We had a great time in Washington DC, even if it was too short a time there -- barely a day and a half. But Elizabeth, intrepid adventurer that she is, with me, her cartographer, at her side, was able to (as usual) make the most of our time there. How? By walking over every square inch of the DC downtown area!

What initially impressed me about the city was how easy it was to get around -- the streets are all lettered east to west, and numbered north to south, so it's just a big grid. We found our hotel without too much hassle, parked underneath it for a painful $20 fee (to park! for a day!) and then got out the hiking boots.

Damn, so much impressive architecture, and no towering skyscrapers to lessen the impact of the Washington Monument, which can be seen from just about every place in DC. Lots of columns and buildings that took up at least a city block in girth. Made me want to study more architecture so I knew if what I was looking at was real or faux, or someplace in between.

We did the total tourist thing on Sunday afternoon, hoofing it around the Mall area -- to the Smithsonian Castle, the Museum of Natural History (Lizzie wanted to see the Hope diamond and the gems and the Giant Squid -- major disappointment on the squiddie!), the Museum of Air and Space (seemed a bit run-down, actually, but some impressive flying machines!), buzzed by the Capitol and Reflecting Pool, wandered through a huge Gay Pride celebration that took up about six city blocks (where we got the world's largest lemonade ever and rested in the shade), then it was over to buzz past the heavily blockaded White House, then the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and then the highlight of the walk -- Lincoln Memorial.

Lots of great quotes by Lincoln here, from the Gettysberg Address to his second inaugaral address next to his massive statue, along with even more in the lower room, which really brought home to me how close the country came to being torn apart by the Civil War, and how Lincoln basically held the country together by what seemed to be sheer force of will during that time. Very impressive.

Another surprisingly powerful memorial was the Korean War Memorial, which is made up of two dozen slightly-larger-than-life-size statues that are grayish white in color, all of them cloaked and carrying their weapons and radios, looking like ghosts in the rain. The sculptor really captured the look of horror, fear, and courage in his subjects' eyes.

I know I'm forgetting more stuff, but toward the end, after walking at least 12 miles, it sort of became a blur. All I remember after that is a great pint of Bourbon Stout at the District Chop House that night. But I feel like I know DC better now, at least the touristy part of it. I quite enjoyed doing all the research for the trip and memorizing the maps and prepping for it. I never felt lost once. I may turn out to be as intrepid an adventurer as my wife, some day...

And as an added bonus, when we got home, I had a contract for my story for MarsDust waiting for me, along with the latest Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet (nice story, Nick M.!) and Rabid Transit! I've read three of the latter stories, and liked 'em all. Lots of good reading to do this week, mostly short fiction (I have four issues of Electric Velocipede from John Klima to read as well -- looking forward to it!), and that's inspiring me to finish the two stories I started recently, not to mention revising the story that was recently rejected, and then get ready for my part in the Exquisite Corpuscle project... I think I'll get to my novel revisions NEXT month. ;)