By Chris Elder

Our gateway to Africa actually starts right here in Washington D.C. and if you know Sue and me, you know we wouldn’t dare miss an opportunity to see the city before we cross the pond. We arrived at about 4 pm on Friday afternoon and since our flight from Las Vegas was at 6 am and the drive from Laughlin is about 90 minutes we opted to stay up all night Thursday and attempt to sleep the 5 hours to D.C. Although we were exhausted, after a short nap we were ready for a light dinner at a trendy little Italian Osteria (Sette Osetia) and a carafe Sangria. Then is was back to the hotel (The Fairfax at Embassy Row) by 9 and a wonderful well earned full night of sleep.

By 8:30 am Saturday morning we were at the Library of Congress to meet our tour. I rarely complain about the pace of most tours but this one was quite a challenge for our old knees and we soon found we had bitten off more than we could chew. One of the reasons we do these tours is to be able to report our experience to our clientele and unfortunately, we cannot recommend trying to the see this many attractions in one day.  To sum it all up, we visited the U. S. Capitol building, the White House, the World War II Memorial, the Roosevelt Memorial, took a cruise on the Potomac, visited the Jefferson Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Viet Nam Memorial and finally the National Archives. After cocktails and a quick meal downstairs we were down for the count.

I paid dearly on Easter morning for abusing my legs on Saturday and found myself having to use a cane to get to brunch at the DuPont Hotel just two blocks away. We needed most of the day to recover but by 7 pm we were ready for our reservation at the Bethesda Blues and Jazz Supper Club where we thouroghly enjoyed dinner and a performance by Harold Melvin’s Blue Notes. We even had enough energy left for cocktails at the hotel bar before calling it a night.

So here we are on Monday morning packing up for the next leg of our adventure; Africa. This will be our first trip to the African continent and we are so very excited for what might be in store for us. I can’t say I’m looking forward to the 17 hour flight but that’s the the price you pay if ya wanna play. For photos of our Washington D.C. Adventure please click on the photos below. Stay tuned for our next post from Johannesburg, South Africa. Until then, Ciao for Now!