Destination DC: Part I

Dan and I returned from our mini trip to Washington DC late Saturday night.  We had a blast and while very little of the trip went according to plan, we made it work and thoroughly enjoyed our time.  I'll recap our first day in DC today and share about the second day tomorrow.

On Thursday I worked a half day and Dan met me in the city where we hopped on a Bolt Bus headed to Washington DC  It took forever to get out of the city thanks to traffic but overall the ride to the Capital was pleasant.  Although there are other more glamours modes of transposition, the bus is SO cheap and makes it easier to spend more money elsewhere on the trip.  Also our trip was short (a little over 48 hours) so the bus was best. 

We got into DC around 9 pm (delays) and walked about 20 minutes from Union Station to our hotel which was just off of the National Mall.  I LOVE walking around in a new city at night (assuming it's safe).  So much exciting energy and life.  When we checked-in at the hotel, they informed us that our room was flooded and they needed to move us to another hotel for that night.  Boo.  Since we had walked they gave us a cab to take us over to the other side of the Mall to the Holiday Inn.  It was NOT a very nice hotel and we were disappointed to be on the second floor with a view of nothing.  Worse, there were no restaurants in the area so we couldn't grab dinner.  But we headed out anyways and walked to the Washington Monument which looked really nice at night.

We had a bad night sleep on the rock hard bed and got up early.  We packed our bags and walked back across the Mall to our original hotel.  They had told us the night before that we would have a room there on Friday night and they would store our bags during the day.  So yay!  After we dropped our bags our first stop was the Spy Museum.

It was awesome.  I got a free ticket with my museum professions ID and the exhibit wasn't crowded at all.  We loved all the spy gadgets on display especially since we've been really into watching The Americans.  We picked-up a squished penny (my collecting tradition) and we both got t-shirts.

Next we walked over to the Mall where most of the Smithsonian museums are located and all the memorials.  I told Dan he was the director of the day and whatever he said goes.  He wanted me to have a picture in front of the National Archives since I'm an archivist. 

We headed into the Museum of American History next.  Holy school groups!  The place was packed.  The Smithsonian museums are free admission and all huge buildings so there is no way you can see everything unless you spend an entire day there.  We just poked around a few of the exhibit halls.

Now, I had been here once before waaay back the summer before 6th grade with my family.  That was roughly 1998.  The museum was the EXACT same.  And, I'd venture to guess 1998 was the last time they dusted the place.  I was rather shocked to see how dusty things were. 

After about an hour we left and Dan decided it was best that we explore all the memorials since the weather was nice.  We stopped at the Washington Monument first and got all of our National Parks Service Passport stamps.

We saw the World War II Memorial which was beautiful.

Each one of those stars represents 100 men who died.

We walked along the Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln Memorial.  I told Dan I wanted to run through it screaming "Forest! Forest! (you know, from Forest Gump)."  It's actually only a couple of inches deep. 

Rocky Pants was with us but I didn't remember to get his photo most of the time.

Then the Vietnam Memorial.

Look for Erwin R. Schmeling on the left side center of the photo below.  When I flipped in the directory to find the location of his name I turned right to the exact page.  It was pretty cool.

Then we went to the Korean War Memorial.

To the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial next. Very cool.

Then the FDR Memorial Park.  His was crazy big compared to all the others.

Then finally the Jefferson Memorial.

We saw people on paddle boats and decided to check that out since it was so nice outside.  $16 for two people for an hour!  Deal.  It got HOT so we didn't do a full hour but enjoyed the break from walking.

By this point we were super tired and hadn't really eaten anything so Dan said we would stop at the White House gift shop and then head to the hotel.  This was as close as we got to the White House.

The whole area around it was blocked off by police tape and secret service and police with assault rifles. You see that ambulance in the back left in the photo above?  It arrived while we were standing there to attend to the person the secret service had just shot.  Of all days.  We didn't see anything but it was a big deal.  You could see the sniper guys on the roof and as we were walking towards the gift shop (not actually by the White House) the motorcade drove by.  It wasn't the President but probably the VP.

President Dan!

Then we relaxed in the hotel room for a bit.  It was WAY nicer than the Holiday Inn and we were on the 10th floor!  We decided to have pizza for an early dinner right next to the hotel.

After dinner we got gelato and walked to the Capital building and back around part of the Mall.

We went to bed early since we were so tired for a day full of walking and Dan was feeling sick.  We woke up nearly 10 hours later healthy, refreshed, and ready for our last day in the city.  Come back tomorrow for a recap of Part II.