A lucky break in the weather on Sunday enabled a nice Christmas walk around the National Mall, something we’ve done for the past couple of years. This year, starting from near the Smithsonian Museum, we walked west to the World War 2 Memorial, north to the National Christmas Tree in the Ellipse, down Pennsylvania Avenue to visit the Capitol Christmas Tree, and capped off the walk with a visit to the US Botanic Garden.

The route was only about 4.5 miles, but since we weren’t in a hurry and stopped a while at the two Christmas trees and the Botanic Garden, the walk took about 2 hours.