Passed Fort Washington along the way. It was completed in 1809 and was the only defensive fort protecting Washington D.C. During the War of 1812, the fort was quickly abandoned during a British advance. During WWII, the US Army's Adjutant Generals School was located at the fort and had billeting for 362 officers and 2,526 enlisted. The site is now part of a very extensive park with views of the Potomac River.
A hazy day for pictures going into DC. This is the Woodrow Wilson Bridge with the Washington Monument in the background. It looked much better through the lens than what you see here.
The closer we got to DC the more jet traffic overhead, flights going into Reagan National.
A USAir Express landing just as we are passing by the runway
. National Defense University, I think this is the administration building or something like that. The campus is relatively large. I believe there are homes along the waterfront that are designated for generals.
We get to Capital Yacht Club and check in. The marina is located about 5 blocks from USDA's South Building. Jerry and I had walked it when we had visited a several years back. There is an open fish market next to the marina. We walked over to see if there was a restaurant or someplace we could get something to eat. A line of folks were ordering from a fast food window beside the fish market so we opted to give it a try. Fish taco and shrimp taco to go, we ate at the picnic tables on the deck of the yacht club looking out over the city. Nice.
After lunch, we/I decided it was a clean up day. Vacuum, dust, clean bathrooms, and well, you know the routine. Jerry installed digital volt meters on the bridge console. And put tools away.
Airplanes went over continuously, as did Marine helicopters. They appeared to be the ones used by the President with "United States of America" on the side. One flew over probably every 30 minutes or so from about 9am until about 7pm , going both directions and fairly low at times. Sometimes, there would be two together, but mostly just the one.
A storm blew in early evening but didn't last long. This is a great spot to dock.
Thursday - Purchased on-line trolley tour tickets so about 9am we trekked to 10th and E Street to catch our ride. It was about a mile or so walk and the morning was perfect, nice breeze, sunny, great day for seeing DC.
This was a hop-on, hop-off kind of tour, but we opted to just ride and listen to the narration for this route. We went by most of the monuments. A new one we hadn't seen was the Martin Luther King Jr statue.
I thought this was a pretty good picture of the Capital.
About noon, we took another route that went by Embassy Row and to the National Cathedral. Neither of us had seen much of this part of town. We got off at the Washington National Cathedral.
What a spectacular site. The Cathedral is the 6th largest in the world. It is shaped like a cross, with a long nave (a tenth of a mile) and two shorter transepts (either of the arms of the cross shape). The foundation stone was laid in 1907 and was completed in 1990, 83 years later. 
Just one of the many intricate stained glass 
Guided tours are provided, as you see here, or one can do the self-guided tour. 
The is the High Alter at the east end of the nave. One hundred and ten figures of men and women exemplifying the highest ideals of Christianity surround the central figure of Christ, completing the iconographic story with the redemption of humankind through Jesus Christ. Just incredible workmanship to see. So intricate and detailed.
On the outside of the Cathedral are many, many grotesques (carvings). One is of Darth Vader from Star Wars. There are also gargoyles on the building that act as drains, as each gargoyle has a pipe running through its mouth. The grotesques are similar ornamental carvings but without the pipes.
Catching the trolley back, we decided to stop in Chinatown for a late lunch. Jerry remembered going to one of the restaurants with Ron Brewer where he ordered steak and lobster. He ate the steak and left the lobster. The server came by to pick up plates. He saw that Ron had left the lobster. The server asked if he was done. Ron said yes. The server said "if you not want the lobster, why you order it?" We didn't eat at that place but another that someone recommended. She said it was good and cheap. It was really good and cheap, we each had soup, Jerry had a spring roll and we split Kung pao, tea was included and it was only $8.00.
We were finished with the trolley tour so walked towards the mall. Stopped at the Natural History Museum. Spent a few hours looking at the exhibits. Back to the boat, we did laundry at the marina and enjoyed the rest of the evening.
Friday - had an early lunch because we had tickets to tour the Capital at 12:20. It took us about 45 minutes to walk there. We were early so took an earlier tour. The visitor Center was abuzz with kids.
This is looking over the balcony of the visitors center
The tour took us into three rooms, the Crypt, the Rotunda and the Statue Room (formerly the House chambers). Really interesting to see inside. Neither of us had been through.
The Dome of the Capital is cast iron. An Italian artist Constantino Brumidi painted the fresco visible through the oculus of the dome in the rotunda. The fresco is suspended 180 feet above the rotunda floor and covers an area of 4,664 square feet. The figures painted are up to 15 feet tall. The dome was completed in 1863, and Brumidi painted it over the course of 11 months. 
The walls of the Rotunda display remarkable art work.
On the way back to the boat, we picked up shrimp for dinner. Sandy and Bob were visiting. Sandy and I worked together at USDA. She now works for FEMA, I believe. It was a wonderful evening. So good to see Sandy and finally meet Bob.
Saturday - we took off from the marina about 8:30 this morning. This ended up being our longest travel day so far. The trip odometer is 83.5 miles, moving time almost 11 hours. We anchored in St. Clements Bay, Canoe Creek.
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