What a rough night! I was waking up every two hours. I just don't do well in new beds.
My husband K got up at 6:49 and I gave up about 11 minutes later. At 7:45, we went downstairs to a very disappointing breakfast. Now, he'd been warned at check-in that it wasn't the usual hot breakfast, even though I'd been in a Holiday Inn Express in Omaha at the beginning of the month that seemed to do just fine with that. You could have instant oatmeal and grits, if you liked those and didn't think it was too hot for them. The orange juice dispenser wasn't working. I had to find a water fountain to get a cup of water. There were only banana nut muffins, which I don't eat, and exactly one 380-calorie danish, which was a hard no. There were oranges and apples, but I was not sure they were washed enough. I got a two-pack of hard boiled eggs, but could find no salt. There were small containers of yogurt. Really, a less than stellar breakfast.
I went back to the room at 7:45 and K followed at 8:07. When we had all our stuff packed up, we found a line at the elevator, because only one family could go per trip and there was only one elevator. We thought about taking the stairs, because it was taking so long to return, but did not.
So, I did not get behind the wheel until 8:40, with the odometer reading 64,543. K had read that there were no restrooms at the North Carolina state capitol. So, when we came upon the Cumberland County rest area north of Fayetteville, I pulled in. It was 9:10 (64,638). We were on the road again in eight minutes.
The exit for Raleigh deposited us on a residential street. We had no trouble finding the capitol, but I circled it looking for a parking space. At 10:25 (64,638), I parallel parked for the first time in ages on the street next to it. K went to see about paying at the parking box, but it said it was a holiday. Then, we realized why- President Biden signed Juneteenth into law as a national holiday yesterday. So, to give federal workers the day off, today was the observed day for them. It must have counted for the state, too.
We made our way to the front of the building, where we found a statue saluting the three presidents, who had been born in the state- Polk, Jackson, and Andrew Johnson. Most folks associate Jackson with Tennessee, because of his plantation, the Hermitage, but he was in fact born here.
K realized that he had forgotten his hat and had to go back to the car for it. That gave me a chance to take more photos and to post to Facebook.
Inside, we found a pleasant guard, who had us put our bags in bins and walk through the metal detector. He never checked the bags. I had to wait a few minutes at the desk for the woman there to finish discussing history with a guy. When she finished with him, she stamped my state capitols book for me and gave us brochures to guide ourselves about.
In the rotunda, there was a rather odd statue of George Washington by Canova done up like a seated Roman general writing. It is actually a copy. The original was destroyed when the building burned, ironically, during an attempt in 1831 to fireproof it with zinc sheets on the roof. Evidently, hot solder dripped on the wooden roof and that was all it took.
The walls had plaques dedicated to and busts of famous North Carolinians. The governor's office was in a wing off of the rotunda, but you could only look through one window. In the hall behind the statue, there were plaques of amendments that gave rights to black Americans. In the rotunda, you could look up into the dome. There was a hint of Carolina blue up there.
A large sign told us of all the wood that was necessary to keep the fireplaces going in the offices in the assembly rooms above. Of course, enslaved persons were expected to haul wheelbarrows full of wood up the marble steps that we were to use to get upstairs. The stairs are actually worn in places due to this.
The building has not been modernized. So, we had to climb that staircase. How in the world did older legislators do that all the time?
On the second floor were the old legislative chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. They both looked nice, but nothing about them said North Carolina. The portrait on the wall was a Virginian, George Washington. The wife of a former professor of K's had served in the legislature and it was tradition for them to carve their initials in the desks. Unfortunately, we couldn't really get to the desks because of Covid. So, we didn't see hers.
To get to the geologist's office, you had to go around to the other side of the rotunda. This gave you a chance to see the gallery for each of the chambers. The architect had only planned a gallery for the senate side, but later decided the house side should have one, too. This resulted in the gallery on the house side being very steep.
The geologist's office was great and made me wish you could get in closer. The office was considered so important, that during the Civil War, when Raleigh was about to be taken by Sherman's troops, the governor wrote a note asking them not to destroy the Capitol with its "library and museum" and then he fled town.
Could find K nowhere on the third floor. So, I had to text him. He was on the first. I did not enjoy the climb back down the spiral staircase and the grand staircase was only slightly better. Once down, we stopped at the desk, so that I could buy pins and postcards. They seemed to be planning a celebration for the next day and I asked about it. It will be the first ever and they have an artist coming, too. There has been interest on Facebook.
Back outside, I noted the beautiful hydrangeas, or snowball bushes as we called them back in the day.
We did not intend to circle the grounds, but wound up doing it anyway. I wanted to see the large war memorial that was on the side by our car and that led to going around the back and to the opposite side. K recognized some of the names on statues as names on buildings at UNC Chapel Hill, his alma mater. There was another Washington statue, as well. What there wasn't was anything dedicated to the Civil War soldiers, mothers, or whatever. I think, it is the first southern capitol I've visited that had the sense to get rid of that stuff.
