D.C., Uzbeck Style

From Baltimore we entered the capital via Delaware (so we could buy something really quick without sales tax. Oddly enough, the teensy state is a bit reminiscent of Nova Scotia...), and only got confused in the ridiculously laid-out road system of D.C. for about 2 hours before we made it to our relatively downtown destination for the next few nights. We stayed with Dale's very good friend from high school Zarina (who is Uzbeck, in case you were all wondering about that) who is a Georgetown graduate working as a advertising associate in the Watergate building for The Journal (I know, she's very fancy).
2 days of Smithsonians and memorials, one day of downtown, and one day of Georgetown and the very fun and foodie-centric Adams Morgan area, D.C. is fantastic, and so is Zarina. Also: the subways make you think that you are in a post-apocalyptic video game.
On our last day in D.C., we were lucky enough to be able to have lunch with Dale's great uncle Mark who is suffering from cancer, yet still enjoys a good margarita :) We had a lovely visit & it was very good to see him, as its been years and years.
We ALSO got to have breakfast with Dale's old babysitter from Coolidge, Jennifer Dixon, with her wonderful husband and FIVE babies! She is supermom, and somehow between all of her little ones found time to put us a little road trip basket together. We love her. Not too many pictures, unfortunately, but here's just a few:

Crabs and the Charm City

From Gettysburg, we made our way to Baltimore without much knowledge of what to expect aside from what we knew from The Wire...we were only about one third right.
We got into the city during the evening and made our way to the very pretty home of the lovely lady with whom we couchsurfed for the following two evenings near the Johns Hopkins campus. Turns out the city is beautiful, is home to one of the coolest outdoors farmer's markets we've been to, has an awesome metal scene and a huge foundation in art, tons of very beer-centric drinking spots, and, as you may have guessed, massive amounts of Old Bay and it's appropriate crustaceans.
Over microbrews, street fairs, Natty Po, enormous Maine Coon cats named "Charlie", and Val Kilmer in Willow, our hosts rocked and we will be coming back very soon.

Geeking Out on History

Valley Forge, Gettysburg, and Antietam, specifically.
We hit Valley Forge on our way out of Philly the first morning of the overcast weather that followed us pretty much until Kentucky. For those of you not completely brushed up on your Revolutionary War info, Valley Forge is where the encampment of Washington's Army was over the bitter winter of 1777-1778. Also, we apparently weren't the only ones who thought to get our history dork on that day...when we were sitting in the little chapel on the site watching the stereotypical brief Nat'l Park informational video discussing the historical relevance of the site, Dale's friend Shawn from the U of A (currently residing in Hoboken, NJ) strolled in with his girlfriend. Its crazy how teensy the world is.
From Valley Forge, we made our way down to Gettysburg for a night of camping in the beautiful Michaux State Forest followed by a day of exploration and an evening of couchsurfing in the quaint little college town. Fun fact: Gettysburg kind of has a bit of a hipster 20-somethings art and music scene...who knew? In any case, we stayed with a very sweet young couple, and had an awesome night over local wine, rolled cigarettes, and homemade pizza.
The following morning we embarked upon a self-guided tour of the enormous Gettysburg battlefield, which is spattered for miles with hundreds of enormous marble monuments commemorating the fallen troops (both Confederate and Union, which is pretty cool) of the vicious 3 day battle. It was an awesome experience to do it right, especially having Jimmy in tow with all of his historical facts to chip in...next time, we're charging for tours. (for you Rumps and Riggins', you may recognize a certain b&b in our slew of pictures below...)
Upon leaving Gettysburg, we made our way down to the battlefield of Antietam. Just so happens, it was the 149th anniversary of the battle. The site was bumping, and there were lots of reenactments and demonstrations to feed our inner nerd.
Pictures to illustrate:

Valley Forge

Gettysburg

Antietam