Day 14: New York to Washington, DC

This morning it was time to say farewell to J as she headed home to RI and I was on my way to Washington DC.  Last time I visited here back in 1997 I only spent two nights and one day, so I was really looking forward to spending nearly 4 days exploring the US capital.

Penn Station - waiting for departure...

The 3½ hour Amtrak journey was uneventful and I arrived in DC just after 1pm and the weather was a little overcast and raining. I wasn't able to check in straight away, so I left my luggage and had lunch around the corner at the Ollie's Trolley (which apparently had their burgers voted the best in town earlier in February 2011) and it was pretty darn good.

After I checked in, I wandered down to the Mall, which was only a couple of blocks from the hotel. To get out of the rain and drizzle I spent some time checking out the National Museum of American History which is just one of the many Smithsonian Institution museums in DC.

I was really happy that K was able to meet up with me after she finished work.  She came to the hotel and from here we walked up towards Chinatown where we had dinner at Proof (775 G Street, NW Washington).  Afterwards we caught the metro back to her work to collect her car so she could take me on a night-time drive to see the sights.