The Garzquists: Washington DC

Finally, the second half of our vacation!

Notes from our trip to D.C.: We did NOT get a city transit pass in D.C. because they were much more expensive and only covered either the subway or the bus, but not both. We only ended up taking the subway twice, on our visit to the zoo and to get to the airport on our last day. Otherwise we walked or used the Capital Bikeshare. The bike share was really cool because you paid $7 for a 24 hour membership ($14 for 3 days). After you checked out a bike, you could ride it for free for the first 30 minutes. If you timed everything correctly, you could ride to another bike stop and drop your bike off before that 30 minutes was up and you had to pay any more money. It was a nice way to get around the Mall quickly.

The city water was terrible, so we had to either buy bottled water or drink soda the entire visit. I think I had more soda those few days than I had in the 6 months before that!

Day 5

Wednesday, our fifth day of vacation, had been designated as a travel day. We planned on riding Amtrak from Penn Station to Union Station in Washington D.C. Slackers we are, we didn't buy our tickets in advance. So Wednesday morning had me on my iPhone, looking up travel time. We decided to pay the extra money to travel on the 'Express' train and get into D.C. an hour earlier than the regular train. I bought the tickets, thinking that I had selected a 12pm departure (so we'd have plenty of time to pack, check out of our hotel, and mosey over to Penn Station. Their mobile website wasn't very well organized, so imagine my surprise when my email confirmation said our train left at 11 (it was 10 am already)! We hurriedly chucked all our stuff into our bags, checked out and booked it down to Penn. Happily, we got there plenty early enough.

Our "express" ride actually ended up being longer than even the regular train, between a rail problem and then a medical emergency that kept us in the Baltimore station for awhile. The cool thing about Amtrak was that they have "quiet cars", where no one is allowed to talk on their cell phone or speak loudly AT ALL. It was quiet and peaceful. Until we were stopped on the tracks and the lady directly behind us decided that the no cell phone policy only applied while we were actually moving. She and I had a few words in which she was shocked that I suggest she go to another car for her conversation. She did get off the phone, much to the relief of everyone in the train car.

We finally arrived in D.C. and checked into our hotel (which was just a few blocks away from Union Station). We still had some time left in our day, so we walked down to the Washington Mall and spent some time in the Air & Space Museum.

Funny story from the Air & Space Museum: I was reading a placard in front of an exhibit and apparently I was standing really, really still. A pair of girls came up to me and one of them reached out to touch my hair, thinking I was a mannequin. When I turned to give her a quizzical look, she let out the perfect horror movie scream, to which her sister started laughing hysterically. She very bravely proceeded to pretend it wasn't a big deal, instead of running away in embarrassment.

Dustin modeling our amazing 'sippy cups' from the Broadway show

Crap, I forgot which city this was. Baltimore, maybe?

Philadelphia

Post funny-story smile from me and the girl closest to the camera while the middle girl pretends that she didn't just get the heck scared out of her.

Day 6

We began Thursday morning with a tour of the White House. It wasn't too terribly exciting. They only let you walk through certain rooms and the decor is colonial, gilded everything, which isn't exactly my style. After that, we wandered over to a coffee shop, where we found someone's cell phone in the street. After texting random people and a bit of wandering the Mall aimlessly, we were able to get hold of the owner and return it to her.

We visited the WWII, Lincoln, Korean War, and Martin Luther King Jr. Memorials. Then we headed to the Holocaust Museum, which was very well done for covering such a horrible time. I honestly think it was my favorite part about our trip to D.C.

We got some shrimp, stuffed crab shells, and clam chowder from a seafood market by the water and sat by the Jefferson Memorial to eat our yummy find.

We got to see this painting in person, which was pretty cool. Obviously, I got this pic off the internet since they don't let you take photos inside the White House.

Black squirrels!

Dustin in front of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Building

World War II Memorial

Korean War Memorial

MLK Jr. Memorial

Holocaust Museum

A sculpture garden

The Capitol was right down the street from our hotel

Day 7

On Friday we did a tour of the Capitol Building, which was really cool (much cooler than the White House, especially). It was interesting to hear all the history behind the building and see the fresco paintings and all the statues from the different states. Because the House wasn't in session, we were able to go out onto the Speaker's balcony and see the awesome view of the Washington Mall. After that we visited the Library of Congress. We got lunch at a food truck before heading over to the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of American History. That night we met for drinks with Amir, one of Dustin's friends from high school.

Very impressive frescoes

Very ornate bannisters

Rosa Parks, the newest statue

The view from the Speaker's balcony

Library of Congress

Museum of Natural History

Dustin making friends with a blue morpho in the butterfly house

The Hope Diamond

Dorothy's ruby red slippers inside the Museum of American History.

Day 8

Saturday morning we made our way over to the Eastern Market, since we'd been told to check it out by multiple sources. We wandered around and got pastries there before checking bikes out from the Capital Bikeshare station and riding back to the Washington Mall. We stopped at the United States Botanic Garden before eventually making our way west through the Mall and seeing the Vietnam Memorial. Then we biked across the bridge into Arlington, VA. We dropped our bikes off and wandered through Arlington National Cemetery. When we went back into D.C. we stopped at Lyndon B. Johnson Memorial, which we had somehow managed to miss the day before. We also found the Albert Einstein Memorial. That night, we bicycled all over the Mall to see the memorials at night.

U.S. Supreme Court

Capitol

Library of Congress

A really cool mural outside the Eastern Market

Inside the Botanic Garden

WWII Memorial

Vietnam War Memorial

Outside Arlington National Cemetery

The view from Arlington

Don't mind my humidity + bicycling induced sweaty face

Changing of the guard

Iwo Jima Memorial

Heading back to D.C.

LBJ Memorial

Einstein Memorial

Supreme Court at night

Capitol

Library of Congress

Botanic Garden

White House from afar

WWII Memorial

MLK Jr. Memorial

LBJ Memorial

Jefferson Memorial at night

Day 9

On Sunday we took the subway to the National Zoo. It was incredibly hot and humid (and let's face it, I was getting tired of walking), which was miserable, but the zoo itself was pretty cool. We stood in line FOREVER to see the pandas, which were (disappointingly) sleeping in their little concrete house. We did get to see the gorillas and lions (6 adorable cubs!) moving around quite a bit, which was really cool. They also had a small exhibit on x-rays of animals, which was perfect for me!

Dustin was impressed with this incredibly long escalator

Our "it's SOOOOOO hot" faces

I love the tamarins!

How adorable are these little guys?! They definitely keep their mamas busy

I love his dark mane!

Tigers

Wolf

Day 10
Monday (Labor Day) was our last day in Washington D.C., so Dustin and I wanted to see as much as we could before heading to the airport that afternoon. We went back to the Air & Space Museum to try out the jet flight simulator, which we had totally missed our first day. Dustin was, of course, the pilot while I took the gunner position. We spent most of our short flight upside down, but I was still able to take out a few enemy planes.

After our 'flight', we headed over to the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We were also able to see part of the National Gallery of Art before it was time to collect our bags from the hotel and head to the airport.

All in all, it was a great trip, but we were definitely happy to get home to see our fur-kids (and give our feet a rest)! Many thanks to Mishael for watching the little fuzzballs for 10 days!