KatelynOctober 4 – October 8
Where We Stayed: Econo Lodge Metro
Trip Highlights:
- Our first trip together!
- Pandas at the National Zoo
- African American History Museum
- Ford’s Theatre
- Lots of Monuments and Historical Sights
Favorite Restaurants:
- Nando’s
- Cava
Our first ever trip together was in October 2018, when we spent a long weekend in Washington D.C. Our flight brought us to D.C. late on Thursday, so we crashed at the hotel to start our day bright and early on Friday morning.
On Friday we took the metro in to the city (we were staying in Arlington, VA) to head to our first stop of the trip: the National Zoo. The highlight of the National Zoo is of course their panda exhibit, one of only a few zoos in the United States that house giant pandas. We spent a few minutes admiring the pandas and the other animals nearby before catching the metro over to Chinatown for a lunch at Nando’s.
The second half of our first day was dedicated to a few historic sights. Our first stop was Ford’s Theatre, known of course as the sight where Lincoln was assassinated. Neither of us had visited Ford’s Theatre on previous trips, but having been there I would definitely recommend it to anyone traveling to D.C. in the future. A small museum was set up before you enter the theatre itself that outlined Lincoln’s life and presidency leading up to the attack at the theater.
Once you viewed the theatre itself, you could walk across the street to see the house where Lincoln died, with continued museum exhibits explaining the aftermath of the assassination.
We had nothing else planned for the day, so we hopped on the metro and headed over to the National Mall to wander to some of the sights. On our walk we passed the White House and felt it was appropriate to take a slightly sad picture given the President at the time. We then wandered over to the National Archives to check out the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights (a classic D.C. stop!), before grabbing dinner at Cava and a a few delicious gluten free desserts.
That evening we headed back to the National Mall for a nighttime walk through the monuments. Both of us love walking through the monuments at night. It gives and entirely new look to the sights, and it’s usually a little cooler and a little less crowded.
On our second full day in D.C., we met up with Sam’s sister Shannon, who took the train in from Philadelphia to spend the day with us. Our main stop for the day was the Smithsonian African American History Museum, which had only been open for a few years at that point. Sam and I also took a moment to snap a picture at the World War Two Memorial in between the columns of our respective states.
After saying goodbye to Shannon for the day, we took a walking tour with Free Tours By Foot. Our tour was called “The Dark Side of Embassy Row,” which took us through the streets surrounding the embassies with our guide telling us stories regarding to ambassadors or other events that happened in the area.
Our final full day kept us in Arlington for the morning as we visited Arlington National Cemetery. We saw the main sights in Arlington, including the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier and JFK’s grave.
Our other main sight of the day was the Smithsonian Museum of American History. This is my favorite Smithsonian museum in D.C. because it is such an interesting array of artifacts revolving around American history.
We both love D.C. and have visited together several times since this first trip. It was a great way to kick off our travel together!