We left the Smoky Mountains to visit Washington DC. We decided to take a leisurely drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway (in the Smoky Mountains) and the interconnecting Skyline Ridge Parkway (in the Shenandoah). These parkways are slow travel but very scenic. The day was somewhat overcast as we started and the picture below certainly shows the reason why they call these mountains “smoky”.

Later in the day, the weather and the “smoke” cleared up somewhat and one of the photograph sbelow shows an overlook of the Shenandoah Valley from the Skyline Parkway.

We arrived in Washington and the weather stayed overcast. None the less we enjoyed the sights of the Mall and spent many hours touring the Smithsonian and many other Museums.

After Washington we headed north to home with a stop over in Ithaca NY to visit a friend.