East Coast Trip Part Seven: DC & Baltimore

After a few hours in Philly, we hit the road again and headed further south to meet up with my parents, sister, and brother-in-law in Washington D.C. My parents had been visiting Melanie and Luke at their new place in North Carolina and D.C. was to be the last stop on their trip. All of us except for my parents had been to D.C. at one point or another (Melanie and I both went in 8th grade). My dad loves history so I was really excited to see him experience the nation's capital. As I expected, he was pretty much a kid in a candy store, and luckily we had Phil as our tour guide so we got to see 95% of what we wanted to see in just two days. The only downside was the extremely hot and humid weather. Walking into an air conditioned building has never been so enjoyable!

We arrived in D.C. in the early evening and wisely decided to bust out the memorials (aka most of the outside/walking) that night while it was somewhat cool (and I use that term loosely).









The next morning we took the subway (which is quite different than NY, by the way...be sure to familiarize yourself with the rules before you use it) to the Capitol Building for a 9:00 tour. My priority was to see the rotunda. A) because its beautiful and B) because its the scene of a ghastly crime in Dan Brown's book ;) I would have liked to see where the Senate and the House sit but it was closed to tour groups...poop. We also took the underground tunnel to the Library of Congress, which was BEAUTIFUL!












For lunch, we went to Old Ebbitt Grill which apparently is quite old and quite popular among the "Who's Who" of D.C. Phil's college buddy is a manager there and hooked us up with the most amazing array of desserts...suddenly I was the kid in the candy store. If you ever go to D.C., I definitely recommend this place. You can't go wrong with any of their desserts, but I really enjoyed the bourbon walnut pie. Because hello...bourbon, and pie.

After lunch we went to several museums for the must-see artifacts. We couldn't take many pictures...or maybe Phil was just tired of taking pictures at this point, because I don't have many. But here are a couple...

Abe Lincoln's hat. This exhibit was really moving/sad/cool. It's really amazing to see these actual items worn/used by these people. I mean, it's Abraham Lincoln's friggin hat!!!

The Hope Diamond. I don't know what the big hulabaloo is...it's not that big.

We saw the actual Star Spangled Banner...also very moving. I very much enjoyed the "First Ladies" exhibit, which showcased many of our first ladies' inaugural gowns. Obviously we couldn't visit D.C. and not go see the Declaration of Independence. It's not holding up very well, by the way. You can barely make out the script these days :(

The next day we headed across the Potomac to Mt. Vernon -- George and Martha Washington's home. This place was awesome, I could have spent an entire day there. Not only do you get to see their home, and sit on their back porch, but you get to see where they're buried, walk through their gorgeous gardens and go through an incredible museum that houses countless items they used/wore on a daily basis (and that we couldn't take pictures of). It was another hot and humid day, but when I went to Mt. Vernon in 8th grade it was foggy and raining, so I couldn't have asked for better weather.









After Mt. Vernon, we said goodbye to the family and they headed to Arlington National Cemetary so they could watch the changing of the guard. Phil and I had both seen it and needed to be heading back North to meet up with his friends at the Jersey Shore. We had just enough time to stop in Baltimore and have some tasty blue crab cakes. That's about all there is to do in Baltimore anyway...other than the aquarium which I'm kinda bummed we didn't do, I've heard great things about it. Next time!




Next up -- Jersey Shore! And then thank goodness, I'll be done blogging about this trip we took almost three months ago. It will be nice to have this record of it though!