Monumental D.C.

After a very early flight from Prague (with an ugly stop-over in Heathrow), we arrive in Washington D.C. in mid-afternoon.  We check into our hotel and have the rest of the day off.  Joanne and I roam around the DuPont Circle area a little, check out a couple of restaurants for later.  We will be meeting at 8:30 a.m to receive our final set of scavvenge From Bill. Pamela has joined us here in Washington, and the change In Bill is astounding. His 3 week-long scowl is gone, and he agrees to answer questions civily instead of sarcastically or defensively .We joind for dinner with "Team Commonwealth" the whole group opt for an early night.  Next morning we wake up way too early due to jet lag so we go out to find some breakfast and enjoy the peace and quiet of the morning.  We reconvene at 8:30 and the winners of the European leg are revealed.  Today's scavenges will not make any difference to the final standings (unless the current leader comes in dead last) but we all go off and give it a go.  We take the Metro to "the Mall".  We visit the WW II memorial (and find Kilroy),  F.D.R. memorial (and find Fala), the Vietnam war memorial and the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial (stunning).  We visit the Lincoln monument and meander along the Potomac.  We locate a kayak rental place and go for a paddle around Roosevelt Island and check out the Kennedy Centre.  We  take the subway to Woodley Park in Alexandria and ride the free cable car down King Street to Gadsby's Tavern.  Apparently George Washington used to eat here on occasion.  We meander to the river to catch a ferry back to D.C.but discover that the next one doesn't go until 3:30, which would make us late for our final check in, so, back to the subway.  We also do a quick run via Bethesda on the way back to our hotel.  Our scores are quickly tallied and awards are handed out. Katrina and Fiona finally win a leg (beating us by a mere 5 points, and we are happy for them).  But it's not quite enough for the big win.  Saskia and Andrew are crowned "The World's Greatest Travelers" and they certainly earned it.  They all played fair and worked extremely hard, as did Katrina and Fiona, the second place (by a hair) team.  As well as being great competitors, these teams  were just plain fun to travel with. They never stopped smiling even when conditions were tough. They should all be very proud of what they accomplished.  We had a great bunch of fellow travellers this time around - the best ever! Thank you all, you made the trip fun
Go Team Commonwealth!