Pete and Cindy then drove us on a tour of the historic Fredericksburg homes. This entire week is Garden Week in the State of Virginia as organized by the Garden Club of Virginia. Wednesday is Fredericksburg’s day and the streets are packed with garden groupies! These homes, dating from well before the Civil War, were 
stunning from the street and the gardens we were able to seed as we drove by were magnificent. We did not take the offered tour, as we would not have had the time, but we are seriously thinking of trying for next year. At 3:00 PM we returned to the Marshall’s home, said more goodbyes, and loaded back into our rental Camry for the drive to D.C.
We stayed to the small highways in order to avoid the major congestion of I-95. This added some time to the drive, as there was a stoplight or other crossing every few miles, and as we got closer to the metropolis, every few blocks. We arrived at our destination hotel of Hampton Inn & Suites in Crystal City shortly after 5:00. The hotel is under major remodelling which was not listed on the website. Most disconcerting, as was the fact that we were charged an additional $35.00 just to park the car in the attached underground car park. We received a chit for breakfast at the next door Hilton for our morning breakfast, included in our rate. The room was very nice, totally remodelled, and it appeared we were the first inhabitants. The real problem was that they were down to one elevator for the entire 8-storey facility, both for guests and staff. The remodelling work managed to muck up the wifi system, which meant that there was no way to create a Covert Journey entry for the day; hence this delayed entry.
We walked a few blocks for dinner at McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant for a nice sit-down meal. We ordered a Dirty Martini for Deb and a glass of Pinot Noir for mark and then a cup of Lobster Bisque followed by an Herb-Roasted sea bass for Deb and scallops over linguini for Mark. The soup arrived immediately, followed some minutes later by the cocktails. Two sips in and our food arrived. The herb-roasted vegetables underlying the sea bass were basically inedible salted, so Deb transferred the sea bass to her bread plate and declared it good. The scalloped linguini was fine. We walked back in a light rain and up to our room. The general review was food: OK, service: bad.Back to our room and into bed by 10:00 - a fun but tiring day, considering the driving involved.
