I went with my sister Sarah and friend Sara. We were able to stay with my cousin and his family which was great. It was fun getting to see them. We got around the city with a rental car and bikes rented from Capitol Bikeshare. For anyone going to DC, I would highly recommend these bikes! They saved our feet and were so much faster. There are several docks around the National Mall and surrounding area. You can hop on and off whenever you want, they were wonderful.
And they look cool too :)
I won't bore you with too many details (well, maybe a little) so here is what we did:
Day 1:
Our flight was at 7:40 in the morning and with the time change we arrived around 3. There wasn't time to do much that day. Plus, it was lightly raining which we hoped would stop. We got some fast food in a sketchy part of Maryland and started our trip off right with a session at the Washington DC temple. The temple was beautiful!
After the temple we happened to pass the Washington Cathedral so we stopped by and looked at it. Unfortunately it was closed so we couldn't look inside but it was still cool.
We then headed over to my cousins house, ate, and had a good time visiting and catching up with him and his family.
Day 2: We started off the day by visiting all of the monuments on the National Mall.
FDR
Martin Luther King Jr.
WWII
Lincoln
Korean
Vietnam
Washington (scaffolding is because of the earthquake a couple of years ago)
Jefferson
The Lincoln monument was of course my favorite! We also stopped by the White House, rode around on the bikes, and visited a few of the Smithsonians - American History and Natural History. My favorite exhibit was the Star Spangled Banner in the American History. It has the actual flag from the War of 1812 that inspired our National Anthem. I may have cried even :)
We ate at Good Stuff Eatery and ended the day in the hot tub to rest our tired legs and feet.
Day 3: The day started out a little rough. I may or may not have had trouble backing out of the driveway and hurt the rental car and my cousins lawn :) It continued to get depressing as we spent almost 2 hours in the Holocaust Museum. It was very cool though and definitely makes you think about life. Things quickly picked up as we had a tour of the Capitol.
Next was the gorgeous Library of Congress, National Archives, Air and Space Museum, and dinner at Nando's Peri-Peri.
By the end of the day our feet were even more tired so it was another night in the hot tub.
Day 4: We got to spend the first official day of summer in DC, doesn't get much better. We first went to Ford's theater (one of my highlights) and the house where Lincoln died.
We then spent 3 1/2 hours at Arlington Cemetery which was amazing.
Next we met up with Sara's friend who lives in Arlington and got too see the Rockies play the Nationals! They lost but at least I got to see my Rocks play this year.
Day 5: This day was probably my favorite because we got to see Mount Vernon. Like I said, I love George Washington so seeing his estate was fabulous.
After that, we headed into Alexandria to catch up with a friend then went into Old Town for dinner and ice cream. Our waiter gave us his phone number and my ice cream fell off of my cone onto the sidewalk (just like you see happen to little kids). It didn't stop me from eating it though! We headed back to the National Mall to take a nighttime ride to see our favorite monuments at night then called it a day.
Day 6: We woke up to rain which means we timed everything perfectly. We arrived in the rain and left in the rain but the weather was nice in between. We couldn't have asked for anything better. We were absolutely exhausted by Sunday so we slept in and took our sweet time getting ready and packing up. We found a YSA sacrament meeting then headed to the airport. There, they found damage on the rental car that we didn't notice before but hopefully insurance will cover it. Our then 5 hour flight turned into nearly 9 when we were delayed for 4 hours on the ground for mechanical issues then bad weather. Note to self: Never take United out of Dulles again! We are talking sitting on the plane for 4 hours before ever taking off. Luckily they let us out for about 20 minutes to get food. We arrived back in Salt Lake at 12:40 am. We were supposed to be there at 8:40 :( We were tired but had an absolutely amazing time! It was a perfect trip and I would definitely go back.
As with any trip, not everything goes smoothly. This is what makes a trip memorable though and creates an adventure. Here are my not-so-good moments that I will always remember:
1. I realized while we were in the airport getting ready to leave on day 1 that I wasn't wearing a bra!
2. The incident with the rental car and the lawn
3. Getting an infamous "Miller Stomach Ache" in the middle of the National Mall when EVERYTHING was closed and barely making it to a restroom on time.
4. Rushing to get to the Capitol in time for our tour even though we ended up being perfectly on time.
5. Being disappointed with the size of the White House and the scaffolding on the Washington Monument.
6. The stupid plane on the way home.
Other than that, perfect trip!
Looks and sounds like you had a blast. I love the picture of you holding George's hand, and I'm so jealous you got to eat at Nando's! Yum, yum. I think you and I should totally plan a trip to Boston. I cannot get enough of that place, and I know you would love it.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you girls did EVERYTHING there is to do there! Lucky! Thats awesome! Also... does disappointment in the size of the White house mean it is actually small? It looks so big. Come to NZ on your next adventure!
ReplyDeleteYou just can't get very close to the White House so it doesn't look that big. I pointed that out and a security guard said, "I bet you don't live in a house like that!" It's still big, just not like I thought.
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