Alexandria, Virginia - Sunday, April 25, 2010

After the great morning we had in Nashville, we started our final long drive of the trip to Alexandria, Virginia.

The drive through Tennessee was quite beautiful and luckily, we had really good weather.

Natalie drove until we got to the border of Tennessee and Virginia and prior to switching drivers, Natalie and Jason stopped for lunch in Holbrook, Tennessee at a place called Red Pig barbecue. They had pulled pork sandwiches and french fries, along with some very delicious sweet tea.  Natalie never had sweet tea before and based on her commentary for the next hour, she quite enjoyed it.

Jason then took over the wheel as we crossed into Virginia. This part of the drive was also quite green; however, as the evening wore on the weather grew progressively worse and we all were staring down yet another lightning storm in the horizon.

For dinner and in preparation for our final hour of the drive, Natalie and Jason had a fine meal of french fries, chicken strips and strawberry shakes from McDonald’s. I got a hamburger patty. I have never eaten at McDonald’s before and I’m not sure I want to go back. The patty doesn’t even compare to In-n-Out’s hamburger patties and my stomach was definitely talking back to me after our excursion to the Golden Arches.

Thank goodness we all had some solid fuel on our bellies, because as luck would have it, this hour was probably the scariest weather we encountered yet! We drove right into that lightning storm and at one point, I thought it was going to hit our car! Luckily, we had the big Explorer to keep us safe. During the drive, we were also greeted with Virginia-sized raindrops, which were like buckets of rain falling!

By the time we made it into town, the rain had subsided; however, the minute Jason and Natalie opened the car doors at the hotel to get our luggage, the buckets of rain were back and were welcoming us to Alexandria!

The hotel was quite comfortable, as been with most of the places we’ve stayed so far. It was a Kimpton Hotel called the Morrison House and it looked like a colonial mansion. Our room had a four-poster bed that was about 3-feet off the ground. This presented a bit of a problem for me, as I couldn’t jump that high; however, there were steps leading up to the bed, which I gladly used.

(Hanging out on the 3 foot high bed in Alexandria!)

We all got a fairly restful night’s sleep, although Natalie accused me of inching on to her side of the bed all night.  Haven’t they learned that it’s my bed and I’m allowing them to sleep on it with me!

The next morning Natalie and Jason got their usual Starbucks and a pastry and we all enjoyed a nice, leisurely stroll around the little village of Alexandria. I took in all the scents and Natalie and Jason loved seeing the brick buildings.

After our walk, we packed up the hotel room (again!) and before heading out to New York, Jason wanted to show us America’s Capital - Washington D.C!

In D.C. we got to see the National Monument, The Capitol Building, and President Barack Obama’s home (aka the White House). 

(Me and Jason at the National Monument!)

It was great to visit all these sights before I officially became a European dog – after taking a couple of pictures in front of the National Monument, we were off to NYC!

Paws,

Sabrina