Sargent's Server

Aside from the internationally renowned Cherry Blossom Festival, we had stumbled onto another local event in Frederick. April 1st was "First Saturday," where shops and museums stayed open a bit longer, often offering special activities or deals. After days of endless walking in the big city, a little local flavor sounded like a good way to spend a the day before hitting the road home.

We started off at Cracker Barrel for another non-intercontinental breakfast. The hotel had a guide for some Frederick sites, and we punched one into the Tom Tom, which led us straight there. The first thing I wanted to see was the casting of a 250 pound bell for the city. Apparently, this was the kickoff day for the new tourist season, too (in addition to being a "first Saturday"), and this year, the town was celebrating by bringing in a mobile foundry to cast a new bell. At 10 am, there was supposedly much bell ringing from the local churches, but we had not gotten out of Cracker Barrel in time to hear it.

Bill, our waiter at the Metro Grill, was incredibly right when he said, "I don't think people are prepared for how much walking" they have to do in DC. After days in DC, our feet were killing us. Miles and miles of walking, and yet, there was still a month of things to see. I judge that it would take about three to four weeks to "see everything," assuming you took in three to four sites per day and spent an hour or three to appropriately take it all in.

Also, there is a finite amount of continental breakfast that one can take. I appreciate that the hotels are providing us a bit of nourishment, but the whole no meat thing gets old after awhile. This morning, Becky made my day by proposing a stop at Bob Evans for breakfast. So many Danishes and bagels made me want nothing in the world more than a good piece of sausage or bacon. After that, it was our morning ritual to the metro, this time early enough to enjoy some rush hour traffic.

We lost a lot of time on Day 8. I blame it partly on the TV, which sucked us into some movie that we did not know. Then, we returned the GPS to Best Buy for another one -- this time, a Tom Tom model. Ironically, we made several wrong turns before we had it working. We still needed Chapstick and in general, just did not seem to be able to get moving. This cost us for the rest of the day.

At the Shady Grove metro station, we could not find a parking space. A man from the Frederick area (what a coincidence) was exasperated trying to find a space and had to park near us ... in a galaxy far, far away. Along the way to the metro, he explained that he was from Frederick, so I asked what there was to do or eat there. He mentioned two restaurants, which would be important, later.

Oh, yes, the Cherry Blossom Festival. You can look it up here. A few highlights: Over 700,000 visitors. The largest annual spectator event in DC. Officially, two weeks long and unofficially longer. Japanese opera. Parades. In 1912, the mayor of Tokyo, Yukio Ozaki, sent cherry trees to the US as a gift of friendship. (Not mentioned on the site was the obvious -- somewhere in the late 1930's, this gift was not well remembered.) There have been gifts back and forth over the years, from a gift of dogwoods to Japan, to cuttings from famous trees back and forth. Japanese horticulturists visit every spring to observe the trees, and, obviously, the whole town gets into the act during the weeks when the trees bloom.

Becky left in the morning to tackle some laundry with Billy and Stephy. Jenifer was in the shower and I was getting things up to date around the website. A few hours of "catchup time" was really helpful for us.

Finding a new hotel was the first (and longest) order of business for Day 6. We were still oblivious to what was happening in DC, but after a few exits, the popular consent was to go into the city for a few hours and look around. It was too early to really find another hotel room, anyway, since it was only 11:00 am. We had breakfast at the McDonald's next door to the Days Inn and watched them change over from breakfast to lunch, so obviously we had slept pretty well, overall.

On our way down Connecticut Avenue, we passed a wide variety of housing: Old mansions, new housing large and small, apartments of income levels from top to bottom, old New England houses two and three stories high and stacked right next to ...

It was worth it. She is a beauty, up close. The goal was to leave the van in Liberty Park in New Jersey and ride the Circle Line ferry to the statue, then to New York, and then back to New Jersey to leave. Parking at Liberty Park was $5, although I originally thought it was going to be free. Even so, I'm certain it was better than whatever they might have charged at Battery Park in Manhattan.

The skyline of New York is every bit as awesome as you have heard if you have not been there. I could not stop taking pictures of it, even in the listing ship (you might notice that buildings seem to lean right, then left, then right, then left in the pictures). We boarded the first ferry and headed for ...