My favorite place to stay in the DC area

Over the last three years, we have traveled a lot to DC with Allen when he is working up there. We've never stayed in DC on our trips because it's a lot easier for Allen to get to work from Arlington. We have been staying in the Crystal City/Pentagon City area of Arlington because I like to be within walking distance of a Metro Station.

In the Crystal City/Pentagon City area, we have stay at three different hotels with the Marriott chain; Residence Inn Pentagon City, Crystal City Marriott and the Gateway Crystal City Marriott. The Residence Inn Pentagon City is within walking distance of both the Pentagon City and Pentagon Metro Stations. With the Residence Inn, you have a kitchen area and more room than a normal hotel room, which makes long stays nice. Also, the Residence Inn includes a breakfast buffet, but it can be very crowded in the mornings. During the off-season, you can get at the full service Marriott for cheaper than to stay at the Residence Inn.

The Crystal City Marriott has the same advantages as the Crystal Gateway Marriott because you do not have to go outside to walk to the Crystal City Metro Station, which is great on a rainy day. When it is raining, you can ride the Metro over to Pentagon City Mall or to Union Station for some shopping without getting wet. Along with having a number of fast-food or sit down restaurants within walking distance, you are not dependent on eating at the hotels. The Crystal City Marriott is smaller and is less crowded than the Gateway, but I'll admit, I love the Gateway. The staff there, even though they are often busy with meetings and conventions, has treated us very well. In the last year, we have stayed there enough that several of the staff calls A by name. A loves the indoor/outdoor pool.

All three hotels are about a 10 minute Metro ride to the National Mall. We normally use the Yellow Line to either L'Enfant Plaza or Archives/Navy Memorial. I would rather do a little extra walking instead of trying to change to the Blue Line to go to the Smithsonian station. Plus, during prime tourist season, you want to avoid the Smithsonian station because of the crowds.

Each of the hotels are great options. What it may come down to in choosing one is which fits your needs and budget the best.

Thinking about taking a tour in DC?

Lincoln Memorial

A couple of weeks ago, my home economics teacher went on a one day tour of Washington DC. My first question was, which tour? So far, out of the times that we have been up to Washington DC, AW and I have gone on three different tours, Tourmobile, The Old Towne Trolley and the Gray Line Open Top Bus Tour. Which one is the best for you depends on what you are wanting to see while in Washington DC.

The one that my former teacher went on has been my favorite tour,Tourmobile. To me, if you have limited time, this one is the best for seeing the memorials and museums located on the National Mall. The Tourmobile is the only tour company allowed on the National Mall. The other companies have to use drop off points behind the Mall buildings. Another plus with the Tourmobile is that it has the only driving tour of Arlington Cemetery. My favorite thing about the Tourmobile is the tourguides. They do the narrations themselves and do not depend on tape recordings. The only downside to the Tourmobile is if you want to see places like Embassy Row or the National Cathedral, you will not be able to with the Tourmobile. It mainly goes in the area around the National Mall, Union Station and the Arlington Cemetery.

The National Cathedral from the Open Top Bus

The Gray Line Open Top Bus Tour and the Old Towne Trolley have similar routes. The difference between these two tours is you could stay on the Open Top Bus and see all the sites on their tour. On the Old Towne Trolley, you would have to change trolleys to go on the National Cathedral/Georgetown loop or for it to take you over to the Arlington Cemetery. Both tours will take you to the Arlington Cemetary parking lot, but then you would either have to walk to sites in the cemetery or buy a Tourmobile Arlington Cemetery ticket. When AW and I took the Old Towne Trolley, we were able to buy a river cruise at a discount. The 45 minute river cruise left from Georgetown. It looks like now, according to their website, they offer a DC Ducks tour as a package with the Old Towne Trolley. Out of the two, I liked the Old Town Trolley better, but if you want to avoid changing routes, Open Top may be better for you.


All three tours are hop on and off as you like. If you are traveling with a young child, the new may wear off to the point you are doing more riding and less hoping off. Also, Old Towne and Open Top includes two consecutive days of use with their ticket cost. Tourmobile gives you an option of one or two days.

Dairy Dinner

Dairy Dinner 8-1-2010 taken by Tom and Amy Turner.

