Day 194 - Russian Visas - the Main Objective for Today

We have been in contact for months with a visa processor for the Russian Embassy here in Washington.  They are ILS-Invisa and specialists in the complicated process of getting a visa.  We have gone around and around and around with process, applications, and data.  Armed with our completed applications, passports, photos, documents, and LOTS of cash, we headed into Georgetown to their offices to begin the process.  Once there we realized a few things...

1.  We were a week early to be able to process our applications.
2.  Our applications were full of errors.
3.  The staff were great but wouldn'd budge an inch on the submission dates.  They did however take the time to let us know where our errors were and to give us instructions on how to complete a successful submission.

With half the day spent, and with a beautiful sunny DC day blooming with cherry blossoms, we decided to head out to Mt. Vernon to complete our "founding fathers tour of homes."  We crossed over the Arlington Memorial Bridge past the national cemetery and then through Arlington and Alexandria reaching Mt. Vernon after a short Vietnamese Pho lunch stop.  Yum!

Mt. Vernon had certainly changed since I was here 35 years ago.  New museum, updated grounds, and more recontruction.  The museum was awesome and the grounds were beautiful.  The house tour as a bit disappoiting.  Becuase of the huge crowds we were allowed all of 10 minutes to walk through the home.  It was a great way to end our mission to visit the homes of our first five presidents.

We drove back to College Park and settled in for the night.