KatelynNovember 19, 2022 – November 27, 2022
Where We Stayed: Grand Hyatt Washington
Trip Highlights:
- Trekking out to the Udvar-Hazy Center
- Trying conveyor belt sushi
- Museum Hopping
Favorite Restaurants:
- Kura Revolving Sushi
- Nando’s
We spent the week of Thanksgiving working from and exploring Washington DC. DC is one of our favorite cities to visit and we tried to use this trip as an opportunity to stop by a few places we had never been before.
Christmas & Sushi
By Thanksgiving week, DC is already fully decked out and ready for Christmas. Our first proof of this was a massive Christmas tree in Union Station that we saw on our first day.
Our first few days in DC were spent mainly working, with a few meal breaks. It was on one of these days, when trying to find somewhere new to try out, that we stumbled upon a new favorite restaurant of ours: Kura Revolving Sushi. This sushi place was super fun to eat at, as you just grab different sushi items that sound good to you off a revolving conveyor as they pass by your table. We ended up eating here many times on our trip.
Smithsonian Museum Hopping
One afternoon we were in DC we decided to go Smithsonian museum hopping. All of the Smithsonian museums in DC are free, so it’s easy to just go from one to the other checking out the major attractions. I had never visited The Smithsonian Castle before, so we started there. This was the original Smithsonian building in DC and now holds offices and a small museum about the history of the Smithsonian and showcasing small portions of the collections at the other museums.
Our second stop was the Museum of Natural History, a museum we don’t typically spend our time at when in DC. This museum contains all sorts of different artifacts related to the natural history of the world, including dinosaur and animal skeletons, gemstones and jewels, and exhibits on evolution, animals around the world, and more.
Christmas Market
With the city ready for Christmas, we also stopped by a Christmas market near our hotel. We purchased some art made by local artists for our travel art wall and enjoyed a few treats to end the evening.
Interior Museum & The National Mall
Our next museum was a much smaller one – the museum of the Interior. This is a small, two room museum, talking all about the different things that the Department of the Interior does. It was fun to stop by, but in the future we’ll probably also take the prescheduled tour to learn more and see more of the building.
We then wandered around the National Mall, especially the Lincoln Memorial area. We also stopped by a game store (Labyrinth Games and Puzzles) to see their selection and buy a set of D&D dice to add to our collection.
Air and Space Museum
One of the places we were very excited to visit on this trip was the newly remodeled Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. The new areas of the museum look great and do a much better job of showcasing their artifacts than the old layout did. The downside was that a good portion of the museum was not yet open from the remodel. So, while we enjoyed our short trip to the remodeled museum, we will be excited to return when the entirety of the museum is open again.
Thanksgiving at The Museum of American History
On Thanksgiving we visited the Museum of American History, one of our favorite Smithsonian museums. This museum is always a good time, with a fun mix of different artifacts from American history. They had a Sesame Street special exhibit during our trip, so all of the original Sesame Street puppets were on display throughout the museum.
Air & Space Museum – Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
One DC area museum we had always wanted to make our way to but never had taken the time to go to before was the secondary Air & Space Museum center out near Dulles Airport. Recently, they extended the DC metro to Dulles Airport, making it easier to reach this museum with public transportation. So, on Black Friday, we made our way out to this museum.
The museum is several airplane hangars connected together and holds some of the larger planes and space-related artifacts and vehicles in the museum’s collection. One half of the museum is dedicated to planes, with several famous planes on display. This included one of the few remaining Concordes, the Enola Gay, and a Blackbird. The highlight of the space side was definitely the space shuttle Discovery, which sits in the middle of the hangar.
The museum also had a viewing tower where you could watch the planes come in and land at Dulles airport nearby. We spent some time up there watching planes and looking up where they were coming from.
Spy Museum
Our final museum of this trip was the Spy Museum. This was the only paid museum that we visited in DC on this trip, and it is worth the additional cost. In addition to housing a huge collection of different spy-related artifacts, as you walk through the museum you have the chance to take on the persona of a spy and go on missions. You’re given a cover story and follow a storyline through the museum on interactive screens. We loved this place and will definitely go again on a future trip to DC.
After trip to the Spy Museum we had lunch at a nearby restaurant called The Grill that we had never been to before. We ended up loving it, both because the food was delicious, but also because of it’s calm atmosphere looking out over the river. We had a great time visiting the many museums of DC and found a few new favorite restaurants we will be visiting again on our future trips to DC!
