I got off the green line at the Mt. Vernon Station so I could get on the yellow line to get to the pentagon, however they were doing work on the metrorail system and so all the green and yellow trains had been put on the same track, and therefore all the trains were really late... so I decided I was going to be hungry a lot earlier than anticipated, so I got off at the Chinatown stop (which was the very next stop... marked by a red x).  From here I walked a few blocks, passing Chinatown, the FBI building, and Ford's Theatre.  Then I reached my lunch destination:  Hard Rock Cafe (if I'm playing the role of tourist in a big city, I had to make a stop there!).  Though I did feel quite odd being there eating lunch at a table for one.

My food was good and I always love the atmosphere at the Hard Rock's.  Apparently my server was very pleased with the tip, too.  :)  After I paid, I ended up sitting there chatting with him for a bit... I imagine he was curious as to why I was just hanging out by myself before then... His name was Taiji (I believe)... anyway, he gave me suggestions for places to find out stuff that's going on in the area and then we talked about math and quantum physics... how bizzare!  :)  it was cool though.

After my chat with Taiji, I broke down and bought a t-shirt.  doh!  Oh well... its a good quality t-shirt, AND it was on sale!  As I was walking back to the metro station, I passed the Gallop Organization headquarters... they're the ones that do all the political surveys!  its really interesting... we did some stuff using their resources back in senior government class in high school, so I had to take a picture of the sign just for old time's sake!

So, finally, I was back on track at the Chinatown metro station... I rode the green line (again due to the crazy delays in the train schedules) and the caught the blue line at L'Enfant Plaza.  It was a nice detour that took me around a nice big loop.  That's kinda cool (at least when the train was above ground) because I could look out my window at the scenery going by.  Finally, I got off the metro when we reached the pentagon station (blue x).  I was expecting the station to be across the street or a good distance away from the pentagon, but it turned out that when you came up the escalator to normal ground level, it was right beside you... like 10 feet away.  I decided to walk around a bit (you're not allowed inside to look around of course).  And they had signs up everywhere that you weren't supposed to take pictures...

Of course I had to take pictures!  ;)  The blue behind the 'photography prohibited' sign is from the fence that surrounds the construction site from where they repaired the side of the pentagon where the terrorists stuck on 9-11.  I tried to walk around the entire perimeter, but it was blocked off about halfway around... so I just got to see the one half of it.  After that I went on to Pentagon City mall (green x).  Its three floors of stores and a ground floor food court.  I walked through the entire mall... all four floors... and there wasn't a single First Union or Wachovia bank in the whole thing!  And Pentagon City is in VA!!!

Then I caught the yellow line on down to the King Street stop (teal x) which is very close to Old Town Alexandria.  So I walked all the way to the shore and through Alexandria.  Here's a map of my path through Old Town.  The metro station is circled in purple and my path is blue for the first half and then red for the second half. 

They were having a festival that required admission this weekend - otherwise I think I would've walked as far up the shore as I could... I think there's another metro station a good distance up... so it would've worked.  Anyway, I took some pictures there in Old Town.

The first two were of the old tall boats they had docked up for people to get in at the festival... The last picture is of city hall.  I love Old Town btw.  Its such an intriguing atmosphere.. Its a very NICE neighborhood.  I think Mike told me that it was like 300 years old or something like that.  I passed the restaurant that Mike took me to back in April when I came up and visited:  Il Puorto, I believe.  Anyway, the neighborhood is SO clean and all of the row houses look like they're in such wonderful condition... all the cars parked along the streets (obviously the tenants cars) are all very nice, new, expensive cars... so my guess is that you have to be quite well off in order to be able to afford the rent there in Old Town Alexandria.  I think if ever I were to live in a big city, Alexandria would be the one I'd want to live in.  Its big, but not trashy... and most of the people there are pretty well off.  I think its probably one of the safest areas in the northern VA/DC metropolis area... certainly I wouldn't want to live in Maryland... I haven't seen a section of Maryland I like yet.  Its all dirty and bad roads and congested.  Maybe if we get to Annapolis, I'll like that... I hear its really nice.

Anyway, back on track... I walked back to the Metro station and rode until I reached Crystal City (which I was told was a shopping center) - this is at the yellow x btw.  Anyway, I got off the metro and was in this underground never-ending tunnel I swear... I took a few elevators I found to the ground level, but it all was government and business buildings.  Anyway, I ended up walking through those tunnels for a good while trying just to find the metro station again.  The tunnel wasn't just some boring stone tunnel, it was nice carpeted and very nice.. .it looked like a very expensive tunnel system for there not to be anything there.  Finally I found the metro station again... by this time, I was very exhausted so I decided to end my Sunday exploration... maybe I'll do it again soon!  But I caught the yellow line to Mt. Vernon and transferred to the green line and finally I made it back to College Park at 6 pm.

So that's my day... and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to sleep REALLY good tonight because I'm quite tired from walking all over the place today.