Our first out-of-state trip of the year is in the books.
In May, hubby had a conference in Washington D.C. and I tagged along
so we could hang out at night. Then we
tacked on 4 additional days to hang around and see all the things.
Monday: Hubby had his
conference and we just hung out afterwards.
We stayed at a hotel downtown (paid for by hubby’s conference). One of the perks is that it was right across the street from Carnegie Library and a NICE park (good for the dog.)
And what hotel in Washington D.C. is complete
without political cartoons on the wall?
Tuesday: Hubby had
his conference. We had one ‘obligation’
thing to go to and that was having drinks at the FTC. It was nice, they had snacks and drinks and
we mingled on the balcony of the building, which overlooked the Capitol
building. Afterwards, we had an
underwhelming dinner at a nice restaurant (Capital Grille).
This was our view sitting at the restaurant afterwards...there were still a few people mingling on the FTC balcony:
Wednesday: Hubby had
his conference until noon, then we left our luggage at the hotel and caught a
Lyft (more on that later) to the National Archives Museum. We got to see the Constitution, the
Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Very cool.
They’re in this huge room with dim lighting with security guards
everywhere. No phones. If someone even takes out their phone (not to
take a picture, but for something else), the guards will escort you out.
We did lots of walking after that and then picked up our
luggage and headed to our Air BnB. After
we got settled, we ate at a FANTASTIC Italian restaurant called the Red
Hen. I am STILL thinking about the bread
cooked in the brick oven. YUM.
Thursday: Holocaust
Museum. First off, there’s a couple of
things to know about the Holocaust Museum.
During tourist season (spring/summer basically), you MUST have a ticket. The museum was free (all museums are free in
D.C.), but you still had to get a ticket to prevent overcrowding. When I went to get tickets online, they were
sold out until the end of June (we went in the end of May). So I did some digging and poking around on
their website and discovered that if you are a firefighter or a veteran, you
don’t need tickets. All we had to do is
go to the front desk and show my husband’s veteran card and they printed off
tickets for us to the permanent exhibit.
If you don’t have a ticket, you can see the temporary exhibits, but not
the ‘main’ stuff.
The Holocaust Museum is heartbreaking, disgusting, and
unforgettable. I recommend that everyone
go at least once. And probably only
once. I won’t be going back. But I am SO glad that I went.
We spent the morning there, and then started walking the
National mall. This is where all of the
monuments are. However, the monuments
are MUCH farther apart then you would think.
We ended up walking all of it, but it was tiring. We stopped a lot (for the dog too) and drank
a lot of water. We’re not used to the
humidity!
We started at the furthest monument, the Thomas Jefferson
Memorial. It’s off the beaten path from
the other monuments, across from a large water basin. On our walk there, we noticed dark clouds
rolling in. But we didn’t really think
anything of it, because they seemed to be moving away from us. We
got to the Memorial (which is a circular dome with a pointed peak on the front
and a giant statue of Thomas Jefferson in the middle). See:
We were inside when all of the sudden
everyone’s phones started making that annoying blaring sound whenever there’s a
weather alert (including my phone). I checked,
and there was a tornado warning. As soon
as I checked my phone, it started DOWNPOURING and it was pretty much raining
sideways. The wind was insane. We all crowded into the tiny gift shop that
was off to the side of the memorial. The
ceiling tiles were being sucked up (and then would slam back down…it was a
dropped ceiling). And in about 10
minutes, it was over. Once the rain
stopped (about 5 minutes after that), we went back outside and saw all of the
downed trees and debris everywhere. I
checked the local news later on that night and there was a tornado that had
touched down. Yikes!
But, we didn’t let that stop us. We continued walking the mall and headed to
the war memorials. World War 1, World
War 2, Korea and Vietnam.
We then walked along the reflecting pool and headed to the
Lincoln Memorial, which is the largest Memorial. It’s the one with the GIANT statue of him
sitting down. And when you’re on the
steps you get a great straight shot view of the Washington monument and
reflecting pool. It was also the most
busy.
We snapped a few pics of the White House from afar (see first pic...that's as close as we got), but it is a bit off the beaten path.
