Waking up to the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial this morning. Not much else to say here but “Oorah!”

At Arlington National Cemetery, we walked the grounds for a good while before heading over to the Eternal Flame at John and Jacqueline Kennedy’s gravesite.

I wasn’t going to post this picture of another goat, this one a billy from a carousel that went round and round, immovable and fixed in time….again another metaphor for those who sit in these seats of power. The reason I wasn’t going to share it was that it’s not very compelling on its own, but I couldn’t find this anywhere else on the internet, so I’m thinking that this might be the only photo that exists of this carousel Billy goat at the National Museum of American History. Funny how everything here in D.C. seems to be a reminder of something that has been as opposed to showing us what can be.

For everything that Washington D.C. might be missing, culture is not one of them. This is a cultural melting pot with people from around the world seen walking these streets. Due to the abundance of diplomatic missions, it seems like foods from around the globe are also present. While Chinatown here has a wonderful gate, there’s not much more to the place than that, at least from our cursory observation. This is definitely not Chinatown from San Francisco or even Los Angeles.

This was the best we could do in seeing Annapolis in Maryland. While it comes highly recommended, we have other plans for the rest of the day and will leave this for another visit.

This is why we couldn’t spend more time in Annapolis: Caroline County! Just kidding, we are driving down along the Chesapeake Bay and are looking forward to the wetlands and quiet after the crowds of D.C.

This is the ferry crossing at 23865 River St. near Route 352 in Whitehaven, Maryland. Just one car at a time gets taken over the Wicomico River.

These are what faces look like on their very first ferry crossing in America. The Chesapeake Bay is beautiful, even on a cloudy day.

Just after arriving on the other side of our ferry adventure, we have this rickety old wooden bridge to contend with.

Spent quite a bit of time in the wetlands of Maryland before reaching Virginia, where we were getting nervous it would be dark by the time we saw (or didn’t see) our next landmark.

Caroline is a sucker for signs; the wackier, the better. Had to stop at Susan’s Seafood to snap a photo for our memory books. We didn’t get anything to eat here, so we’ll have to reserve an opinion on that, but we might be back, especially after I read the glowing reviews. Along the way, we also passed the world’s largest decoy factory and another sign at a repair shop that read, “We fix anything but a broken heart.”

It’s dark, seriously dark, by the time we reach the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel. So, while we can’t see much from the top of the bridge, these tunnels are amazing while simultaneously being kinda creepy as we plunge below the bay. Once back on the mainland, we headed for Hampton, Virginia, where we had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to eat at The Grate Steak, where we got to cook our own steak (or veggie burger). Our hotel was the Legacy Inn by the airport in Richmond, Virginia. We are exhausted and crash well before midnight, as we have asked for a 5:30 wake-up call.