A Day in DC

Our last day back East was spent walking around DC. We drove to the farthest (From DC) metro stop and rode it in.  It was nice not to worry about traffic or parking but pretty pricey too.  It was so strange to think of people taking the metro to work every day.  Mark and I were dressed casually in jeans and felt out of place.  People our age and younger looked so professional.  There is such a different feel to a place like DC than we experience in our normal lives.  We got off near the Capitol and started our sight seeing with a tour of the Capitol. I spent a few day in DC back in 2003 and Mark went with his family when he was 11 I think so it had been awhile since we had been there. Neither of us had toured the Capitol and it was the thing Mark wanted to do the most.  We got in right away (after sadly throwing away our water bottles and delicious Pink Lady Apples) and enjoyed the tour. We heard lots of fun stories and facts. When we were traveling all over when we lived in Egypt we rarely went on organized tours so it was different for us but we liked it.  I think it worked because it was under an hour so we still had all kinds of time to do what we wanted. We walked up the hallway that the POTUS walks through for the inauguration which was fun. It was cool to imagine how they felt when walking down that hallway. Our tour guide told us how there was actually a vault built in the Capitol for George Washington to be buried in but he was not interested and asked (and got to be) buried in Mount Vernon instead. I love how George Washington was willing to work so much for this country but didn't need all the power or recognition. He did step down (very important at the time) and then was happy at Mount Vernon.  We also walked around the Library of Congress which is a really nice building with so many books!

 "The Hallway"

Library of Congress

After the Capitol we walked over to the statue of Ulysses S Grant in front of the Capitol reflecting pool and noticed lots of cameras and people standing around. Turns out they were filming a scene for a show called "Madame Secretary" and we were kindly asked to please move out of the way.  We totally would have been an extra for them but they didn't want anyone near the scene which seems difficult as it is a public, popular place and it was a beautiful day out.

After that we stated walking down the National Mall. Mark was feeling flustered because he did not have a map and he loves maps! We enjoyed all the fancy architecture of the museums and kept walking towards the Washington monument. I had mentioned the night before that I thought it would be fun to go to Georgetown Cupcakes (Of TLC DC Cupcakes) so we looked at the Metro map to find the closest stop and none were very convenient.  We made a plan to take the Metro but got sidetracked by the quest for a map and seeing some part of the White House. It's so weird how little of it you can see and it's such a pretty building. Next time I am there I want to sign up for a tour. So instead of taking the Metro we just kept walking. 3.9 miles later we made it to the cupcake shop.  That is sort of how it works with Mark, once you start walking you just keep going to till you find what you were looking for! It was close to lunch time when we were about half way to Georgetown so we started to look for a place to eat and weren't finding anything. I finally suggested we go for Chinese and once we decided that we could not find a single Chinese restaurant.  It was so weird. Normally it seems like they are so easy to find.  We had hoped to eat lunch before cupcakes since that seems the reasonable thing to do but we were tired of walking and super hungry so we had dessert first. They did not disappoint.  We went ahead and got a half dozen cupcakes (we really didn't see anywhere we both wanted to eat) and were so hungry. We each got a peanut butter chocolate one, and then we got Key lime, red velvet, a birthday one and a mint one. The Key Lime and Red Velvet were  our favorites.  They were all good and worth the walk.  The crazy thing was after we ate (not all of them in one sitting) and rested a little we walked down a street we had already walked down and found a Chinese restaurant!  Mark and I just looked at each other so confused as to why we didn't see it before. It makes for a good story in person. So much walking!!

After eating luck and cupcakes we felt much better and started walking again. We made it back to the National Mall and walked around the Tidal Basin by the Jefferson Memorial before heading over to the Roosevelt, Korean War, MLK and Lincoln Memorials. I sort of feel like when you go to DC you sort of have to choose memorials or museums and we picked Memorials. Next time, museums! We passed by so many upper elementary and middle school groups it was crazy. It would be so cool (and exhausting/stressful) to be able to go on field trips like this. It was fun to think that Mark could be taking kids on tours like this one day soon. As we walked around I wondered if there were more kids who went into History or Politics from that area as they got older since they were so surrounded by it growing up.
 The Jefferson Memorial is so pretty! When we planned our trip I was really excited because I knew the Cherry Blossom Festival was in early April so I hoped the trees would be in bloom but they were about a week away.  That was a bummer because that would be incredible to see. There were daffodils everywhere though which made me happy since they are my favorites. It was interesting because all over Virginia on the Interstates there were these huge patches of daffodils right between the two sides of the streets. It was so happy. It reminded me of the children's book "Miss Rumphius" about the woman who went all over and flowers. hey were just large beautiful patches in such a strange place.

This would be a great picture with the cherry blossoms. 

Lincoln Memorial:

It was a long exhausting day filled with fun History. After the memorials we walked over to the Metro stoop by Arlington National Cemetery and happily sat down till we got to the car parking lot.  We are glad we could spend a day there but were so sore the next few days from all that walking. Our flight left at 6:15 the next morning and we had to return our rental car so we were up bright and early, 4:00 AM to be exact. It was a fun exhausting trip.