Took a two-day trip to Baltimore and Washington D.C. It was fun, but a bit exhausting.

The first day, Paul was able to spend some time with a friend of his from Baltimore, which was a lot of fun for him. We stayed in the Peabody Clarion hotel in downtown Baltimore, not on the Inner Harbor, but up by the Washington Monument (Yes, Baltimore has the first Washington Monument.) The area is very charming in a European type way, but I wouldn't stray too far from a couple of blocks around the hotel. However, it was a wonderfully charming hotel for an affordable price, particularly when compared to the hotels that are actually on the Inner Harbor.

Today, we went to the Smithsonian American History Museum. The exterior of the museum isn't anything to write home about, so the nice building photo is basically representative of the type of architecture that we saw a lot in D.C. I really like the downtown D.C. area - it feels clean, modern and safe. Now, I know this isn't true of all the area... I loved the museum. It featured a many interesting exhibits, including one that traced the tenants of a home from the early 1700s to when the home was torn down in the mid-1960s and donated to the Smithsonian. There was a great section on military history. I hung out in the Revolutionary War area, while Paul enjoyed the WWII and Vietnam area. There is an exhibit that features the First Ladies, including their gowns. That was interesting. Overall, just a stunningly wonderful museum.

We managed to negotiate the Metro from Catholic University, and with help from Paul navigating with a map, we walked to the museum from the main metro station. It was too cold and windy to enjoy strolling around - maybe next time.

Oh, you can see I'm back to having trouble getting Paul to tolerate my taking his photo ...