Day 25
Reading the paper today the front page news is the hurricane Fay down in Florida, and how many flights have been cancelled. The forecast is for thunderstorms until at least Tuesday.
Penn station is crowded, with anxious people watching the Amtrac Departures Sign to check the status of their trains to all parts of the country, and most importantly, their train's track number. "Due to tropical storm Fay trains 31 and 37 to Florida are cancelled", the sign said. When we were first planning the trip I suggested we catch the train to Florida, but I'm so glad now that Louise didn't listen to such foolishness.
At 11.40am the 125 train to Washington slid out of Penn Station and five minutes later we out of the tunnel and into brilliant sunshine. Ten minutes later we were pulling into Newark, New Jersey. Soon the landscape changes from urban to green fields, and trees and we pass through the town of Trenton, New Jersey, then the cities of Philadelphia, and Baltimore, Maryland.
At 3pm the train arrives into Washington DC’s very grand Union Station (pictured above), and 3.15pm we were in our room at the Marriott Hotel (pictured below). We enjoyed our train trip; it left on time, we didn’t have to book our bags in, wait to collect the baggage or fight our way through traffic to the airport, the seats were wider with more leg room, we could watch the scenery and most importantly – Louise doesn’t have to go through the ‘explosive sniffing’ machine. 
We walked down to Georgetown (pictured below), a historic suburb of Washington, and had a forgettable lunch at Johnny Rocket’s, after which we promised we would never eat there again.
Open Top Sightseeing run a Hop on – Hop off tour, and have a stop across the road, so we went for a tour around Washington past; Arlington Cemetery, Lincoln Memorial, Smithsonian Museum, Washington Monument, and back to Union Station.
It’s a short walk to the impressive United States Capitol Building (pictured top right), but here’s the really impressive part of the story. We walked all the way down National Mall to the 
Washington Monument (pictured above), catching sight of the White House (pictured right), and back to the Marriott Hotel. We were inspired by all the joggers, and people playing softball and soccer in the park on this beautiful summer’s night. I’m so inspired that I’m forgoing the superb Marriott burger for grilled fish and green vegetables!
We caught sight of some of the footage from Orlando, and there is a full on hurricane going on there, but what can we do when we've payed for our accomodation and flights. Oh great, now they've called out the Nation
