How terrific to have locals to help out!

I think we will use the metro within Washington DC - we are used to driving on the other side of the road and it sounds like DC could be a tad stressful to drive in. I'll look up the metro sites suggested and plan the itinerary. Apparently the hotel has a shuttle that will take us/pick us up to the metro and also to the Fashion Center Mall at Pentagon City. As to when we are visiting - it is very late September. We could take the Arlington Cemetery Tourmobile first up in the morning of day 1, and then hop on the metro to the Smithsonian.

Day 2 we will drive to Mount Vernon and then drive to Alexandria for a while in the afternoon. I'd like to do the Moonlight Trolley tour of the monuments on this evening - however, it is 2 1/2 hours long - my concern is that the restrooms along the way might be closed. Unfortunately this is important so advice would be welcome.

The next day we head to Gettysburg for the morning then to Intercourse PA for 2 nights. We then have a night along the way to Woodstock, Vermont (2 nights), Stowe, Vermont (2 nights), Franconia NH (1 night), Jackson NH (2 nights), Freeport Maine (2 nights), Boston (4 nights).

Cheers, Rose