Daily Narrative    Again, quite a day.  We woke in the very comfortable basement of our most gracious hosts, Bill and Phoebe.  Rachel had told her folks that we were "low impact" house guests, not two Alaskans who would be towed into a neighboring town and need to be picked up and driven about with no definite departure date.  Despite her misrepresentation on our behalf, we have not been asked to leave yet and are really enjoying her parents.  Bill greeted us with fresh breakfast and coffee (Phoebe, unfortunately, is not retired yet and had to go to work) and gave us a lift to the train we would take into D.C..  At the train station Brian spoke with our newest mechanics, Linus and Pops at Sartwell Enterprises, about the bus.  It appears the spark plug in cylinder one had gotten loose and worked it's way out of it's hole.  The exciting noise from yesterday was apparently the plug finally breaking free and zipping around the engine hatch.  Boring out the cylinder and dropping a helicoil in will provide an inexpensive solution, and it will be ready to be picked up tomorrow.  The train delivered us to Union Station, a few blocks from the "Mall" which is a long, wide park strip with most of what a tourist goes to D.C. for lined up along it.  This place is absolutely amazing. Today we visited the National Gallery of Art (only the West Wing), the Smithsonian Museum of American History, the Washington, Lincoln and Viet Nam memorials, and peered at the White House, all on foot!  We, unfortunately, badly miscalculated how far we were from Union Station and missed our intended train back.  An hour later, we caught a train back to the BWI station and Bill picked us up in his very cool BMW convertible and brought us back to Ellicott City.  After a late dinner and some good conversation, we called it an evening with a full plate planned for tomorrow...

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Daily Pictures

The bus awakes at Sartwell Enterprises, in Laurel MD	Brian and Theresa wake at Bill & Phoebe's in Ellicott City
Theresa, in full tourist hat regalia, preparing to catch a train to Washington D.C.	The platform at Union Station, in D.C.
A small piece of the opulent interior of Union Station, where one catches trains and subways in D.C.	Our first view of the nation's capital
Theresa with a Calder, outside of the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art	Theresa with a painting by Titian and Bellini, inside the West Wing of the National Gallery of Art
Theresa with a Van Gogh.  See that smile? You couldn't have removed it for your life	A Liechtenstein in the Sculpture Garden.  The coolest thing is that the roof point where the yellow and white walls meet was the furthest point from you
The Smithsonian Museum of American History...	...where they have a Star Trek phaser!
Also in the permanent collection are Judy Garland's ruby red slippers...	...Mr. Roger's sweater and Howdy Doody...
...and the Bunker's chairs	Brian thought it was novel to market beer based on the reputation you got from drinking it
Theresa laughing at Brian's artistic side in front of this really tall building we found	Okay, we know it was the Washington Monument.  In front of it is the famous "Reflecting Pool" which you be interested to know is full of goose poop
The Lincoln Monument.  It was on the steps that the last picture was taken	Pretty cool.  Not fiberglas, but we'll cut a little slack because of the vintage
The Viet Nam Memorial, that is the Washington Monument reflecting in the middle	The Viet Nam Memorial statue, which was added later due to concerns the black wall was too abstract
The White House, we kept yelling but nobody would come out	And for our more "seasoned" followers, and we know you're out there, this enormous building houses AARP.  Explains a lot, doesn't it?

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