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Well, I thing the Hilton wants to get rid of us. Our bill was tucked under the door which means they expect us to check out this morning. Only problem is our reservation includes Sunday night. Stopped at the desk & rather than admit they made a mistake, they just wanted to know if we wanted to add a day...

Today's plan is to visit the Great Falls Park in Virginia & the US National Arboretum in DC. We did have to try breakfast at Marks - is was as good or better than yesterday's lunch. I didn't try the Green Tea Milkshake; probably should have, but I stuck with coffee. After that it was time to hit the road for Great Falls. This is one of the places the CoPilot GPS software excels. You can make a list of "Favorites" by clicking on the map, doing a search, etc. Once you have a list it only takes seconds to plot a new route between any (or even all) of them. Much easier than building & saving a bunch of trips in Street Atlas or Microsoft's Streets & Trips.

Used our National Parks Pass to get into Great Falls - I probably should have logged of how much we saved using it this year but once we hit twice the cost we lost track. If you plan a trip with stops at more than 2 -3 National Parks, the card is a great deal. In another year & 1/2 I'll be able to get a permanent one for $10.00!

I thought we visited Great Falls on our trip across the country in 1996 but it must have been somewhere else along the Potomac. The place we stopped at in '96 didn't have a visitor's center & Great Falls Park has had one since the '60's. In any case, there is lots of water in the river this time so I has to do some pictures: I guess I get carried away with waterfalls & rivers with time exposures to soften the water but I like the ability to add a bit dreaminess to an image. I've included a straight shot for the purists...

Great Falls, VA - The Potomac	Great Falls, VA - The Potomac	Great Falls, VA - The Potomac

After moving to the Upper Viewing Platform, I saw this orange speck in the river. Someone in a kayak had just come into view. He would shoot a set of rapids, pull up behind a rock & check out the next set. Now I don't know enough about white water to assign a class to the section in the last photo above, but out of the range from Class I to Class IV, I'd give it a 10. Evidently the kayaker felt the same - he paddled to shore a little below the rocks in front of him in the image below, got out & walked up to the rocks nest to the tree in the image above, shook his head a couple of times, went back for his kayak & walked to the parking lot. I know he wanted to do it, but probably a smart move.

View from the Upper Platform	Check out the Orange Kayak

After checking out the falls, we headed back to DC & the National Arboretum. We like to stop at Arboretums when ever we find on, and this is the largest we have seen. We spent quite a bit of time driving around the grounds checking out some of the early blooming trees & gardens. Magnolias are Magnificent!

A Magnolia Tree in Bloom	Magnolia Blossom Close up	Magnolia Blossom Close up

In addition to the permanent parts of the Arboretum they have exhibits. Currently, the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum has a year long program of Exhibits, Lectures & Workshops. It warmed up enough that Carol took off her hat. Walking around the trees was interesting - dozens of Carpenter Bees buzzed us as we moved from tree to tree. There were signs stating that they didn't sting, but it was great fun watching the people who had not yet seen the signs. We saw some beautiful trees, some of which were between 300 & 400 years old, & viewing stones from around the world, some pictured below:

Brian, Carol & Karin	Bonsai Tree	A Viewing Stone	Bonsai Tree	Bonsai Tree

The US National Arboretum is a great place to spend a day. They even have picnic areas so you can pack a lunch. After the Arboretum, it was back to Takoma Park & Karin & Brian's for a bit more hanging out.

We decided to do a late lunch/early dinner at the Potbelly Sandwich Works, a chain of about 75 restaurants in Chicago, Michigan, DC, Wisconsin, Minnesota & Dallas. Excellent toasted sub sandwiches. Since both Karin & Brian have to go to work tomorrow, & we need to make an early start back to New York, after dinner we drove back to the hotel & they metroed back to Takoma Park.

Ah, the Hilton.This time the key worked but the room had not been cleaned. Housekeeping knocked on the door at 7:00PM to clean!

We decided it would be fun to take a different route home. Actually, not too different, just use more of I 81 & skip I 95. This shows up one of the shortcomings of CoPilot GPS software. All of the mapping programs have some method to allow you to choose parts or even all of your route. Microsoft Streets & Trips lets you draw a "no go" box, which seems kind of crude, but it works quite well. Delorme Street Atlas uses "via's" & "no way" checks on roads. Copilot builds a list of "prefer" & "avoid" road segments. It makes sense, but is a bear to try to use. As you check off road segments to avoid, is just finds ways around them. If you check "prefer" on road segments, it might take them, but goes back to its own route as soon as it can. What's more, although you can add & delete road segments on the "avoid" & "prefer" lists, it is impossible to figure out which segment is which by the name CoPilot gives each. It took 4 -5 "Delete All's" and starting over before I got anything useful.

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Last Update: March 25, 2012