TSDA Chronicles #6: Entramos a la Plaza del Jackson

The morning started off with a bang.  When we were loading the car, we realized that the styrofoam cooler in the trunk had somehow leaked, so while Barrett loaded out the room Hayden and I were scrubbing the trunk carpet with towels.  Half an hour later, we departed to find a local Jiffy Lube in Williamsburg because the pathfinder was about 1000 miles overdue for service.  

We then decided that it might be cool to stop by Colonial Williamsburg for a visit.  We headed over to the visitor's center, and to our surprise we found that tickets cost $40 apiece.  Hayden and Barrett really wanted a picture of the Governor's Palace on the site, though, because legend holds that Thomas Jefferson himself modeled it after the University of Alabama Sigma Nu house.  Instead of paying, we used Google Maps satellite view to find the old goat path/side entrance and Barrett and I snuck through Xerxes style--minus the scissoring--to take the pictures of the palace. When we got back to the extraction point Hayden had driven off, though, which pretty much ruined the stealthiness.

After Williamsburg we set off for DC.  We originally planned to do a self-guided driven tour of the city upon arrival, but last minute we decided that traffic would probably be too bad for that.  We went straight to the Plaza del Jackson--my friend Jackson's apartment in Alexandria, VA--and brought up our stuff.

We cleaned up a little bit and then headed into the city on the Metro with Jackson.  He first directed us to a restaurant on the green line called Ben's Chili Bowl, which has apparently

 achieved a spectacular level of notoriety among the locals because Barack Obama ate there one time.  It was solid food though.  We then hopped back on the Metro to go over to Dupont Circle, where we went to an underground sports bar to watch the first part of the Magic-Cavs game.  After that, we again took the Metro to the Adams-Morgan district, where after a short and misguided walk we arrived at another bar where we quickly found ourselves caught in the whirlwind of a bachelorette party.  After assisting the ladies with as many of the items on their scavenger hunt list as we could while remaining complete gentlemen, we booked it back to the Metro and caught the last set of trains back to Huntingdon Station and walked back to Jackson's place.  

Gasoline Purchased today: 14 gallons

Sleeping Accomodations: Plaza del Jackson

Tomorrow's Destination: Staying in DC

Potential Stops en Route: Assorted Smithsonians, museums, and monuments

Potential Problems: Rain, WMD's