We drove up to DC and arrived at the Washington Plaza Hotel in the early afternoon and headed to the front desk. The really nice attendant at the front desk was giving us ideas for places to eat since he was a local and we mentioned that it was my birthday! He said that it was his partner's birthday as well and he was able to give us an upgraded room. It was pretty nice on a higher floor with a balcony and a sweet view. The room was pretty modern and had a very dark curtain that made the room pitch black! This was great for me since I wake up really easy with light changes in the room!
We walked down 14th street and headed towards the White House. {We wanted to go on a tour, but those take several months in advance to schedule, so we just settled for standing safely in the distance to take a few photos with the Japanese tourists.}
We walked around the Elipse and headed down Constitution Ave towards the Constitution Gardens Pond for a quick look at the ducks and a view of the Washington Monument. We paused a moment to look at the Vietnam Women's Memorial that was sculpted by Glenna Goodacre. {Kinda makes you proud of the women that were there in Vietnam. Must have been tough!}
From there, we walked over the Vietnam Memorial Wall and stood quietly as the people walked past the names. It was eerily quiet as we walked closer looking at the lists of names seeming to never end. There were notes and flowers set beside a few of the panels. Makes you feel very small to stand there in the middle of all those names.
We continued past the reflecting Pool, which was empty as they are doing repairs and extending some of the monuments right now. The Lincoln Memorial was the next stop. There were't too many people so it made it kind of nice to be able to stand and really take the whole thing in.
We headed back up Constitution Ave and headed to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. They'd made some changes since the last time we were there and I didn't much like the new layout. It was hard to follow, but we did see a lot of cool stuff! The dinosaurs are always cool and T always makes silly noises when we hit the monkey exhibit. They did have a few new things in the mummy area, but what was there was sparse. We did enjoy the gems and seeing the Hope Diamond was pretty cool. We completed the Smithsonian and decided it was time to make a stop at the hotel for an hour rest before we headed out for dinner.
T took a quick nap while I loaded a ton of pictures onto the internet. It was a much needed break. We headed down M street towards Georgetown and stopped for dinner at the Daily Grill on 18th and M for a burger. Pretty Good, expensive, but good.
We walked through Georgetown and made it to 29th and M where we finally made it to the stairs made famous by the last scene in the Exorcist.
{75 steps up was how many we counted as we tried to make it up without dying midway!} T did better than I did, but I finished! We got to the top and decided NOT to go back down.
We headed down Prospect and turned down onto 34th where we stopped and purchased a half dozen cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes, or DC Cupcakes as they are known for their TLC Show. It was a little difficult to decide which flavors to get, but we ended up on 2 chocolate, 2 vanilla, and 2 red velvet. They were placed in a sweet little pink box and bag and we headed back up M street to out hotel.
FITBIT STATS FOR DAY 1: 29,136 Steps 12.5 Miles 23 floors climbed!
Day two started out early with a trip back to the Washington Monument. Since the earthquake last year, we couldn't actually go up or really even get too close.
We decided to walk over to the newly modified World War II memorial. It was actually very pretty and once they finish the water features, it will be awesome. I took a few photos of the state memorials for North Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
We walked down Independence Ave and finally made it to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. It kind of sprung from the ground in three columns of white marble. It was pretty amazing.
We headed from there down Independence Ave towards 18th street. We spent an hour and a half in the Holocaust Museum. No photography was allowed.
By the time we got out, we were hungry and decided to try to find a little lunch. That proved most the most difficult as we were looking for a Cosi and couldn't find one. We were told that the Old Post Office Tower had a food court and a nice view of the city. With a little Chinese food in our tummies we headed up the elevator to the top and it was a good view. Cold, but nice.
We then headed over to the the Smithsonian American History Museum. By this time, we'd walked so much already that we were just looking for somewhere to sit and watch something. We were able to take a much needed break and look at some cool stuff. The Jefferson Bible, Dorothy's Red Slippers, and a few more pretty neat things. The Star Spangled Banner exhibit was pretty neat, no photos though!
{Why is everything here no pictures allowed!?!?}
Our Smithsonian trip was not yet complete, we then headed over to the Air and Space museum and it was beginning to look a little grey and getting a wee bit colder. This was where I dropped my phone and was pretty sure that it was broken.
{When we got back to the hotel, T was able to get it working!}
We headed back to the hotel via a cab since it was raining pretty hard when we got done. After a few hours we started walking back to Georgetown for dinner. It was a four mile walk in total. We found a little Italian restaurant and had a nice birthday dinner. The waiter brought me a tiramisu as a treat on the house. All in all, it was a good trip. Guess we didn't need to buy any more cupcakes!
FITBIT STATS FOR DAY 2: 31,003 Steps 13.35 Miles 15 floors climbed!
Since Day three was our final afternoon and the checkout time was noon, we decided to go and check out the Capitol Building and Fords Theater before we left. It was a bit cold and we headed back a little early and headed back home. By the time we got home, we were both sooo tired!
FITBIT STATS FOR DAY 3: 16,902 Steps 7.28 Miles 33 floors climbed!