Friday: The Supreme
Court. We had done/saw everything that I
wanted to see, so hubby wanted to visit the Supreme Court. We did a self-tour of the building, and then
stood in line to get into one of the lectures inside the courtroom. The judges weren’t there or anything, but we
got to sit inside the courtroom and listen to a lecture about the history of
the Supreme Court, the justices, the building, etc. It was really interesting!
After that we headed to the Library of Congress. It was AMAZING. So incredibly beautiful. It houses 38,000,000 books. That’s INSANE! We got to see the reading rooms, Thomas Jefferson’s
library, and the Gutenberg Bible. We
took a guided tour.
The Capitol is right across the street from the Library of Congress:
Saturday: One more
trip downtown, and then back to visit with our Air BnB hosts (who were JWs!)
and then packing up.
Sunday: Traveling
home. D.C. to Chicago to
Albuquerque. It was a long day. But we made it home around 9:00 p.m. AND we
had the next day off (Memorial Day) so that was really nice.
A few random bits/travel tips:
*Take advantage of the free guided tours if they’re offered
and if they’re small. At the Library of
Congress, our tour group was maybe 10 people.
We got to see all of the highlights and ask questions with the super
knowledgeable guide (a former retired professor). We also took a guided tour at the Holocaust
Museum for one of their newer exhibits.
It just adds a lot to the experience and it’s FREE!
*Lyft. We didn’t take
the metro once. Our Air BnB was about 2
miles from everything, so we took a Lyft.
Hubby pulled up the app and punched in where we were and where we wanted
to go and within 5 minutes (usually), our driver showed up. It was super time effective. Sure, the Metro would have been cheaper, but
it also would have taken WAY longer. I
plugged in some of our routes on the D.C. transit site, and to get from our BnB
to the National Mall would have taken 45 minutes. WHAT???
Taking a Lyft was about 10 minutes at the most. And they are inexpensive. I added up all of our Lyft rides (which were
a LOT…we used them 2-3 times a day) and our grand total spent for 8 days (hubby
got to D.C. one day before I did) was $115. Not bad for transportation. That included our trips to the airport both
times (the airport is in Arlington, VA) .
We avoided the hassle of the metro (with a dog) and saved LOADS of
time. It was just so convenient. I’m a fan!
*The drivers in D.C. are WORSE than the drivers in
Albuquerque. I never thought I would
find a place where they’re worse, but yup.
They’re pretty bad.
*Air BnB. Stay in one
if you can. It’s WAY cheaper than a
hotel and so versatile. The one we
picked out was basically a 1 bedroom apartment with a full kitchen and a
washer/dryer. I did all of our laundry
at night so when I came home I had only one small load to do. It was great!
And it was nice having a kitchen.
We made breakfast each morning, so we saved some money on eating
out. We would sleep in, have a late
breakfast and then skip lunch and then go out for dinner. It worked out great. And it was much cheaper than the hotels
downtown. Everything in D.C. is
expensive. So to find an Air BnB with a
full kitchen and laundry was great. And
it’s completely private. We didn’t talk
to our hosts until like the 2nd to the last day. We also spent a lot of time there. We slept in every single morning and watched
late night TV. It was clean and
comfortable and homey and in a beautiful neighborhood. Worth it!
*Other ways to save money:
split meals. We did this. Not every time, but we tried. Or we ordered off of the appetizer menu. And we STILL had leftovers. Bring your own water bottle and fill it up
before you leave the house. I brought
one and the 3 of us shared it and I filled it up at one of the many water
fountains along the Mall. I used a
collapsible water bowl for Watson that clipped onto my purse which worked
great. We all stayed hydrated! Bring snacks.
I always pack a gallon-size ziplock bag full of individual bags of trail
mix, yogurt covered raisins, granola bars, etc.
This saves a boatload of money at the airport and also when you’re out
and about doing lots of walking. It
prevents getting hangry too! :)
We had a great time. Although we both decided that as much as we loved visiting, you could not pay us enough money to live there. As my Dad would say "there's fifty-million-hundred-thousand people here!". :)
