<p>I think you will like the Georgetown Suites, we certainly did.</p>
<p>Another advantage of breakfast being included is that you do not need to take the time to traipse out somewhere and order breakfast (which I did when we travelled as a family in fall of 2004 and stayed at the Churchill – nowhere close by to purchase breakfast on the weekend except the very expensive hotel restaurant.)</p>
<p>I guess your daughter is all set with her travel plans, but we took the train from Boston. It is a long haul (7 1/2 hours) but the scenery is very interesting as it goes directly along the coast and through the cities rather than the dull sameness of driving on the highway.</p>
<p>Fendrock, she’s coming home this weekend and will be flying to D.C. with us…putting her on the train from here would be cruel. :)</p>
<p>Yeah, the breakfast thing saves both time and money and on a couple of days the former will be as important as the latter.</p>
<p>Another note: the differential for our rental car between reserving over the phone and on-line was about 60 percent. I was staggered. Theyr’e really forcing you to use the Internet, where, of course, you can’t ask any questions. So I booked, re-booked, then cancelled #1.</p>
<p>Irish, we won’t be there until after the 4th, otherwise I’d find the Gettysburg reenactment very tempting. TheMom and I decided that as much as we liked it, this trip is for new stuff anyway.</p>
<p>TheDad~the Gettysburg reenactment happens every year…so you can do it some other 4th of July. Your plan looks great! I must say that we are spoiled living so close to all of these great places, and we don’t always take advantage of the opportunities to tour them!!</p>
<p>thedad: We look forward to your trip report. May the sun shine on your outings and remember Virginia is for …oh yeah. I think they finally retired that slogan. I don’t know where they ever got it in the first place but every new slogan is so forgettable.</p>
<p>Irish, we have the reciprocal problem…lots of great stuff here in SoCal that we don’t bother with often unless we have visiting friend/relatives from out of state.</p>
<p>Called an audible tonight. We’re going to stop at Monticello on the way back from the Outer Banks rather than doing likewise on the Williamsburg trip.</p>
<p>Faline, I’ll settle for low humidity in lieu of sunshine. Methinks little chance of that. D will be tied up on some of her own stuff for while we’re back there…I’m thinking those are the days that may include Antietam and/or Fredericksburg. I found our DK guide to Washington and will start skimming that tomorrow. Can everyone say “over scheduled”?</p>
<p>For battlefields, I am going to ask you to reconsider Petersburg which is so much more on your route than Antietam. It is so much less spread out than Gettysburg and the story line is quite Greek. The graveyards and the battlefield tell the story but there is also a nice little museum and a Tiffany windowed chapel. The Battle of the Crater is a fascinating story almost as epic as Troy because of the way the civilians suffered and starved and were entrapped in Petersburg in order to guard Lee’s last essential RR center. There are heroic efforts from Pennsylvania coal miners to “blast out” the southern entrenchments and heroic losses suffered by black Union troops sent into the Crater too soon, and drunken lout Generals. The descendant of the Confederate general in charge is our neighbor. The war was lost the day Petersburg fell since supply trains were lost. Really…it is a more doable half day or morning and very close by your route.<br>
If you go to Antietam, sleeping in Frederick, MD is the way to go. Again, I have hotels and a personal guide’s name.<br>
Fredericksburg is also worth a day but there is more to cover as you have to see the Revolutionary War and Civil War sites. The town itself is uber charming but traffic in and out can be a bear. I say Petersburg for a Civil War battlefield…as you drive you will pass Lee’s Retreat skirmish sites.</p>
<p>Faline, I’m going to have to play the battlefield options by ear. There’s something to recommend every one but there’s a lot of stuff in D.C. that we want to do/see too. After the social stuff is set, we’ll probably just wake up in the morning and ask each other, “What do you want to do today?” I’m hoping to get in brief visits to both W&M and UVA on the trip but for some odd reason the D starts getting nervous tics when I mention visiting colleges…you’d a think she’d be recovered by now.</p>
<p>I noted in the guidebook last night that Antietam is near Harper’s Ferry, suggesting a possible twofer.</p>
<p>However, I have cast the I Ching and read the Tarot and I think there is an excellent chance, assuming I don’t suddenly keel over or suffer some debilitating disease, that we’ll be back in the D.C. area at least a few more times. I’d guess there’s at least a 50 percent chance that D will work there at some point after college. Therefore there will be other opportunities.</p>