Washington DC Part 1

Hello!

Well, all good things must come to an end. It’s off to school we go today with around thirty school days left in the year.

Before too much time passes, I want to start recapping our spring break trip to Washington, DC last week.

We are the worst at planning spring break trips. Honestly, as a teacher, I’m tired by the time spring break rolls around. Since the kids started elementary school, we’ve just made it a point to go somewhere nearby for a few days. It is nice to have the family time, but it’s also nice to be home and do things that we don’t normally have time to do.

Anyway, for once, we kind of did plan a spring break trip in advance. A few schools around here take 8th grade trips to DC, and while I knew that wouldn’t be the case for my kids at their school, I always “earmarked” the idea of going to DC during their 8th grade year. I figured it would be something they’d remember for a while and are old enough to appreciate it.

Thanks to a few friends who have been in the past year, we had an idea of what to see and do in a few days in DC.

Anyway, here’s a recap of the beginning of our trip.

Charlottesville, VA

Sunday:

Trav’s aunt wasn’t hosting Easter this year, so we decided to start the drive to DC after church on Easter Sunday.

We left around 1:30 and drove the six hours to Charlottesville, VA.

Our hotel was in a cute part of town…and I immediately spotted a Trader Joe’s, so I knew I’d like the area. haha

Anyway, before we even checked into the hotel, we saw Torchy’s Tacos which looked like it would hit the spot. So, we had dinner there and then went to the hotel to check in and settle in for the night.

Monday:

Monday morning, Trav and the kids got up early for a track workout. Travis had planned ahead and found a high school track for the workout.

Once they were back, Travis hit the treadmill in the gym, and the kids and I hit up the hotel breakfast! I knew it was our only free hotel breakfast, so I told the kids to eat up! haha

Then, we packed up the car and headed to UVA’s campus. We love a college campus, and of course, they wanted to check out the track.

The pic doesn’t do it justice, but it was a nice facility.

We then drove around campus a bit, and spotted the football stadium. It was neat that the stadium was right in the middle of campus.

Then, we checked out the Rotunda which was really pretty.

Multiple people had suggested Citizen Burger for lunch, and it hit the spot!

We’d planned on going to Jefferson’s house, Monticello, while in Charlottesville, but when we left lunch, it was raining pretty hard. We discussed catching it on the way back through on Thursday (which I was afraid wouldn’t happen), but it made sense to start the two hour drive to DC.

Washington, DC

We arrived at our hotel in Arlington, VA after a couple of hours and a pretty easy drive.

We stayed at the Hyatt Centric Arlington, and it ended up being a nice hotel in a great location.

From our room, through the buildings, you could see the Potomac River and Georgetown across the way.

We had about an hour to get settled and get our bearings.

We took an Uber for a quick dinner at DC’s Union Market. This was a cool place with foods from all around the world. We had less than a half hour to eat because we needed to get to our tour, so we just got slices of pizza from Parachute Pizza, and the kids got a cookie for dessert too.

I have a feeling Travis thought this was near Union Station where we needed to go for our tour pickup because when our first Uber driver mentioned it being a couple miles away, we realized we needed to eat quickly.

Anyway, we took a second Uber to Union Station to board one of those open air buses for the tour.

Numerous people suggested a nighttime tour of the monuments, and I’m so glad we did that first. We were able to see so much on our first night, but we also were able to get oriented on where everything was in the city.

It was a chilly evening, but we mostly stayed warm. We wouldn’t have had very good views if the plastic windows were rolled down.

Our tour guide, Jason, was really good. He was funny and of course shared the history and lots of facts (and dad jokes!)

Capitol Building:

Supreme Court:

The National Mall and Washington Monument

There were three stops on this tour. Our first stop was at the Iwo Jima Memorial. It was a powerful sight to see. We were here about fifteen minutes before getting back on the bus.

We drove past other sights and then our second stop was at the Lincoln Memorial part of the mall. Before going to see Lincoln, we checked out the Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument all lit up.

Hadley is great at getting a family selfie!

There were quite a few people there, but we were able to get some pics of Abraham Lincoln…

…as well as Abe with the kids and a family pic with him too.

I’d forgotten to get a pic of the entire monument, but Hadley saved the day.

View from Lincoln Memorial looking at the Washington Monument.

After thirty minutes, we got back on the bus, and Jason drove us to our final stop: the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.

It was so pretty with the trees…

…and the monument was massive.

We were able to see the Thomas Jefferson Memorial lit up in the distance.

The bus driver mentioned that if we let him know ahead of time, he would drop people off at their hotel if it was on the way. Trav talked with him about a good hotel to catch an Uber, and he suggested the JW Marriott. It meant a shorter Uber ride than if we left from Union Station.

He dropped us off and we hung out in the JW Marriott hotel until our Uber driver picked us up. It was a coincidence, but our driver was the same one that picked us up at our hotel to go to dinner.

It was about 10:15, but we were a bit hungry, so we ate at a bar near our hotel. It wasn’t crowded, the women’s final 4 games were on, and we had a few appetizers before going to bed around 11.

Tuesday:

Needless to say, we were tired, so we slept in a bit. Travis always gets up early, so when we woke up around 8:45, he’d already figured out the Metro system and got us each a card to ride.

The Metro was right outside our hotel lobby, so that was very convenient.

The escalator down to the trains was a sight to see. I feel like we were on it for a couple of minutes.

The kids had fun looking at the maps. I swear riding the Metro a few times was one of the highlights of the trip.

Travis had planned ahead, and a few people had suggested Ted’s Bulletin for their homemade Ted’s tart, similar to a Poptart. Once we got off the Metro, we walked a few blocks to one of the Ted’s Bulletin locations.

Our breakfast was delish! Hadley got the s’mores tart, and Travis got a big breakfast with the cherry tart on the side. I had a bite of both, and they were both really good…but the cherry was delish!

I ordered avocado toast, and it was amazing. Hayden enjoyed his biscuits and gravy.

Then, we walked a bit to the Capitol Building for our scheduled tour.

I was worried about the weather for our few days in DC because it looked like a good chance of rain the entire time. On Tuesday morning, it was mostly overcast but no rain. We arrived at the Capitol Building early, so we checked out…

The Library of Congress and…

…the Supreme Court (in the daylight)

…before meeting our tour guide.

An aide for one of the Virginia reps gave us our tour, and I will pick up there when I get to Part 2 of DC.

Have you been to DC? What was your favorite thing that you saw?