Washington, D.C. Large. And Also Lilliputian.

When you come from a small seaside town like Manteo, cities the size of Washington, D.C. seem  to be especially super sized.

There are huge subway terminals . . .

enormous buildings . . .

vast spaces . . .

grand expanses . . .

massive monuments . . .

inspiring statues . . .

. . . and spacious space shuttles.

However, amidst all the largeness, we did find a few things that were not so large.  They were Lilliputian, even.  In fact, that’s what I nicknamed our hotel room, The Lilliputian.

As it turns out, space in Washington, D.C. comes at a high premium and hotels work hard at making every inch count.  Therefore, unless you’re staying on the outskirts of the city or paying a huge premium, the rooms (and beds) tend to be on the smallish side.

I’m used to sleeping with Steve in  a king size bed so transitioning to a double bed was just a bit disconcerting  since I’m one of those sleepers who is prone to flop and fling myself about like a fish on land.  I had to work hard at keeping those traits to a minimum; otherwise I would have  flopped and flung myself right off the bed.

But the room was clean, modern, had all the essentials and was just one mile from the White House (Barack and Michelle say hello!)   Happily, we were able to get it for a hugely reduced rate so I was one happy mama.

Something else rather Lilliputian about the hotel were the elevators.  I have never in my life seen such cute and darling elevators.  Total capacity of each? Five!

Which is fine if you’re just transporting a person or two (or five); however, if you’re trying to deal with a full-sized, luggage cart laden down with 101 pieces of Smith family luggage—well, it’s enough to make even our own personal parson mutter and utter a few ecclesiastically approved swear words such as, “Drat” and “Shoot”.    But Steve persevered and managed to manfully maneuver our belongings in and out of said cute elevator with a minimum of “dratting” to be heard.

Here is one petite daughter getting out of one petite elevator.

Speaking of small things, I happened to see this whimsical McDonalds near the Smithsonian museums.  How cute is that?

And continuing on the subject of small places, the three of were fascinated beyond belief at the parallel parking dexterity and derring-do of the Washingtonians.

As a person who has never once in my entire life parallel parked, I can tell you right now that I took one look at these spaces and vowed to never,  ever move to D.C.  I would have to stay confined to my house forever because I’d never be able to get my car free of the Lilliputian spaces in order to go anywhere.

Lilliputian-ness notwithstanding, we had a fabulous visit and I have  a bushel basket full of pictures and stories to share.  I may just spread my Washington stories out over a a week or two, interspersed between other posts.

Before signing off for today, I have to say that Steve, Sarah and I were so impressed with the  courtesy and helpfulness of the residents of D.C., the policemen, and the Metro personnel.  There were several instances where we asked locals about something (especially in the Metro terminals) and the people actually walked out of their way to show us where we needed to go.  We didn’t encounter even one rude or impatient person in our whole visit.

Washingtonians, you’re amazing!  (And you have especially impressive parking skills!)

I’ll close with two photos that sum up very well an occurrence that happened dozens of times during the duration of our tourist-ing.

Step #1:    I would drop back to take a picture.

Step #2:  Steve and Sarah would turn around to try and figure out where I had gotten off to.

Step #3:  Repeat this exercise many dozens of times times in many dozens of locales around the city.

Washington, D.C. was truly a photographer’s paradise and I took full and happy advantage of that fact!