{"id":53187,"date":"2018-11-12T13:07:08","date_gmt":"2018-11-12T18:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/?p=53187"},"modified":"2018-11-12T13:07:08","modified_gmt":"2018-11-12T18:07:08","slug":"mother-daughter-trip-to-washington-dc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/mother-daughter-trip-to-washington-dc\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother Daughter Trip to Washington DC!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clara Beth and I recently spent the BEST weekend in Washington DC. \u00a0She and I absolutely love this city. \u00a0Collin likes it but had little desire to return this year for a third year in a row. \u00a0Makgill says he’s visited twice and went willingly the first time, reluctantly the second time, and really sees no reason to ever return. \u00a0My CB and I? \u00a0Honestly, we could take a weekend trip there every few months and never get tired of it. \u00a0There’s just so much to do and see in this city…so many museums to explore…it really never gets old. \u00a0We 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. \u00a0It certainly wasn’t the best night of sleep we’ve ever had, but it wasn’t that bad, either. \u00a0Oh, and I’m trying something new with inserting photos in this post because there are so many. \u00a0And speaking of photos, these are a mix of pictures from my phone and camera. \u00a0And since it was just Clara Beth and me on this trip, it’s basically a collection of images of my girl in the city. \u00a0And food. \u00a0Lots and lots of food.\u00a0😉<\/p>\n

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When we arrived it was still too early to drop our bags off where we were staying. \u00a0For 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. \u00a0Without a doubt, the Library of Congress is my very favorite building in DC…those ceilings are just amazing. \u00a0We were so early that we had the place to ourselves! \u00a0We explored an exhibit on World War 1 as well as Thomas Jefferson’s library. \u00a0And CB found two of her life mottos here: “Oh! How I hate to get up in the morning” and “I cannot live without books.” \u00a0Describes my girl perfectly.<\/p>\n

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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. \u00a0We rented the cutest little basement apartment just a couple of blocks from Union Station through Airbnb. \u00a0It was perfectly located and in the most adorable neighborhood! \u00a0I highly recommend doing this! \u00a0We found our house and then found a yummy African restaurant nearby. \u00a0And when we were finished with lunch we dropped our bags at the apartment and headed back out.<\/p>\n

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My sweet girl had two goals for this trip: \u00a0The Holocaust Museum and The National Art Gallery. \u00a0We knocked them both out on that first afternoon.<\/p>\n

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Day two was our Georgetown day! \u00a0On our past trips we have been through Georgetown, but have never really explored it. \u00a0Goals 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. \u00a0This 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. \u00a0Also, the Circulator bus system is the BEST deal in all of DC. \u00a0Just a dollar to ride and it takes you all over. \u00a0Before we boarded the bus, though, breakfast at the cute little coffee shop down the street from our apartment. \u00a0Oh, 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. \u00a0My 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.<\/p>\n

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First stop, Sprinkles Cupcakes. \u00a0We were on a mission to find the best cupcake in Georgetown, so we split one at each cupcake shop. \u00a0I have to say, this cupcake beat out Georgetown Cupcakes hands down. \u00a0Then some shopping in the cutest little paper shop.<\/p>\n

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The Francis Scott Key Memorial, more Georgetown shops, and the Potomac. \u00a0Such a beautiful part of the city!<\/p>\n

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Macarons at Lauderee because it’s just so pretty and soooooo yummy. \u00a0Sprinkles won for best cupcake, but Lauderee won for best overall treat.<\/p>\n

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More Georgetown homes and a very dry C&O Canal because it’s undergoing renovations. \u00a0We were both amazed at how narrow the canal was, though!<\/p>\n

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Georgetown Cupcakes! \u00a0By far the more popular choice, as evidenced by the line, and very good. \u00a0But not great.<\/p>\n

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And, finally, real food at Farmers Fishers Bakers. \u00a0My favorite meal of the trip. \u00a0We needed some serious vegetables after all of that sugar, and they delivered. \u00a0My girl also indulged in her favorite, fried chicken, which most definitely didn’t help in the nutrition department, but it’s vacation, right?<\/p>\n

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The next day, Saturday. \u00a0Our last official day in the city. \u00a0We started bright and early. \u00a0Actually, it wasn’t bright at all when we started. \u00a0You know how Facebook sometimes creeps you out and recommends things to you when you haven’t searched anything relating to that topic at all? \u00a0It did that to me just before we left on this trip by suggesting a White House Garden tour. \u00a0That was one time when I appreciated the Facebook weirdness! \u00a0We got in line at 8:00 and scored tickets to the 11:00 tour! \u00a0We had some time to kill so we headed to Ted’s Bulletin for homemade pop tarts for breakfast. \u00a0YUM.<\/p>\n

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After breakfast we still had time to kill before the garden tour, so we headed over to the White House. \u00a0This area is so beautiful!<\/p>\n

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And, finally it was time for the tour! \u00a0Last year we toured the inside of the White House. \u00a0We loved seeing the gardens this time and all of the trees that the different first ladies have planted through the years. \u00a0It was also amazing to see from past photos how the landscape that surrounds the White House has changed. \u00a0It was beautiful!<\/p>\n

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As I mentioned before, my girl loves a museum. \u00a0We 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. \u00a0So we took another stroll through the French Impressionist section, and then made our way to the East Building, a brand new to us museum. \u00a0Oh My Goodness, we LOVED this museum! \u00a0It’s just beautiful! \u00a0We saw Matisse, Jackson Pollack, Picasso, and so many more. \u00a0I had the best time photographing my pretty girl in front of all of this pretty art!<\/p>\n

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The famous blue chicken! \u00a0It’s up on the terrace of the East building, and it really is incredible! \u00a0Definitely go pay a visit if you’re ever there.<\/p>\n

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And the tunnel of lights…I could have spent a day right here. \u00a0It’s an incredible display!<\/p>\n

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By this time we were pretty hungry and super tired, so we headed to Good Stuff Eatery for a cheeseburger. \u00a0Then, off to see some monuments and memorials! \u00a0You can see the exhaustion in her here. \u00a0It was then that we decided that we were going to try to walk 40,000 steps that day…<\/p>\n

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In all of our visits we had never done the Jefferson Memorial. \u00a0It was a beautiful building! \u00a0Then we headed over to the Lincoln Memorial, and it was here that we hit our 40,000 steps. \u00a0And let me tell you, we felt every single step!<\/p>\n

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Because of all of those steps we gave ourselves permission to take the bus back to the house. \u00a0And 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. \u00a0It was without a doubt time for bed!<\/p>\n

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We woke up way earlier than we needed to on Sunday in order to walk to Union Station and catch our train. \u00a0We 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. \u00a0You can only watch the scenery pass by from a train window for so long before getting bored.<\/p>\n

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This was the BEST trip with my girl! \u00a0I’m so glad we did it and I can’t wait to do another one. \u00a0Her attitude was AMAZING and it was just such a blessing to have this time away with her. \u00a0She never complained, even when I did, and was just so thankful for everything that we did. \u00a0Gosh, I love her to pieces! And I highly recommend a trip like this one!<\/p>\n

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Clara Beth and I recently spent the BEST weekend in Washington DC. \u00a0She and I absolutely love this city. \u00a0Collin likes it but had little desire to return this year for a third year in a row. \u00a0Makgill says he’s visited twice and went willingly the first time, reluctantly the second time, and really sees...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"pp_embeds":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,33,30,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category--2-2","category-ac-life","category-lifestyle","category-our-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53187"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53336,"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53187\/revisions\/53336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmsmithportraits.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}