Clara Beth and I recently spent the BEST weekend in Washington DC. She and I absolutely love this city. Collin likes it but had little desire to return this year for a third year in a row. Makgill says he’s visited twice and went willingly the first time, reluctantly the second time, and really sees no reason to ever return. My CB and I? Honestly, we could take a weekend trip there every few months and never get tired of it. There’s just so much to do and see in this city…so many museums to explore…it really never gets old. We hopped on the train here in Florence at 11:00 on a Wednesday night, slept on the train all night long, and woke up early the next morning as we were rolling into our nation’s capital. It certainly wasn’t the best night of sleep we’ve ever had, but it wasn’t that bad, either. Oh, and I’m trying something new with inserting photos in this post because there are so many. And speaking of photos, these are a mix of pictures from my phone and camera. And since it was just Clara Beth and me on this trip, it’s basically a collection of images of my girl in the city. And food. Lots and lots of food. 😉
When we arrived it was still too early to drop our bags off where we were staying. For that reason we had packed in backpacks, so we grabbed our stuff and headed straight from Union Station to the Capitol and the Library of Congress. Without a doubt, the Library of Congress is my very favorite building in DC…those ceilings are just amazing. We were so early that we had the place to ourselves! We explored an exhibit on World War 1 as well as Thomas Jefferson’s library. And CB found two of her life mottos here: “Oh! How I hate to get up in the morning” and “I cannot live without books.” Describes my girl perfectly.
It still wasn’t time to drop our bags but we were starving, so we decided to walk through the little neighborhood where we were staying just to see where our apartment was and then find a place to eat. We rented the cutest little basement apartment just a couple of blocks from Union Station through Airbnb. It was perfectly located and in the most adorable neighborhood! I highly recommend doing this! We found our house and then found a yummy African restaurant nearby. And when we were finished with lunch we dropped our bags at the apartment and headed back out.
My sweet girl had two goals for this trip: The Holocaust Museum and The National Art Gallery. We knocked them both out on that first afternoon.
Day two was our Georgetown day! On our past trips we have been through Georgetown, but have never really explored it. Goals for this day were to discover the best sweet treat that Georgetown has to offer, shop, and walk through the pretty streets lined with row homes. This is one of the few times that we used the busses, but I have to tell you, my girl kept me straight and navigated that bus system and city map like a pro. Also, the Circulator bus system is the BEST deal in all of DC. Just a dollar to ride and it takes you all over. Before we boarded the bus, though, breakfast at the cute little coffee shop down the street from our apartment. Oh, and when we got off the bus in Georgetown we saw a little preschool class walking through the streets on their way to a field trip. My girl died at the sweetness of it and has decided that nannying for a DC family or being a preschool teacher for a very small school is definitely on her list of possible future careers.
First stop, Sprinkles Cupcakes. We were on a mission to find the best cupcake in Georgetown, so we split one at each cupcake shop. I have to say, this cupcake beat out Georgetown Cupcakes hands down. Then some shopping in the cutest little paper shop.
The Francis Scott Key Memorial, more Georgetown shops, and the Potomac. Such a beautiful part of the city!
Macarons at Lauderee because it’s just so pretty and soooooo yummy. Sprinkles won for best cupcake, but Lauderee won for best overall treat.
More Georgetown homes and a very dry C&O Canal because it’s undergoing renovations. We were both amazed at how narrow the canal was, though!
Georgetown Cupcakes! By far the more popular choice, as evidenced by the line, and very good. But not great.
And, finally, real food at Farmers Fishers Bakers. My favorite meal of the trip. We needed some serious vegetables after all of that sugar, and they delivered. My girl also indulged in her favorite, fried chicken, which most definitely didn’t help in the nutrition department, but it’s vacation, right?
The next day, Saturday. Our last official day in the city. We started bright and early. Actually, it wasn’t bright at all when we started. You know how Facebook sometimes creeps you out and recommends things to you when you haven’t searched anything relating to that topic at all? It did that to me just before we left on this trip by suggesting a White House Garden tour. That was one time when I appreciated the Facebook weirdness! We got in line at 8:00 and scored tickets to the 11:00 tour! We had some time to kill so we headed to Ted’s Bulletin for homemade pop tarts for breakfast. YUM.
After breakfast we still had time to kill before the garden tour, so we headed over to the White House. This area is so beautiful!
And, finally it was time for the tour! Last year we toured the inside of the White House. We loved seeing the gardens this time and all of the trees that the different first ladies have planted through the years. It was also amazing to see from past photos how the landscape that surrounds the White House has changed. It was beautiful!
As I mentioned before, my girl loves a museum. We had already visited her very favorite, the National Art Gallery, but that was at the end of our first day and we were pretty exhausted. So we took another stroll through the French Impressionist section, and then made our way to the East Building, a brand new to us museum. Oh My Goodness, we LOVED this museum! It’s just beautiful! We saw Matisse, Jackson Pollack, Picasso, and so many more. I had the best time photographing my pretty girl in front of all of this pretty art!
The famous blue chicken! It’s up on the terrace of the East building, and it really is incredible! Definitely go pay a visit if you’re ever there.
And the tunnel of lights…I could have spent a day right here. It’s an incredible display!
By this time we were pretty hungry and super tired, so we headed to Good Stuff Eatery for a cheeseburger. Then, off to see some monuments and memorials! You can see the exhaustion in her here. It was then that we decided that we were going to try to walk 40,000 steps that day…
In all of our visits we had never done the Jefferson Memorial. It was a beautiful building! Then we headed over to the Lincoln Memorial, and it was here that we hit our 40,000 steps. And let me tell you, we felt every single step!
Because of all of those steps we gave ourselves permission to take the bus back to the house. And by the time we arrived my girl was in full on loopy mode, and fell down in a fit of giggles outside of our door. It was without a doubt time for bed!
We woke up way earlier than we needed to on Sunday in order to walk to Union Station and catch our train. We spent a couple of hours walking around the station, and thankfully I thought to buy us each a book to read on the trip home. You can only watch the scenery pass by from a train window for so long before getting bored.
This was the BEST trip with my girl! I’m so glad we did it and I can’t wait to do another one. Her attitude was AMAZING and it was just such a blessing to have this time away with her. She never complained, even when I did, and was just so thankful for everything that we did. Gosh, I love her to pieces! And I highly recommend a trip like this one!
