Mckamey trip to DC

Washinton Trip 2013

Our route took us 1,700 miles, and lots of things to see along the way.

First stop was a Willy's burger shop in Beaumont, it was fantastic! The funnel cakes for desert were super.

The airstream was pretty funny, extra seating in the trailer!

We found Priesters Pecans just south of Montgomery. If you use the GPS it will lead you to the shelling factory west of the highway. The store and candy factory are on the east side of the highway and hard to miss. (we took the scenic route on one of the back roads) The honey glazed pecans were my favorite.

The cooling tables are the most obvious part of the candy factory, the had cement mixers to coat the pecans and free samples of almost every kind they sell.

We tried to go to the Smoking Pig BBQ place, but it is so good that they are only open Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we happened to be there Wednesday night!

We went Huntersville, NC to see Donna Downey's Studio. And we saw the Bead Lady in Concord.

We also went to McGuire Nuclear Station, which is on a lake and has some nice views.

The Fields of Goldenrod were pretty in NC. One thing you notice going from South Carolina to North is all the rivers and lakes in North Carolina. The Speedway was just massive at Concord.

We actually took Highway 29 instead of one of the interstates through Virgina. The AAA app showed the American Armoured Foundation has a Tank Museum in Danville, VA

One neat thing about this museum is certain tanks were touchable, and the tank simulator you could get into and see all the different controls of a tank.

There are lots of places to stop and enjoy the views when you are driving along some of the highways.

We stopped in Scrapdoodles in Fredricksberg, VA to see one of the biggest scrapbook stores I have ever seen

For some reason the walls of the hotel we stayed at in Fredricksberg would let you hang your coat up with no hangers...

On the way to DC the traffic was backed up for miles the other way on a Saturday morning!

30 Miles south of DC is the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, VA. It is really well done and it is my favorite museum in the DC Area.

It's hard to miss, there is a spire sticking up that you can see from the highway.

Some of the exhibits were realistic down to the smells, temperature, and sounds of what it would feel like if you were getting off a helicopter into the desert, or going through a jungle.

Tips for going to Washington DC:

Email your senator or congressman with dates of your trip, they can get you tickets for various things.

Take a bus tour or bike tour of the monuments, it is a long walk to see them all.

The spy museum and Marine museum are a must see!

Our hotel had tickets to the holocost museum, so we didn't have to wait in line to get the free tickets.

The google maps app has subway information if you want to take the subway.

We Passed by the Pentagon, the largest office building in the world.

The Washington Monument had scaffolding all over it from the earthquake a year or two back.

The air and space museum is always fun, they had the Wright Brother's Plane, space rockets, and predators and UAV's.

The blue car is the Stamford self driving car that won the DARPA challenge, which was supposed to be in the American History Museum.

We took a night bus tour of all the Monuments, there are a couple of reasons to do this at night, the traffic is not nearly as bad, and most of the monuments are lit up pretty well. A bike tour of the monuments might have been pretty nice as well.

The Korean memorial is kind of spooky at night, and Lincoln is still my favorite.

We went to the spy museum which sadly does not allow pictures,

We ate at the Gordon Biersch Brewery which had really good sandwiches..

We went through the archives, history museum, and ran through the american museum, which was mostly under construction.

The last day in DC we went to the original Library of Congress, and took a tour of the Capital.

Our return trip went through Kansas to see my sister,

We went out through Georgetown and my kids got to see what the 'smokey' mountains are all about. We were lucky that the clouds were just right.

We stopped at the Mosser Glass Factory in Cambridge, OH. They give a pretty cool tour of their facility.

We stayed with Charles and Angie in Deleware. Charles made some really delicious teriyaki burgers, and I got to see his really cool 3d printer. We went to the zoo on a perfect weather day, and had some really yummy pizza at Amato's in town.