When I was on my last assignment in Cape Cod I met another traveler named Dana. She's in a few of my posts from my assignment there and we always found ourselves eating a ton of food! Well, she ended up getting an assignment in Fairfax, VA which is just outside D.C. and only a 2 hour drive from us! Aaron and I decided to take a trip to visit her for the weekend and we had a blast. When we first got there, we went to Ozzie's for food. A place close to her house. They had amazing brussel sprouts and sangria!
Following that we rested up for our first big day in D.C. We started off with going to breakfast at Founding Farmers. The restaurant affiliated with it all provide food from family owned farms. We had some eggs Benedict, french toast, NY strip steak, and hash browns.
Next was the Smithsonian Zoo which is FREE... parking is $25, that's the catch. Totally worth it!
For those who know me, I have loved pandas since the 2nd grade when I had to write a paper about them. Since then I've never gotten to see a live panda. If you research about pandas, very few zoos have them, but we are 'loaning' them to provide research for China. Since this has begun, pandas went from being endangered to 'vulnerable'. The more we learn about them, the more we can help them! So let's get to the pictures of the most adorable animals to ever exist.
Did we go to the zoo just to see pandas? Kind of. We did go into the reptile exhibit (Aaron's favorite) and we looked at monkeys and elephants. You could spend all day here, it's huge! I could have spent hours just looking at the pandas, but we had to leave to see the city! Dana took us to the Capitol building. You can tour the Capitol building with prior reservations, it is free and about 45 minutes. We thought about it, but decided to see other places instead!
Then we headed over to the Library of Congress. It is the largest library in the world and inside is stunning. It's free to go in. Keep in mind almost every building makes you go through a bag check and metal detector!
Though it wasn't on our list, we ended up walking right over to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Parking in D.C. can be rough. Thankfully we had Dana who knew how to use the parking apps in the city. She found us a garage to park in while we went and walked around the rest of D.C.. Getting from the Capitol Building to the Washington Monument is a bit of a walk, so I'd suggest either having a vehicle or using the metro system. Parking during the week is more expensive compared to the weekends, but during the week there are less tourists. We were there Friday to Sunday and we noticed a difference.
Once we were parked, we headed to Old Ebbitt Grill. Dana and I both love planning, exploring, and mostly importantly, eating. She and I must have read the same article because we both said we should go here. Come to find out, it is known for their oysters. Well, no one in our group likes oysters so we had drinks, calamari, and crab artichoke dip. This place gets busy quick and I'd recommend having a reservation or be like us and get lucky with sitting near the bar!
Everything was delicious and the people who were eating the oysters seemed to love them. We then headed down to check out the memorials, but first we saw the U.S. Department of the Treasury building.
Then we saw the Executive Office Building which is enormous and right next to the White House.
Then we saw the White House! One side of it is closed off, so this was as close as we could get.
As the sun was setting, we explored the monuments. The first monument you see below is the Washington Monument.
Then we headed over to the Lincoln Memorial. There is a lot to see here. They have a World War II Memorial at the front so we spent time seeing that.
At night when you walk along the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool you can see so many of the buildings light up. It is really beautiful. Once you walk up to the Lincoln Memorial, you feel like you're looking at a projection screen it is so big!
There is a little gift store near here that sells your usual souvenirs, but also the cheapest wine by the glass! We then walked to dinner which was pretty far walk, but turned out we got to see the White House at night time.
There are so many things to see in D.C. that you stumble upon. There's an Albert Einstein statue near here and many more. If you go to D.C., try to wear comfortable shoes because the best way to explore cities is by foot! We finally arrived at Farmers & Distillers which is connected to the place we went to for breakfast. We ordered fried green tomatoes and garlic knots to start. For dinner shrimp scampi, glazed cedar plank salmon, and drunken beef and chicken. YUM!
While we were eating, we couldn't help but notice their freshly made donuts! So of course, we bought some!
In total I think someone's watch said we walked over 13 miles that day. Totally worth it! The next day Dana had to work, but she showed us where the metro station was and how to use the app. It was really easy to use. Since the Washington Nationals won the world series that week, there was a parade that day... and wow were there a lot of people at the metro station! Poor Aaron had his Ohio State hoodie on and people kept thinking he was a Nationals fan, but we laughed about it. After we spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to get out of the metro station (the stations where many of the trains intersect is much more confusing than we thought), we decided to go grab food from one of the food trucks. I was craving a gyro and for $9 I had a gyro, fries and water... couldn't beat that!
After eating, we went over to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. We thought that since there was a parade there wouldn't be many people at the museums, man we were wrong! This is also free! Can't get enough of the free stuff in D.C.! The Air and Space Museum was really neat. There is a lot to learn as you're exploring the museum.
Aaron and I had lots of ideas on what we wanted to do that day. We wanted to go see the Declaration of Independence, but since there was a parade the building was closed. No biggie, we can find something else. We walked to the Washington Monument in hopes to get up top!
SURPRISE! You have to reserve a ticket in advance or go to the booth no later than 7:30 am to hopefully get a ticket. So that didn't workout, but we decided one day we will come back and do it. Aaron thought that one of the biggest games in college football was that day so we searched for a brewery and headed that way. By the time we got there, we realized the game was the following Saturday. We laughed and decided lets go get a beer! Capitol City Brewing Company we went!
We got there at just the right time. By the time we left there was a 1 hour 45 minute wait due to people leaving the parade. This is a picture of Ford's Theater where Lincoln got shot.
A must see is the Arlington National Cemetery! It is 624 acres and rests over 14,000 veterans. Yes, it also is free.
Leaving there, we went to Dupont Circle which has lots of coffee shops, eateries, and night life. Aaron and I ended up going to a tea shop where there was one kind of tea that sold for $600 per pound! Yeah, we didn't buy that. We met up with Dana back in Fairfax at Caboose Tavern. It has food and brews their own beers. You also can order from your table on your phone and they will bring it to you which we thought was pretty cool. They have a nice outdoor area with corn hole too.
The next day, our last day in the city, we headed to Ted's Bulletin in Fairfax which we read has these amazing handmade poptarts. It was super busy so we headed to Mom & Pop. It is a coffee shop near it where we waited in a shorter line and ordered coffee and tea...and a breakfast sandwich.
For $4 a poptart, we were a little unimpressed. There was hardly any filling and it was kind of dry, but we tried it! After that, we headed to Mount Vernon, George Washington's plantation. We learned so much while we were there. The house was built in 1734 and was a one and one half story building, they started adding on to it and now it looks like this...
Stunning, right? Surrounding the house there are gardens, farms, and lots of history on George Washington's slaves. Here's a picture of the Upper Garden's greenhouse.
Here's Dana and I enjoying the view of the Potomac river behind the estate.
The inside of the house was just as pretty as the outside. The shocking part was when it was built, they did not have plumbing. So inside the beautiful home, there are no bathrooms!
After that we said our goodbyes and headed back to Waynesboro! We has such a wonderful time in Washington D.C..
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