Springhill Suites By Marriott Gaithersburg Maryland

... 3:30 was needed.

Happy to report though that this mornings flight was uneventful and we are now safely in Falls Church, VA with Val's sister Allison and her family(husband Bill, and 2 kids, Billy and Dana). Tonight we are off to enjoy a Washington Nationals baseball game. Should be fun.

I'm sure we will all sleep well tonight....

... story is a cute 4 year old panda who obviously enjoyed his giant kong toy. A gentleman standing next to me was a DC resident who confessed to being addicted to PANDA webcam (http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/Gian tPandas/default.cfm) and said he was saving his money to take a trip to China where there is a special program where you can pet the baby pandas. That's some pandamania! We buzzed around the zoo as quickly as possible and man it was a work out. By the time we got ...

Magnificent weather greeted us this morning, cold and crisp but very sunny, which was great as we had some driving to do. First stop was Liberty Park to see the Liberty Bell and Constitution Hall which was interesting. Philadelphia is quite a pretty city. Then on to Gettysburg to check out some of the Civil War battlegrounds ...

... free on Sundays, so double wammy! There is little to comment on the city, except that it is great to walk around all those buildings which we grew up watching on TV, time and time again, while adding some real history to them. We managed to visit all the following: - The White House. http://www.lewiston.k12.id.us/Camelot/N ationalMonuments/Becky ...

... left on the yellow topped table next to mine. Her head was low and I saw her disgust with her job by the way she acted. I told her "Thanks, some people don't care." Meaning that most people here in America leave trash and expect someone to clean up mess for them.

She looked at me, made eye contact, lifted her head and said, "Thanks sir." I laughed and said, "Sir? Thanks TOO senorita, ya do one hell of a job here!"

She ...

... for the big meal, I was given a small salad and roll that both okay. But the main course were some sort of meal pellets that were supposedly pork. They were hard and had a strange tasting sauce over them. Yummy for sure. Then for desert there was a small slice of cake that had absolutely no taste to it . Not only was the food bad but there was no selection. They ran out of their choice long before they made it to my ...

... my Bluetooth wireless headset from the desktop and installed it on the laptop so I can watch movies and not bother everyone else with sound. In doing so, I screwed up the installation on the desktop and now I can't get the BT to work on the desktop, AND I don't need it for the laptop because that wireless and USB-using equipment uses ...

... walking around Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall, there are many shops in the area, otherwise there is not much to do there, except eat and drink. We wanted to get to Mystic, CT to eat dinner so we left Boston early enough for the 2.5 hours drive. Mystic is a beautiful little town. Very picturesque with many artist galleries, boats, beautiful houses ... and everybody smokes. We ate at a wonderful restaurant called S&P Oyster Company ...

... only slightly concerned when we asked a commuter getting off at the station when he said that there is no car rental places in the area, however he turned out to be a muppet as Hertz was directly opposite the station - big up the random drunk guy in the bar! Good tip. It was well worth the pint I bought him! After attempting, and failing to dry off, we grabbed our big white Buick and headed out, traveling under our own steam for a change! On to New York State!

... a tour reservation for Independence Hall at 10 am. Independence Hall was not as exciting as we thought it was going to be. There wasn't much to do there except to listen to the tour guide. Other groups were with us so sometimes it was hard to see and hear because it was crowded. It felt wicked cool to be in the same place as the signers and writers of the Declaration of Independence. The room was much smaller than we ...