September 8, 2011

Click photo to view larger image or begin slideshow

Rain, Rain, Rain

We left Columbus this morning about 7:20 a.m.  We arrived at our hotel in Alexandria at about 3:15 p.m.  It rained off and on the entire trip.  At times very hard.  We stopped a couple of times for quick breaks, food, or gas; but, except for rain, the trip was uneventful.

We took a route from Columbus through West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and into Virginia.  Luckily, we had enough clear weather to enjoy much of the drive through Maryland.  The scenery through the mountains was absolutely beautiful although some of it was rainy and gray and we were driving through low-hanging clouds.

Our choice of hotel seems to have been a really good one!  We chose the Best Western Colony Inn in Alexandria because it had a great user rating on Trip Advisor.  It ranked Number 6 out of 51 area hotels.  This included all ranges of hotels including very high-priced 4-stars.  The hotel is easy to get to, has free parking, offers free full breakfasts and a free 24-hour snack room with everything from soft drinks, soups, cookies, chips, and ice cream.  Best of all, it provides free shuttle service to Old Town Alexandria and to the King Street Metro Station.  The shuttle service begins at 7 a.m. and runs until 9 p.m. everyday.  You just go to the lobby.  You never have more than a half-hour wait and when you are ready to return to the hotel, you call and they come and pick you up.  This is definitely a huge money and time saver.  Best of all, we only are paying $99 per night in an area where lower rated hotels go for $250 and up!

After we got settled, although it was drizzling, we took the shuttle to Old Town Alexandria.  I had been to Alexandria before and find it a beautiful historic town.  It is across the Potomac from DC in northern Virginia.  It has many historic buildings, including Christ Church.  The town is very well preserved and offers a great wharf, shopping and entertainment district on King Street.

We would have liked to walk around more, but after stopping for beer at Bugsy's and then popping in a few stores, the sky really let loose.  The streets started flooding and we finally had to surrender and find a place for dinner.  We went to a restaurant (shown in an above photo) called Paradiso.  This restaurant was inexpensive to moderately priced.  It had a nice, warm atmosphere of wood and brick and the pizza was wonderful!  We had a glass of wine to round it out and spent a while just enjoying the opportunity to relax and get dry. 

Tomorrow we head into D.C.  The weather will help us determine what we will do.