So, Washington, D.C. was incredibly fabulous. My good friend Matt (high school buddies!) and I left home around 8am and made it to DC around 1:30. We got a wee bit lost and took a scenic tour of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. It was extremely beautiful and I realized there are a great deal of recreation opportunities in and around D.C. Who knew?
We checked into our hotel, the very nice M Street Hotel. It was undergoing renovation, but still swanky. Hardwood floors, big rooms, free internet. It was a pretty sweet deal. It was only a few blocks away from Dupont Circle.
We had 2:30 tickets to the Spy museum so we hiked a bazillion blocks in the heat to get over there. The worst part was attempting to cut in front of the White House. I’m pretty sure that my head is probably in about a gazillion tourists photos. We made it to the Spy museum, got our tickets, had a spot of lunch in the “SpyCafe” and then headed in to see the exhibits. It was very crowded and it seemed like a cool place, but the exhibits were too based around videos. If I wanted to watch a documentary, I would have watched a documentary, okay?
So, we headed back to the hotel. We rested, relaxed, checked up on things, showered, and headed out. We went to Dupont Circle, and had dinner at this delicious place called Potbelly Sandwiches. It was AMAZING. It had started to rain, so we headed to a little bookstore/restaurant down the street called Kramer Books & Afterwords. I had pecan pie, Matt had a beer and pie.
We walked down to the White House, just to see it at night. It was great but it started to rain and we got COMPLETELY soaked on the way back to the hotel. Both of us were a bit bitter, though amused, and tired by the time we got back “home”.
The next day, we had a delicious brunch at the same bookstore. It was a huge plate of food, plus free juice and muffins, for $15. Bangin’. We stopped in on the Dupont Farmer’s market, checked out of the hotel, and drove down towards the Smithsonian. We managed to find parking within a couple of blocks and headed over to the American History museum.
It was okay – a lot of exhibits were closed due to an impending renovation. We went to the Natural History museum but by that time, my feet were screaming in pain, so I mostly sat around. After that, we drove around Georgetown and admired the really expensive town houses. It was seriously gorgeous and we were both highly impressed.
We headed home to North Carolina after that. Traffic was fine, and we made it home safely.
A few trip highlights:
“Okay, so this is Dolley Madison Avenue. Can’t be that bad! It’s named for Dolley Madison!” (Matt when we’d gotten lost on the parkway.)
“Matt, are you sure you know where we’re going?” I asked while standing two feet in front of our destination.
“It’s just all a mystery to you, isn’t it?”
In other news, I’m going back to school seriously soon. I move in August 7th. I’m collecting all sorts of things to make my room look fabulous. I got bedding from the Target simply Shabby Chic Collection. (Well, I got it off e-bay.)
I’ll post pictures when I’m all moved in and fabulously set-up.
