Happy June friends! I'm finally getting around to blogging my weekend trip to DC in April! Around February, I saw news going around facebook that a March for Science was being planned in DC for Earth Day and I mentioned my interest to my mom. Well, I have the best mom ever who loves DC and has wanted to take my sister and I for years soooooo with the help of her Southwest miles and Marriott points we booked our trip for almost nothing! Before our trip, I did a lot of research on pinterest and blogs so we would get the most of our three days and I'm so glad I did!
The march was Saturday, April 22nd so we flew into BWI Friday morning. Flights were much cheaper into Baltimore and it only took us about 45 minutes to get into DC. If flights into Ronald Reagan are looking expensive from your city, check out the rates for flying into Baltimore instead to save some moolah! We drove into DC and dropped our bags at our hotel in Navy Yard and headed to the National Mall for our first day!
Reef display made of ocean plastics at the Museum of Natural History
First stop: Smithsonian Museum of Natural History! I was so so excited for this, but I'd be lying if I didn't say it was a bit of a let down. Surprisingly, my favorite exhibits were the origins of man (all the evolving skeletons were so cool) and of course the ocean exhibit ;) ...I even found a display on oysters so I was a very happy oyster lovin' gal!
After our walk through the Museum of Natural History and a quick lunch from one of the food trucks along the mall, we made our way to City Segway Tours near George Washington University. A few days before our trip, I was at Starbucks with a friend talking about DC and a random stranger actually recommended booking a segway tour of the monuments. He was so sweet and had so many great things to say about them, we booked a tour right away! Our guide was a Junior at GWU and she made the tour so fun. I was a little nervous because it was supposed to pour that afternoon, but we actually ended up having the best weather of the trip that day and I think the threat of rain scared tourists away because our segway tour was just us and one other person. Our tour lasted about 3 hours and took us to ALL the major monuments, with stops at certain ones for photo ops. It was truly the best way to see the city in a short time, well worth the price!
One of my favorite things about DC was learning all sorts of funny historical facts about our nations capitol. Our awesome tour guide told us the Eisenhower Executive building across from the White House was designed by a French architect and it's french style was hated by so many government officials (President Truman called it "the greatest monstrosity in America") that the building was never actually payed for! The funny thing is, this was my favorite building in all of DC haha!
This photo was taken at the exact spot Martin Luther King Jr. stood at during his "I Have a Dream" speech. I had chills standing there and inside the Lincoln Memorial. My favorite monument in all of DC, so beautiful.
After our amazing tour, we made our way back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. I did a lot (not kidding, hours because I'm a crazy foodie) of yelp research to find some great places to eat on our trip. After my search, I settled on a few places including an Italian restaurant named Lavagna in Capitol Hill (close to the Navy Yard) and made us dinner reservations.
Another travel tip: do your research and make dinner/brunch reservations at least a week or two in advance. I waited until only a few days before the trip and wasn't able to get reservations at two of the restaurants I would have loved to check out. Side note, I only made two reservations for the weekend and it gave us a lot of flexibility: dinner Friday and brunch Sunday :)
Our food at Lavagna was so yummy and the service was wonderful as well! My mother and I split the lobster risotto and basil pesto pasta with sausage. Their fresh pasta was delish and we also died for the lemon raspberry cheesecake with oreo crust! After dinner, we walked back in the direction of our hotel and stopped at the Brig Beergarden in Navy Yard along the way. Since it was a friday night, it was pretty busy with a young crowd, you could tell it was a locals spot (puppy friendly!). It was a lovely way to end our first day in DC and we loved their beer selection!
Stay tuned for recaps of our second and third day in DC coming soon :)!
P.S. for those traveling to DC, I just realized I didn't really mention how we got around in the city. Since it was our first day, we mostly used uber. We weren't feeling comfortable enough with the metro yet and all of our plans seemed to take place far from metro stops. Looking back now and knowing how easily we navigated the metro on the rest of our trip, I regret not using the metro and walking more on that first day. Moral of the story, DC is 100% do-able without uber and the metro is very easy and safe. Hope this transportation rant is somewhat helpful, haha!
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