Sunday afternoon, I came across a friend's Facebook status that made me feel a little sad. The Dairy Dinner in Charleston, AR was going to be closing the next day. I am unsure how long the Dairy Dinner has been around, but I know at least 35 years and assuming it's been a lot longer. I bet I haven't stopped at it since the early 90's because of moving away and for the fact a Sonic had gone in a few years ago, so it was easier to stop there for a drink instead of the Dairy Dinner.

Most of my high school and college years were spent cruising around Paris, but sometimes I would go up to Charleston. The Dairy Dinner was the turn-around point at the west end of town. Usually, I would stop by and get something to drink while I was in town.

My most memorable thought of the Dairy Dinner with with my mom, aunt and two cousins. I don't remember how old I was, figure about 6 or 7, but we were coming back from the Wal-Mart at Booneville. At the time, it was the only Wal-Mart in our area. My two cousins, Jerri and Tommy, wanted to go somewhere to get something to eat. Jerri wanted to go the Dairy Dinner, Tommy wanted to go to Paris. Both cousins started trying to get me to side with them. Tommy, knowing the type of coward that I was, starting telling some story about the road being scary between Chimsville and Charleston. Of course, then you couldn't get me to go to Charleston, so we all had to go to Paris. Just thinking of the Dairy Dinner closing has made me miss Tommy a little more this week.

Brickyard 400

When I started thinking about turning 40 this year, I planned to go to a NASCAR race. Yes, I'm not a normal female because I would choose going to a sporting event over most other activities. With my birthday being in the spring, I was leaning toward Allen and I going to Vegas for a race, but after the health problems my step-father had back in January/February, I decided to stay around home and opted for a shopping trip with my friend, Myleea, who was also turning 40.

The Brickyard 400 wasn't one of the races I had ever planned to see, it just happened by accident. My son was going to visit with grandparents for a week and I started to wonder where the race was for the upcoming weekend. When I saw it was in Indy, I googled the distance, went to the Marriott site to see if we could stay on points and checked on tickets. The last hurdle was planning around Allen's schedule. He was suppose to be home on Friday night, but ended up taking a redeye in to make the trip possible.



Since we didn't get to go to the track on any of the days, except Sunday, our plan was to go early so we could take in all the sights of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I'll admit, the Brickyard isn't one of my favorite races, but to have the chance to go to a race there would be something to remember. We didn't have to walk far from our car to the track, but once we got to the race, we made up for the walking.

Our first line of business was going out to where the souvenir trailers were located to get AW a M&M racing hat. He likes watching Kyle Busch's, M&M car, mainly for the cool paint schemes, so I figured he would like that as a special treat. We bought a couple of other items as we walked around out there.



After having a couple of brats for breakfast, we came across the garage area and was able to watch the teams get their cars ready for the race. We lucked into finding the viewing area while looking for a restroom. You couldn't see all of the cars, but it was fun to see the ones you could up that close. We have been to races in Phoenix and Talladega, but haven't had pit passes, so this was the next best thing to having a pit pass.



Another fun thing was watching the teams push their cars down Gasoline Alley to pit road. While we were walking by, we saw the 42 and 00 cars being pushed to pit road.

We left Gasoline Alley and wondered around until we found the Speed stage. NASCAR Raceday was on so we stopped to watch John Roberts, Kyle Petty and Darrell Waltrip. I was surprised that there wasn't as many people over at it, but then again, it was a ways off of the beaten path.



Once we finished at the Speed stage, we were ready to go find our seats and rest for a while. The seats we had were in turn 4, but you were able to see into turn 3, plus most of the front stretch. The website, Laidback Racing gave excellent advice on where to sit at Indy. I also used it for the best places to park as well.

Since we were unsure about if we would be able to hear the PA system, we rented the Sprint FanView for the first time. At Phoenix, we rented a track scanner, so we thought we would try something different. I did have mixed reviews on using the Sprint FanView. One of the things I didn't like was that the audio feed was the same as the PA feed, so you would hear it on the PA, then on your headphones. We stopped listening to it and started listening to the driver's scanners. I did like the running order that you could display on the screen. We seldom used the TV feed since it was easier to watch on the infield screen than on the handheld. We decided the next time we go to a race, we'll stick with a regular scanner.

Other than being hot and going through a lot of water, we enjoyed our race experience at the Brickyard 400. My goal is still to get to Bristol for a race, but after being in the heat in Indy, I may opt for the spring race at Bristol instead of the night race in August.