Nate and I decided in early October that we wanted to do a November weekend trip somewhere! We first considered the Adirondack’s, but decided it would be way too cold all the way up there 🙂 So we picked DC! We had visited DC together once before during the summer of 2013, which was my first time there. I love it the first time, so I was super excited to have more time to explore!
I scoured Airbnb for a nice place that wasn’t too far from the attractions (aka: museums). We ended up renting a small row apartment in Capitol Hill and LOVED it. The apartment itself was really nice, and the neighborhood was even better. Super cute and walkable to a lot of restaurants!
Our flight got us into DC around noon and we spent the next few hours walking to and exploring the monuments. Since we were only in town for 3.5 days, we had both brought small duffles, so walking around with them wasn’t bad. It was a super windy day and we took a lot of selfies. Also, my life-long (I’m exaggerating) dream of touching Lincoln’s boot at the Lincoln Memorial was squashed when I realized it’s not even remotely possible to do that. I don’t know where I got that notion. Nate made fun of me the entire trip for it 😉
We spent time catching up with our long-time friends, Kait and Logan. Together we explored the Museum of Natural History for an afternoon – my favorite exhibit is the jewels and rocks. So sparkly. 🙂 Being locals, K+L suggested a delicious lunch spot called Ted’s Bulletin where we all ate a great meal (and tried to finish pieces of chocolate cake the size of our heads!).
Wait ANOTHER favorite part (ok, I just really liked this trip!) was the National Postal Museum! I love stamps. Like a lot. I just didn’t know HOW much until I was in a huge room full of thousands of old, historic, gorgeous stamps! I loved seeing the design through the ages and learning about all the history behind them. I maybe was so overwhelmed with happiness that I had to hold back tears. Stop making fun of me.
Ok, but the Library of Congress blew my mind! It was the mosaic floors that really got me. Full walls and ceilings and floors of mosaic had me wandering off from our tour to admire! (Nate listened to the tour guide and told me all the important stuff later) But seriously, this building was gorgeous and I was mesmerized by all the inspiring art in the form of crushed up stone and glass. I was in mosaic heaven – mostly because it reminded me of Barcelona, one of my favorite places.
We also hit up the National Gallery, Freer Gallery of Art, the Eastern Market and went to the top of the Washington Monument. Needless to say, we like DC a lot.
Stephanie
P.S. I don’t recommend breaking in new Converse on a trip when you walk between 15 and 20 thousand steps a day. :/