We had originally thought we'd have Carolina barbecue for lunch, but it was 11:51, when we left the grounds and K suggested a Lebanese place nearby that the former legislator really liked. He got lost several times following his Google maps on the phone as we walked, but, eventually, we found that it was just a couple of blocks away. We arrived at Sitti at 12. We were led to a table in the obviously converted former department store or Woolworth's. But, it had been made to look a bit more upscale and the tables were definitely socially distanced and masks were worn by staff. Once again, the menu was accessed by scanning a QR code on the table.
We couldn't say no to fresh pita and dipping oil in individual closed containers to start the meal. I ordered a delicious chicken kebob wrap with salad Sitti. The wrap was a giant pita. K's beef and lamb shawarma with fries was equally good. The wraps were conveniently cut in half, which made swapping easy.
At 12:55, we left and I had us back on the road at 1:05. Unfortunately, I soon realized I was feeling wiped out. This happens sometimes with the fibromyalgia and sometimes I can fight it off. But, this wasn't one of those times. I knew I was passing out. So, at 2:16 (64,6990), I went up an exit road and had K take over. I was awake for the Virginia line at 2:23 (64,701) and one minute later, when K decided to stop at the Virginia Welcome Center, where he got a Dr. Pepper for $2.50. We were on the road again at 2:35 and I went right to sleep. (They still have the same slogan, I noticed.)
When I woke up around 4, I was stiff and hot. My timing was good, because the car needed a fill-up. I googled the location of the nearest Shell station and we got off on Exit 83B in Richmond. When we got to the station, it was 4:12 (64,803) and the car had gone 512.8 miles on this tank. I got out to use my rewards card, because K hadn't figured it out the last time. While he filled the tank, I found a restroom. The car took 12.713 gallons of diesel at $2.949 each, for a savings of 5 cents per gallon. The total was $37.99 and the car got a fantastic 40.336663 miles per gallon.
When K came back from his turn at the restroom, he continued to drive, which I appreciated. That's because for the rest of the trip, the traffic was crazy heavy. We took an eleven minute rest stop break at 6:06 (64,878).
I couldn't believe how many people were driving into DC on a Friday night. It was 7:07, when we saw this scene, which a guy we met on our 2017 Germany trip said was just a mile from his home.
I texted our daughter J and shared our location on Google maps with her. That let her know exactly where we were on our approach. Thus, she was outside of her building waiting, when we arrived at 7:22. There was much joy in seeing her in person, as we last saw her when she left our house in January.
It was decided we'd go check in at our hotel before going to dinner. We arrived at the Courtyard by Marriott Washington, DC/ Capitol, which is actually on 2nd Street NE, at 7:35 (64,909). We were given room 343, which turned out to be a handicapped room, although we had not asked for one. J helped us with unloading all of our luggage and paraphernalia and scoping out the room. It was larger than normal and the bathroom was huge, with a walk-in shower. It was right next to the Metro tracks and train tracks, but we always stay here, when we come to DC, and it usually isn't that noisy on this side. On the other side, you always hear the emergency vehicles too well.
At 8:10, we headed out to dinner, with J giving directions. She had a restaurant in mind on 14th Street. Traffic continued to be heavy, but I got a great sunset shot.
Traffic was no better on 14th. We had a really hard time finding a place to park. K circled streets off of 14th, as J and I discussed possibly ordering takeout, dropping her off, circling and picking her back up. K was determined and finally saw a parking lot on 14th with some room at 8:40. It was a painful $30 charge, which J immediately paid. We left the keys for the guy to put the car where he wanted in this place that seemed to have been at minimum a car repair place at one time, if not a whole gas station.
We walked down the street noting all the establishments that had set up outdoor seating, whether on the sidewalk or in the width of a parking space in the street. The city had allowed this to let them reopen and have social distancing. Some of the street set-ups were quite elaborate with flooring, waist-high walls, plastic sheeting on the street side, lights, etc. They were rather busy as well, which was cheering.
We arrived at Ted's Bulletin at 8:43. J had taken me to another branch of this restaurant a long time ago. I remembered that they make their own pop tarts and that they have good shakes. All of their seating was inside, past the bakery cases. We had no trouble getting a table, the chairs for which were old school chairs. All the staff wore masks and we kept ours on until the food came. There was a large screen black and white TV showing old Andy Griffith shows on the wall behind J. It was a bit of a distraction, I must say.
I'm a Maryland girl, so I had to order the $16.29 crab cake. J challenged me to have a crab cake at every possible meal while here. J and I each ordered a $7.99 chocolate shake, although there was so much, we could have split one. She ordered a pickle-brined crispy chicken sandwich for $13.89 and K ordered meatloaf for $16.89. We all enjoyed our meals thoroughly and were much too full for dessert.
K wanted to walk a bit, when we got out at 9:46. Nothing was open, except restaurants, which continued to do good business. When we got back to the lot at 10:10, we had to wait for them to unearth my car. It was 10:16, when we finally got it.
J's apartment building was just fourteen minutes away and the traffic was lighter. We dropped her off (64,915) and it took seven minutes to go the 1 mile to our hotel, because K missed a turn. We turned the key over to the valet and headed upstairs for the night.
My phone said, I walked 7,867 steps today for a total of 2.6 miles.
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