Washington, D.C.

Two months ago, we had a conversation with friends about a weekend trip sometime this summer. Quick decisions and a night out to dinner with drinks helped choose our destination, Washington D.C. As a fan of cities, history and politics, I was all about it. Plus, a weekend with my husband and two of our closest friends? Perfect! Last Friday, around noon we left for D.C. It took nine hours to get there.


After checking into our hotel, The W, we hit the ground running. We did a night tour of the city; independently since group tours are for sure not our thing. It was a perfect time to see the Washington Monument, The White House, The Lincoln Memorial, WWII Memorial, Vietnam Memorial and tons of others. It was perfect because the weather was cool and it was perfect because those areas, while crowded, weren’t overly crowded.

On Saturday, we woke up early and set out for museums. We did the National Museum of American History first. I highly recommend this. A really nice thing about DC is most of the museums are free, this one included in that. It’s three floors of pretty fascinating stuff from transportation to American foods to presidents and first ladies to entertainment and currency.

Next up, we did the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I had never seen that before and it was very sad. While it was free, you have to go early to reserve tickets. We showed up at 1PM not knowing that was the case but luckily we were able to reserve four tickets for 2:15. So we got some lunch in their cafe while we waited.

Lastly, we did the National Museum of Natural History. By then it was 3:30 and the place was packed with families. Being around crying kids and angry parents is just about the last place that four DINKs (double income, no kids) want to find themselves at. So, I have to admit it was a super quick trip, in and out. Plus the t-rex exhibit wasn’t opened so the boys were upset since all the advertisements said otherwise. But free is free? I wish we got there earlier and got to spend more time or that it wasn’t so crowded. I don’t like feeling as though I’m being herded from one exhibit to the next.

After the museums, we sat in the National Mall trying to get feeling back into our legs and take pictures of the Capitol building and ourselves. Intrigue got the better of me when a motorcade pulled up and we walked over to see what all the hype was about. It wasn’t a politician at all (I was really hoping for a sighting). They were filming House of Cards and it was Kevin Spacey. I stopped watching that show within three minutes because he killed that dog but I suppose it was cool to see a film crew in the middle of the city like that.

We had dinner at Capitol City Brewing and then walked back to our hotel room before going out for the night. 

Sunday morning we got ourselves out of bed to have breakfast at the Corner Bakery which was delicious and by far my most favorite food of the weekend. Then we drove to the National Zoo, which of course, was ridiculously crowded. Free, is free after all. We saw lots and lots of animals though I didn’t see the baby panda and the cheetah was eating a bunny for lunch — so, you know, that experience was not a 10 out of 10 for me.

Sean has a step calculator on his phone and while not entirely accurate it estimated that we walked a total of 27 miles over the course of the three days. Clearly, I’m ready for a marathon now.