Alrighty friends. It's time for all the gory details of our fabulous DC trip!
{and unfortunately, I do mean gory...}
Friday afternoon we made the short trip down to Atlanta to take a flight out to DC. Well, I started to feel kind of icky at the end of the work day but figured it would go away after a little while. However, my guts had a different idea. In fact, they felt the need to reveal themselves on the side of the road about 3 exits from the Atlanta airport. Yeeeeeah. Real fun. {P.S. I'm not pregnant, just FYI.}
Our flight wasn't until after 10pm, so I spent the next few hours moping around and looking like I was about to die, I'm sure. We got on the plane and as we were taxi-ing to the runway, I realized there was a very good chance my guts would be making another appearance. Yup. I was right. About 2 minutes before we actually took off, I got acquainted with the lovely white bags provided in the seat-backs. And my poor, wonderful, amazing, handsome, fabulous, saintly husband got acquainted with... my... guts. NOT the way I wanted to start our trip!!!
Alright, that's the gory. On to the fun! We stayed at the Capital Hilton which was about a 5 minute walk from the McPherson Square metro station. Speaking of the metro...
It was a little tiny bit overwhelming to figure out what to do when looking at this crazy contraption. But once was all it took and we were instant metro fans! I wish Chatt-town had public transportation like this!
First stop - the Capitol Building!!
The beautiful dome... our tour guide, Brundon (no, seriously, his name was BRUNDON like from Night at the Museum 2!) said that the top was about 18 stories from where we were standing.
After our tour, it was on to the Library of Congress, another fabulously beautiful building in DC. {Honestly, there wasn't a building that wasn't fabulously beautiful!}
Us in front of the WHITE HOUSE!!!!
Truly amazing.
We asked a stranger to take our picture, then posed, and she said, "Um... I can't see the White House..." Oh! Whoops! Here, let us awkwardly move to the side so you can tell what in the world we're standing in front of.
I think I took 1,643 pictures of the Washington Monument. This one ranks up near the top. {Even though it's completely crooked and has lens smudge marks that look like birds.}
The artist in me needed a shadow picture.
The obligatory "Hey, look at me! I'm holding up the Washington Monument!" photo.
Fast forward to Monday morning when we went to the National Zoo in Woodley Park. This was one of my favorite shots of the day. The precious little guy was plum tuckered out.
After the zoo, my more-athletic-than-me-husband decided that we should walk to the National Cathedral since it "wasn't really that far". I decided to throw a small temper tantrum that I was not going to walk one more step because my feet hurt, my head hurt, my back hurt, I was hot, tired, hungry, thirsty, irritable...
But then we got there.
And it was BEAUTIFUL. I mean, seriously beautiful.
{I thought the walk from the zoo to the cathedral had to be like 5 miles. Further investigation and Google Maps revealed that it was 1.1mi. Really? Yes, really. But it was up hill, okay?}
Later that day we went to Ford's Theater where Lincoln was shot. It was so wild to sit in the auditorium and think that President Lincoln was actually there (of course, that could be said about just about anyone just about anywhere in DC - founding fathers, former presidents, and other incredibly noteworthy people walked, talked, and lived in the places we were exploring).
We visited all the nearby war memorials. It was so humbling to realize how many have fought and died for our freedom.
*The Capitol Building
*Library of Congress
*White House (no tour, though)
*Natural History Museum
*American History Museum
*Air and Space Museum
*Union Station
*National Zoo
*National Cathedral (lunch @ Cafe Deluxe)
*Chinatown (dinner @ Matchbox = yum!)
*Dupont Circle (dinner @ Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe)
*Dinner @ POV in downtown DC
*Ford's Theater
*Lincoln Memorial
*Washington Monument
*Vietnam War Memorial
*Korean War Memorial
*WWII Memorial
*Postal Museum
*Old Post Office Tower
*National Archives
Note: We ate a red, white, and blue popsicle every single afternoon. It was my favorite ritual.
It was such a fantastic trip... I can't believe we got to go! There are about 100 more pictures in an album on Facebook, so click the link below to check them all out.
Der and I are thinking of going there for out 1 year wedding anniversary!! YAY!! I love D.C.
ReplyDeleteOo.... this is so helpful. I'll be there in October for a conference and I booked a flight a day early to do some sightseeing. I'm trying to get tickets with my congressman (which isn't looking promising), and I hope to at lease see a lot of the sights you listed. Unfortunately, I only have one full day so I'll try to make the most of it.
ReplyDeleteKim - if you only have one day, I would definitely get a metro pass to the Smithsonian station (unless you're close enough to walk) and do as much as possible in the "mall" area: White House, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, war memorials - all of that is within 20-30 minutes or so walking distance. Let me know if you have other questions! I'm a DC newbie but we learned a lot! :)
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