single ice cream truck sitting by Union Station.  Whenever I end up there the weather is hot and humid and I would think it would just be the best way for our Nation's Capitol to prove that they truly do have the pulse of the nation.


So, sans ice cream cone, I headed back to Amtrak for the night.

Ready for bed