Up early in Colonial Williamsburg to capture some of the solitude the morning offers, and I found these two crusty hags in the stockade. I can only imagine the depths of their lurid crimes. The old town just isn’t what it used to be.

Nothing is open at this time of day, and due to my relentless need to rush from one place to another, we are only allowed the briefest of impressions. We don’t always move this way, but when we do, we sometimes end up wishing for some flexibility that wasn’t built into the plans. Such is the nature of wanting to share firsthand impressions of places with Jutta and trying to prioritize some things while effectively diminishing others.

Even before anyone else is stirring, we have to turn our focus on heading up the York River. From there, we’ll skip over to the Rappahannock River and finally trace up the famous Potomac.

We have arrived at Mt. Vernon to visit the home of the 1st President of the United States, George Washington.

Not only was he our first President, but he scored by being one of the early landowners in America on the Potomac River to be able to choose where to put his home.

The grounds are extensive, and it was soon abundantly clear that there’s no way I allocated enough time to do justice to what’s here to discover.

A hilltop overlooking the Potomac River may not be beachfront on Kauai, but if you had to live in the Eastern U.S. close enough to work so the horse and buggy might get you somewhere in a reasonable amount of time, well then, George Washington picked a mighty fine location that while only 16 miles from D.C., feels well removed.

I should point out that the original post from this day and those surrounding it were originally rather brief, and while the story will remain thin, I’ve added a good number of photos that weren’t included in the original posts. The exclusion of so many photos was due to the limits of bandwidth back then. However, when updating the posts, I often can’t really add any more context because I’m now so far removed from the events of those days.

The final resting place of George Washington, his wife Martha, is interred to his right. Time to head to our next stop on this whirlwind adventure.

Our hotel is but a few minutes walk around the corner from the White House. After check-in and parking the car for the next three days, as we will stick to getting around by foot and subway, we are off and soon walking by the home of Mr. Barack Obama on our way to the National Mall.

Next up, we pass the Washington Monument, hoping to reach the Lincoln Memorial before sunset.

Just before reaching the reflecting pool, we come upon the new World War II Memorial. The last time Caroline and I were here, construction wouldn’t begin for at least another year. The finished Memorial is beautiful and fits between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial as though it was always meant to be here.

Looking back from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool with the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument in view at sunset makes for a stunning image of our well-planned capital city.

Sunset was just starting to finish its business as we stood below the towering Mr. Lincoln in awe of all the history surrounding us.

As the lights on the monuments come up, so does the desire to see everything in the evening, but we have a busy couple of days that demand we all get some sleep.

And so, past the White House, we go on the way back to our hotel.