April 12 - 14, 2013
My life is pretty go-go-go, all the time. With two full-times jobs AND planning a wedding this spring, I was really in need of a break. After we planned to go, I was worried that our little trip that we originally planned back in November was going to set me back financially as well as with my planning and working, I figured that I needed a break and that it might just do the trick. Plus I was going with one of my bridesmaids who I don't get to spend a whole lot of time with anymore, Judi. We went and we had a blast in DC! We saw a lot of sites, ate some great food, walked WAY too much, and learned a few things too. The weather was perfect and the cherry blossoms were out and beautiful. It was definitely worth the weekend.
Day One: We flew out of the Lansing airport in the morning (on a non-stop flight, lovely!) and arrived in DC around 11am. We had all day to explore still. After dropping our bags at the hotel, we decided to first get a look at some of the important buildings that make up our nation's capital. First, to the Capitol, where we had a free tour set up thanks to our senator Dave Camp's office. We JUST made it! After our tour, we went to the Library of Congress and then headed back toward our hotel to find some food. We found Ella's Pizza, which was amazing (especially because we never had a real lunch and were pretty starving) Finally it was time to check into our hotel. By then, we decided it we decided to make a quick run over to see the White House, which was awesome to see. A very successful day one!
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| ^Everything in this city is marble, but it's also quite gorgeous. |
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| ^The Rotunda ceiling. |
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| ^Library of Congress. |
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| ^Just what we needed! |
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| ^Our home base for the weekend. A little pricey and old but still a decent place! |
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| ^A sunset view of the Washington Monument. |
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| ^Such a cool site, the White House! |
Day Two: We slept in just a little on our second day, and I'm glad we did because we needed that extra energy! After a quick breakfast across the street from the Ford Theater (mmmmm, waffles!) where we sat with a nice old couple, we headed out to see the monuments and memorials. We got rerouted by both the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival and the parade, but finally we made it to the Mall. The Washington Monument was under repair so we could only look from afar. But we also got to see the World War II Memorial, Jefferson and Lincoln and FDR Memorials, MLK's new memorial/monument, and my favorite view was at the reflecting pool. We also went through the Korean and Vietnam War memorials before heading across the Potomac to visit Arlington National Cemetery. By that point we were kind of sorry we had walked... it was VERY warm (especially for us Michigan girls) and our feet were starting to ache. We GLADLY took the tram to see the cemetery, which was really cool. Then we took the metro train back to the hotel :) Dinner was a little late, and since we missed lunch again, we found a quick place (which turned out to be Indian food and REALLY good) and then wandered around some more. That included cupcakes and back to the hotel to get some sleep!
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| ^My NOM banana waffle :) |
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| ^Judi in front of Lincoln's Waffle Shop. |
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| ^World War II Memorial. |
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| ^The Jefferson Memorial. |
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| ^Another good one, MLK Jr. |
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| ^The Korean War Memorial (my Grandpa fought in this war). |
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| ^The Reflecting Pool from the Lincoln Memorial (next shot too). So awesome! |
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| ^Headstones at Arlington. Pretty humbling. |
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| ^Heading to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Couldn't get a good shot but it was still cool to see. |
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| ^The view of DC at Arlington House (Robert E Lee's former residence). |
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| ^Nurse Judy ;) |
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| ^Back at the Mall at sunset. |
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| ^Eating cupcakes ;) |
Day Three:Our last full day was dedicated to the museums. There were a LOT to see, and we had to shrink the list down to only the ones we really wanted to see. But first, we went hunting for China Town.We were meeting an old friend from high school, Ashlee Laubon, down there for lunch. We picked Dim Sum as our restaurant (one of Ashlee's suggestions) and it was very tasty! Ashlee headed home after and we went to the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery (since we were right there). We saw lots of cool art. I posted something about seeing some actual Civil War photography (that I remember from History of Photo in college) and Maria Tejada, my old roommate, saw the post on Facebook. I didn't know she was still living in DC, but the weird part was that she was only about a block away so she came and met us. I feel bad because I forgot to take a photo of us, but she accompanied us through the rest of the museum before having to head toward the theater. We went down to the Mall where the other museums were. We thought the Archives were closed but they weren't and we got to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. So cool! Then we went to see a couple things in the Air & Space Museum, checked out most of the Museum of Natural History and then finished up at the Museum of American History. We DEFINITELY needed more time to see them all but our feet were killing us so we did what we could! We headed to Elephant & Castle for a fabulous meal (we got really luck with that on this trip!) and then got ready to go see the play Maria is working on (she got us tickets!). It was a Shakespeare play we'd never heard of, Coriolanus, and it was amazing. The actors did an awesome job. It was a great way to end our trip!
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| ^Judi getting a 'hand' at the DC Public Library (on our search for China Town). |
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| ^The Friendship Arch in China Town. |
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| ^Lunch at Dim Sum. |
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| ^Judi snapping a shot of one of the museums. I thought it was the Portrait Museum but I'm not sure! |
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| ^At the Air & Space Museum. |
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| ^The gallery at the Natural History Museum. |
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| ^This is the Hope Diamond. |
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| ^Sampler platters for dinner :) |
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| ^Maria's play, Coriolanus. |
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| ^We had a great trip! |
