Vacation Recap 2015: Washington D.C.

Back in July, we decided to take "real" vacation. I say real, because since we have been waiting to adopt, we always try to do things on the cheap and conserve leave time from work. We do this because there is always a possibility that we will end up adopting our baby from another state. If that happens, we would have to stay in that state for approximately two weeks while some legal stuff takes place, allowing us to cross state lines with the baby. But you can't live your life based on what ifs!

We are lucky that our friends live in Philadelphia and invited us to stay with them for a few nights. We decided to drive and stop in Washington D.C. for two nights beforehand, since neither of us had done the whole tourist thing there since we were kids. This post will focus on the DC part of our trip.

Edit: Philadelphia recap up here: Philly!

Washington D.C. 

First we went to the Capitol and did a free tour. Tourist tip: they give out free tickets at 9am. Enter through the visitor center.

Our tour guide was probably an intern with high aspirations, because she was less than thrilled about her job! Everyone in our group was laughing about her lackluster tour guide skills.

As you can see, they are doing some restoration on the building, inside and out. It was still amazing to see all of the detail that was still exposed. 

More restoration.

From what I understand, the painting on the inside of the dome was painted directly onto the plaster, which can chip off, so they have to more or less constantly restore the ceiling.

I would have asked but, our tour guide extraordinaire was a bit snarly at this point in the tour. Wouldn't want to make her have to work!

That is lady liberty up there looking over everyone (including many statues of important people in America's history).

This room was built in a way that it was very difficult to keep secrets (secrets in politics? never!). You could stand on one end of the room and hear someone on the other end whisper! Our very unenthusiastic tour guide begrudgingly demonstrated it. Again, laughter from our tour group erupted over our guide.

Next up, we went to the Botanic Garden.
 We had been walking outside for a while, so we were happy to find some air conditioning. We have the Atlanta Botanical Gardens by us, which is impressive to say the least, but this was a really cool experience.

You can't tell, but we were up fairly high in this picture in a large atrium. 

Shelob! Had to take a picture of the Tolkien inspired plant name. Nerdin' it up on vacay. 

Next up was the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. This was #1 on my list, since I remember really loving it as a kid.

We spent a couple of hours there and watched a planetarium movie called Our Dark Universe. They have a newly redone planetarium and it was amazing. Totally worth it- both for the movie and to sit down for a little while!







And of course we bought astronaut ice cream. It was...uh... chalky and then slimy. No thanks!

Next up, we headed over the Natural History Museum. We were really looking forward to this, but it was really, really crowded. We had already walked about 7 miles at this point, so we might have rushed this one a bit.

We found the cafeteria and had some ice cream and then decided to head to the American History Museum, which was next door. It was less crowded and I think overall we enjoyed the exhibits more.

But we couldn't leave without some sort of goofy picture.

Some teenager asked me if I was scared right about when this photo was taken. That was super weird...

Nope, not scared of a stuffed bear.

We walked and walked and walked. Came upon the Washington Monument. The line to go inside was really long and we still wanted to do a few more things before we ran out of time. Cue monumental selfie! Get it? I know, I'm mostly only funny to myself.

I misjudged the aim of the picture, so enjoy my face along with a small portion of the monument!

This is the World War II Memorial. It was beautiful. There was a great breeze and we had a much needed rest on a nearby bench.

My grandfather, or Pawpaw as we called him (you can blame that on my oldest cousin) fought in WW2. I made sure to visit the Georgia pillar to honor him. Pawpaw passed away in 2004 and is very missed to this day.

Both of John's grandfathers fought in WW2. Unfortunately, I never had the pleasure of meeting either one of them, but have heard many stories from John. It was great to be able to stop and honor them.

This is the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial. I heard a number of people talking about that scene from Forrest Gump, where he is reunited with Jenny. All I could think about was that I was standing where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I have a dream" speech.

Is it just me, or do Americans often miss the point of their experiences? I try to make an effort not to dismiss the true purpose of places and events, even though pop culture is so pervasive in our society.

Oops, I cut ole' Abe's forehead off. Well, This was the only one with John in it, that didn't have some girl doing stretches behind him.

I never claimed to be a good photographer.

- Not pictured: the kid in the Nirvana shirt who really did not want to be there. If you want to laugh, I'll show you the pictures of him in the background expressing his dislike of the experience.

We were around mile 10 of walking here. Still had the Whitehouse on the to-do list. I think we both has a bit of a uptick in energy heading to our last destination. That lasted like 10 minutes. so.much.walking.

From atop the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

It was a beautiful day. Just enough breeze to get us through the heat. I love how the Washington Monument looks like a stick with a cotton candy cloud at the top. Yum.

Our last stop of the day was the Whitehouse. It looks like we are pretty close here, but they actually have a wide barrier and police officers keeping you away from the main fence.

Too many fence jumpers lately! People are nuts.

 The illusion of calm

The reality!








We really loved D.C. We loved the ease of walking around the city, the access to public transportation (we even rode the Metro at rush hour!), we loved the history on every corner. I loved Union Station, because they had cold brew coffee and cupcakes... it's so easy to earn my love. Coffee, chocolate, I'm yours.

We hope to go back when we aren't so rushed. Two nights is not enough to see everything. We talked about how nice it would be to take our kid one day, but once they are older and can appreciate the history and politics more.

Stay tuned for a picture post about Philly!