We visited our nation’s capital for our second big trip of the year. After arriving late Wednesday night, we rented a 2024 Buick Enclave and checked in to the Hyatt Regency Dulles. Despite our proximity to the airport and seeing many, we never heard a single plane from our room. We enjoyed the breakfast buffet at Flights, our hotel restaurant, each morning. I highly suggest the shrimp and grits—they were fantastic!
Thursday morning, we headed south on HWY 28 until we entered
the independent city of Manassas Park. About one minute later, we entered the
independent city of Manassas. From there, we put James Madison’s Montpelier in
the GPS and took a straight shot to his estate. Our route passed through
Fauquier, Culpeper, Madison, and Orange Counties.
We arrived at Montpelier at 10 a.m. and joined our scheduled
Highlights of Montpelier tour. We enjoyed the one-hour guided tour of Madison’s
home, which included the upstairs room where Madison wrote the first draft of
the U.S. Constitution. After the tour, we walked around the grounds and visited
the family cemetery to pay our respects to James and Dolley Madison.
After we left Montpelier, we drove west into Greene County
and entered Shenandoah National Park. We followed Skyline Drive through the
park, weaving in and out of Page and Rappahannock Counties and enjoying the
views.
After exiting the park, we drove west into Page County on
HWY 211, stopping in Luray for a quick lunch at Hardee’s. From there, we
traveled north on HWY 340 into Warren County, hooked up with I-66 West, and
drove through Shenandoah County before taking HWY 48 west into Frederick,
Hardy, and Grant Counties, the latter of two were in West Virginia. Then, we headed north on HWY 220 to pick up
Hampshire and Mineral Counties, went east, crossed back into Virginia, and
drove through the independent city of Winchester, where we stopped at Walmart
to pick up some groceries for the week. On our way to our hotel, we passed
through Clarke County, our last new county for the day.
On Friday, we spent most of the day working from our hotel.
That evening, we had dinner at the Bonefish Grill in Fairfax. After dinner, we
drove to the independent city (the restaurant was outside the city limits)
and continued to our next independent city, Falls Church. We finished our
evening with a quick drive through Washington, D.C., and past the Pentagon
before heading to our hotel.
On Saturday, we set out for Maryland. We drove around the
northwest side of Washington, D.C., getting onto I-95 in Prince George’s
County, followed by Howard County to the north. We then crossed the Chesapeake
Bay to pick up Queen Anne’s County. After crossing, we drove to the quaint city
of Chestertown, just past the Kent County line. From there, we doubled back and
crossed into Caroline County. At this point, we were very close to the Delaware
border. Since we hadn’t been there since 2015, we decided to hop the state line
to take pictures before driving south into Dorchester County, then north on HWY
50 into Talbot County. We crossed the Chesapeake Bay again and drove south into
Calvert County. We then drove over the Patuxent River, picked up Charles County,
and drove south into St. Mary’s County—our last new county of the day and our
final Maryland county. Maryland marked our 31st state completion. We
stopped at Hangry Joe’s Hot Chicken in Herndon on our way to the hotel—highly
recommended!
On Sunday, we set out to cover an area south of Maryland and the Potomac River. We headed south on I-95, exited near Fredericksburg, and traveled east on HWY 3, entering King George and Westmoreland Counties. We stopped briefly at the George Washington Birthplace National Monument to visit the Washington family cemetery. Although the replacement markers are old, the original headstones are long gone.
After leaving the National Monument, we drove into Richmond County, then crossed the Rappahannock River to land in Tappahannock, picking up Essex County. From there, we crossed back, continued southeast, and drove through Northumberland and Lancaster Counties. We crossed the Rappahannock River again, landing in Middlesex County, then Mathews County. We circled northwest and entered Gloucester, King and Queen, and King William Counties. We then picked up sandwiches at the Subway in Providence Forge before entering Charles City and Prince George Counties. At this point, we headed into an area near two counties and three independent cities. We drove through the two cities of Hopewell and Petersburg, followed by Dinwiddie and Chesterfield Counties, and then the city of Colonial Heights. From there, our destination was Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. We drove around the southwest side of Richmond on HWY 288, picking up Powhatan and Goochland Counties before heading west on I-64. As we approached Monticello, we weaved through both Louisa and Fluvanna Counties, our last new counties of the trip.
When we arrived at Monticello, we explored Jefferson’s estate to pass the time before heading into the house for our 4:15 p.m. Highlights Tour. Once the tour ended, we walked to the family cemetery before returning to the parking lot for our drive to the hotel. Having had a great meal at Hangry Joe’s Chicken the day before, we stopped at the location in Gainesville on our way back.
On Monday, we took the Metro into Washington, D.C. Our first stop was at the National Mall. We then walked over to the Washington Monument for our 11 a.m. reservation. I hadn’t been inside in over 35 years, but the views were as spectacular as I remembered. We then took the Metro to a stop near Sami’s Hot Dog Cart. Sami was great, as were his hot dogs. After lunch, we took the Metro to the Capitol for our 1:10 p.m. tour. The tour was rich in history, and we plan to return for the dome tour someday. Our final stop was a Smithsonian Museum, specifically the National Museum of American History. We visited the entertainment, U.S. President, and First Lady exhibits. I was most impressed with the original RD-D2 and C-3PO costumes from Return of the Jedi. After a long day of walking, we took the Metro to our hotel. We enjoyed dinner at Flights, our hotel restaurant, before retiring to our room for the evening.
When it was all said and done, we picked up 52 new counties and county equivalents and finished our 31st state. So what's next? We have a trip to Colorado scheduled for May. Stay Tuned!
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