freedom walking festival, day one

The Freedom Walking Festival has been held for 12 years in Washington DC. I found out about it last spring. It's part of an IML wlking series that does 26 walks all over the world. Often, they run concurrently. So if you have a lot of disposable income, it would be a great thing to do. I don't. Nor do I fly, so other than Vancouver, I'm pretty screwed.  (Vancouver would be a fab road trip. Now all I need is a month vacay. If I'm going that far, might as well go to Cali., and maybe Mexico, and come home thru Texas ....)

I digress. I usually do.

We left my house at about 6 am. We wanted to avoid rush hour in Philly. We hit a tiny bit of Wilmington's and none of Baltimore's. Not so lucky in DC. And it was past 9 am. Clearly everyone is still getting the hang of going back to work.

We arrived at the host hotel in Arlington at 9:30. Clearly it was way to early to check in right? Wrong. We went to the desk to see if it was safe to park, and our room was ready. Can you believe it? By 10 we were out checking the neighborhood. That's when we found Freedom Park.

Freedom Park is an overpass across the road. Finding the entrance was a challenge. Bonnie ended up asking a woman cleaning the windows. She told us to go in the front of the building turn right, go up the elevator, go right go up the next elevator and we are there.

The ABC televisions station was in the building. We went up the elevator and ended up on a parking deck. Couldn't find another elevators so we went up the stairs. Bonnie was first, and found the stations satellite dishes. We came back down to the lobby. The entrance was right there next to the tv station. We got out, walked around and found 2 street level exits.

It's all concrete/pavers with some plantings and small trees. It has none of the charm of the High Line in New York. I bet it's really busy in summer.

Sign in for day 1 was at noon. We went back to the hotel at 11:45 and there was already a line. Our start cards are above. Wow, are they different. Look at all those races!

The directions began at the hotel conference room. They took us out of the hotel, over an overpass, a pedestrian bridge and thru yet another concrete park. Then we took a trail / bridge to Roosevelt Island. Nearly 5K of the walk was in that park.

We came out of the park, worked out way thru town and to the statue of Iwo Jima. There we had a terrific view of the Washington skyline. Next stop was the carillon, the edge of Arlington Cemetery, and then we headed back into town.

The checkpoint was at an Irish Pub. We ended up going back there for dinner. It was a little further than we thought!

Day one—12K. Then we walked to the restaurant which was another half mile. Then to the social which was a few blocks. Then for frozen yogurt. I still had class to do, so I worked till 11. Bonnie fell asleep at 9. About 11:30 I discovered that my pedometer read 24,088 steps. Had I know, I would have walked up and down the hotel hall till I reached 30. Bummer.