visited 15 states (6.66%)
Create your own visited map of The World
On our trip through Central America, I got to add 6 countries to my map of visited countries. It’s too bad not all of them have a stamp representation in my passport.
I’ve actually been to more countries that this, but I didn’t spend the night, so they don’t count. I’ve been to France numerous times when I lived in Germany, and I also drove through Austria. They’ll be added to the list sometime soon through.

Click the video below below to watch a video of our Day 4! Once you click play, it may take up to 1 minute to work.
Today, we went to see Arlington National Cemetery, The Iwo Jima Memorial, the FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, and the Holocaust Museum.
It was a VERY BUSY DAY!
You can watch day 4 (in the video below) and then you can see all of our pictures from June 14th here!

If you are having trouble with the above video (i.e. people on dial-up), you might try downloading it, by using your right mouse button. Right Click here, and then choose “Save Target As”. Save it on your computer, and then watch it from there.

Click the video below below to watch a video of our Day 3!
Once you click play, it may take up to 1 minute to work.
You can watch day 3 (in video snippets, and then you can see all of our pictures here!

If you are having trouble with the above video (i.e. people on dial-up), you might try downloading it, by using your right mouse button. Right Click here, and then choose “Save Target As”. Save it on your computer, and then watch it from there.

We rented a car at Baltimore’s Airport, and drove down to where we are staying in Vienna, VA.  The first night we got here, we must have been total zombies.  But Yvette was nice enough to deal with us, and help to brainstorm a list of places we should see, and more importantly, the order we should see them in.
Because the public transportation system is very good in Washington D.C., we decided to return our rental car, rather than adding additional days.  But we decided that we would see the out of the way “Hains Point Giant” statue before returning the rental car What we noticed was the huge contrast between us (HAPPY), and the majority of people on the road.
But that’s to be expected when we’re on vacation in a new place, and they’re just going about the daily grind.
Check out these unhappy drivers. The guy in the blue car was FUMING.
We seriously thought he was going to kill someone.

Now, here’s me! Very happy about seeing famous Washington D.C. landmarks out the window.

So after some slight driving confusion and significant traffic, we got to Hains Point park, and drove to see “The Giant!”
If you don’t know what the giant is, it’s actually a statue on Hains Point called “The Awakening”.
Read more about “The Awakening”



I told Carrie that it would be funny if she took a picture sitting in the giant’s mouth. So Carrie tried to crawl into the giant’s mouth, and she told me that he tried to bite her.
I had a hard time believing her. After all, this is just a statue of a giant, right?
But, just to be on the safe side, I approached very cautiously.
I tried to sneak into the giant’s mouth

As I was crawling in, I realized that Carrie was right. This giant was alive, and he had FOUL breath!

So I got out of there as quickly as I could, in case he decided to take a bite.

As I scampered out of his mouth, his giant hand moved, and looked like it would come right down and crush me.

So Carrie and I pondered – maybe we should head for friendlier parts of the giant.

Carrie courted the feet and knee


While I found the hand to be quite nice.

Hains Point Park also has a lot of other nice locations to see, and things to do.


On the way to Reagan Washington National airport (to return the car), we got a view (from the distance), of the Thomas Jefferson memorial.

We’ll return back here in a couple of days.
One of life’s little rules is “Always return a borrowed car with the gas tank full.” Nowhere is that more the case than with a rental car. But, based on what I was told at the car rental place, I did not re-fuel the car before returning it. That was a mistake.
Long story short, a one day car rental cost us $112.00. Yes, this may quality for the most expensive car rental (for a one day compact car rental) in history. Moral of the story: “Always return a borrowed car with the gas tank full” no matter what the person behind the counter tells you.
Also, you really should have your contracts reviewed, ALWAYS, before you sign them. Sometimes it’s inconvenient, but it’s ALWAYS a good idea.
We then took the DC Metro blue line from Reagan Washington National Airport to the orange line, to head out to Vienna, VA.




We took the DC Metro to the bus stop, and then walked about 10 minutes from the bus stop back to where we’re staying, with our friends Misti and Yvette. Where we’re staying is pretty close to this building.