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live...from DC We are in DC! We arrived yesterday at 4pm-ish--a half hour earlier than we were supposed to. I thought the flight was 5 hours, but to my surprise it was 4. It takes me 3.5 hours to get to Nashville, so I'm not quite sure how we made it so quickly--I'm guessing we flew at a higher altitude? The flight flew by. We watched Clicked, so that helped pass the time. The trip to the hotel was a surprisingly easy one. We grabbed our luggage (one of the last to come off the plane--my luck with being the first had run out), went upstairs, and immediately found the metro rail station. Figured out how to purchase our fare by watching others and made it to the platform in under 5 minutes from the time we picked up our bags. The train arrived soon after and I took my very first subway ride. Because I'd looked up our route on the web the day before, I knew where we needed to get off. The ride was about 15 minutes and when we emerged from the station, the first thing we saw was our hotel. It couldn't have been any closer! We checked in, showered, and I made my calls home to let my parents know I'd made it okay. After that, we went off in search of food. We are trying to be frugal on this trip, not spending as much money on our meals, but I decided that I wanted our first night in DC to be remembered for a great meal, so we walked around, in search of a nice restaurant. This was more difficult than I thought it would be--most places we came to were closed. We did fine a couple that were open, and decided on Stan's after looking at the menus outside the door. Artboy had prime rib and I tried the baked trout. Both were excellent. We stopped for some drinks on the way back to the hotel, and retired early. Artboy woke up early and hopped on the computer, playing Sim City. About an hour into his game play, I woke up, and was up for the next hour. By 4:30am, I was really getting grumpy and told him I was becoming angry. He turned off the game, and we finally fell asleep, waking up at 11am. Ack! Guess we were really tired. After getting dressed, we went off in search of lunch. Also difficult because most restaurants in the area are closed on the weekends. We asked for suggestions from the guy in the bar area of the hotel, and he suggested 2 places, only one of which we found--Potbelly, which proclaimed to be voted "The Best Sandwiches in DC." I can say that they were quite good. From there, we went back to the hotel to pick up the camera, my scarf, and Artboy grabbed another sweater, and let me wear one of his light jackets. I didn't want to wear mine--it was too heavy and I was afraid I would burn up. I think it was in the mid-50's. We hit the streets again, and the first place we went towards was the White House. We walked past the treasury and the Bank of America which is housed in this really beautiful old building. I'm going to have to get money out of the ATM there. ;) Took pictures of the White House. I think they were going to have some sort of event tonight--there were tents up in the front, and off to the right were a bunch of photography equipment. As I was walking down Pennsylvania Ave, I got a little emotional. I couldn't believe that I was actually in our nation's capital...this place I'd always wanted to visit..this place that I'd only seen in text books and on television shows such as the West Wing. As silly as it sounds, it was a dream come true, and as the tears sprang to my eyes, I felt ridiculous. But I couldn't help it. We saw the Washington Monument (tho we were there too late to get tickets--maybe tomorrow morning), Vietnam Veteran's Memorial (incredibly sobering...everyone around the wall was very quiet, and it was interesting to look at the things that were left at the wall), Vietnam Women's Memorial, National World War II memorial (quite different from the Vietnam memorial...the mood here was much lighter...lots of people talking and laughing), the Lincoln Memorial (which is the one I really wanted to see..also became emotional in there as well...I was just in awe), and then we headed back to our hotel for dinner. We ate at McDonalds (sad, but true. It's cheap!) and then came back to our hotel. It was such a lovely day, and a bunch of pictures were taken. I still cannot believe that I'm actually here. This place that I've always wanted to come...and I'm here! I probably drove Artboy crazy, as I kept saying, "Babe, we're in DC!" I almost expected to wake up and still be at home. It's a life-long dream come true. On the plane, we sat next to this older couple. He had been to DC a bunch of times for business, but his wife had always wanted to come. He said that she finally got him to take her, and she sounded just as excited as I was to finally be here. We all looked out the windows as we were landing, amazed at the beautiful red, orange and gold leaves. I saw the Capitol building and the Washington Monument and my excitement grew. I hope that couple has as much fun as we do. If today is any indication, we'll all have a great time. Tomorrow, we're going to try to get into the Washington Monument, see the Korean War Veterans Monument, the FDR Memorial, the Capitol and perhaps Union Station. After that, I think we'll start hitting the museums, tho I would love to make it to Arlington Cemetary and Arlington House. I also hope to go to the Zoo to see the Pandas, tho I don't think that's going to happen. :) There is so much to see here, and I don't think 7 days is enough time. |