On to Maryland

We have had a very pleasant drive today. The countryside in Virginia was just beautiful...low hanging clouds over the Blue Ridge Mountains...red barns...green rolling hills...cattle grazing...old metal bridge...Shenandoah Valley. So far Maryland has been anything but rural! We were able to navigate through the maze of streets (thanks to Map Quest and our GPS) and find G Street Fabrics and Bobby's Crabcakes. So Woody and I are both happy. The fabric store was fabulous...one of the ways that I judge a good fabric store is if I can find exactly what I'm looking for in a very short time...and I was able to do that...and then, of course, I had to peruse the store a bit more slowly. Woody walked through the store, walked around the parking lot, and than sat for a while in the store while I shopped. After "working up an appetite" fabric shopping, we headed to Bobby's Crabcakes. It was located in the refurbished downtown area of Rockville...lots of shops and restaurants with loft apartments over the businesses...a very quaint setting. We shared a crabcake platter...we each had a crab cake and Woody ate the coleslaw and I (with Woody's help) ate the fries. Very good! After eating we walked around the block to check out the area a bit and then headed back to our car. It was a bit chilly and threatening to rain. We then headed on to our motel in Gaithersburg. So we are settled for the evening...waiting for Dancing With the Stars!

We will head out to NIH early in the morning. We are to register at NIH between 8:30 and 9am. We are about 13 miles away from NIH. We will be in rush hour traffic. And, we have to go through vehicle inspection and whatever else the government says we have to do before we can enter! As a reminder: NIH is a part of the Department of Health and Human Services. So I'm not sure what time we will need to start.

Tomorrow I'll report on our NIH experience (I hope), after we stop for the night.