The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

During the first half of this month I got to take my first real vacation from being publisher of The Times. I traveled to Virginia to attend a reunion of my mother’s extended family (and sit on the beach for five days).

On my way, I stopped in Washington D.C. to spend three days as a tourist. It’s something all Americans should do, and it seemed like a large proportion of them were there the same time I was.

I did all of my sightseeing in and around the National Mall, which is a two-mile-long strip of ground that runs from the Potomac River on the west to the Capital building on the eas...