DC Part 2

Hello! I can’t believe it’s already Thursday. We’ve had really dreary weather which has made the early alarms feel even earlier!

Anyway, I’m picking up where I left off with Part 1 of our spring break in Washington, DC.

We were a bit late seeing about a tour, but through a contact of Trav’s she helped us get a private tour appointment given by an aide to one of the Virginia representatives.

We met him at his office in one of the other buildings.

Then, he got us passes to walk to the Capitol. We walked through the underground tunnels like the representatives do to get to the Capitol building. He told us that high school students can submit artwork to their representative, and then if chosen, their work hangs in the tunnel for a year.

I stopped and took a pic of the Kentucky students’ selected artwork:

Once we got to the Capitol, we traded in our tunnel passes for passes for the Capitol tour. Our guide was really good, and we learned a lot about him, and he asked us a lot of questions about Kentucky.

Some of our favorite pit-stops on the tour included learning about The Statue of Freedom, Abraham Lincoln, and the center point of DC.

The ceiling of the Capitol Rotunda was stunning.

The Rotunda included famous paintings and statues – Washington, Reagan, the Pioneers for Women’s Suffrage, and Henry Clay.

The Old Supreme Court Chamber (1810-1860) was really interesting…

…as was the Old Senate Chamber (1810-859)

Our tour lasted about an hour, and the last stop was at the 9/11 Memorial.

After we left our tour guide, we had access to the House of Representatives chamber of the Capitol. No phones or smart watches were allowed, but it was really interesting to see.

Once we left the Capitol Building,there was just a bit of light rain, so we walked around the National Mall since we’d only seen it at night.

A nice Duke fan took our photo and then gave Travis condolences on UK losing in the first round of the tournament…since Trav was wearing a UK zip up. haha

Hayden had seen his cousin “touch” the Washington Monument, so he wanted to do the same…which meant Hadley wanted to do that as well.

We planned to walk to White House but the rain picked up so we got a snack at the art gallery and then headed to the Natural History Museum.

We were there about an hour and a half. It was nice that the museums were free because we saw as much as we could, but also didn’t feel like we had to see everything. It was kind of crowded, but it wasn’t too bad. Hayden and I like museums a bit more than Trav and Hadley, but they enjoyed themselves too.

When we left, the weather was better, so we continued our walk to the White House.

My mom had sent me this pic of my brother and me at the White House in 2004.

This is what that same spot looks like now:

We’d spotted a Metro stop, and the kids were tired at this point. Well, so was I…haha…but I assumed we’d at least be able to see something on the other side of the White House. It didn’t take long, and we made it to:

…and ta da….

We got a couple of photos.

…for memory’s sake, of course.

The White House was pretty neat to see in person. The kids thought it was cool.

As we walked toward the Metro, we looked back, and the flowers were pretty even on the overcast day.

We made our way to the Metro stop.

Once back at our hotel, we relaxed for about an hour. Then, we headed to Georgetown. We went to the Metro station by our hotel, and the employee said the bus right outside makes stops in Georgetown.

So, we rode the city bus a short drive across the river, and walked to our restaurant for dinner.

We gave il Canale a 10/10. The atmosphere was great, and the food was delicious.

Then, we walked a few blocks to Georgetown Cupcake. I was excited to go there because I watched every episode of DC Cupcakes back in the day!

So many choices!

I settled on Lavender Early Grey, and it was so good.

At this point, it was probably 8:30 or so, and we were tired. Rather than figure out the bus situation, we got an Uber back to the hotel.

While we waited for the Uber, we saw our friends (Hadley’s bestie and fam) who were also in DC for spring break.

Once we were back at the hotel, the kids went back to the room, and Travis and I had a drink at the hotel bar.

It was an earlier bedtime for all…we were tired! I walked over 18,000 steps that day…and the kids and Trav had more.

I guess I will have one more post to wrap up our trip, and I will share that next week.