The District

The weekend before Thanksgiving, hubs took me to D.C.! This was both of our first time to go to the national capital. We were there for a full five days and packed in as much as we possibly could. It was a blast!

We left the Friday before Thanksgiving after work and arrived late Friday night. So, we went straight to bed and were ready for a very full day on Saturday. We saw the Smithsonian--Natural History and American History museums.

Natural History Museum Rotunda

Matt's new friend

My favorite.

Another fave--Abigail's White House China Pattern

Those museums took us the whole morning, so after leaving, we went to our first recommended restaurant (and my personal favorite on the whole trip), Founding Farmers. It was delicious and a great atmosphere. There was a two hour wait, but after about 2 minutes of waiting, we scored two seats at the bar and ate there. Matt made friends with the bartender, of course, and we really enjoyed ourselves. After lunch, we made our way over to the Washington Monument and White House.

                

      


That last picture was taken by Matt, and to me, looks like what I like to call a "postcard pic." And then, there was the White House. I mean, wow. I don't care who you are--standing outside of the White House is powerful. So many incredible people have walked in that house. Pretty neat!

That night, we went to Georgetown for dinner at Clyde's. First of all, I LOVED Georgetown. I could have spent the whole five days hanging out there. After dinner, we thought it would be a genius idea to WALK back to the monuments to see them at night. Yes, brilliant idea!

        

     












But, I mean, WOW. Absolutely incredible and completely worth every blister step.
     
     















At the end of the day, just as you are feeling after getting to this point in the post, we were exhausted. So, needless to say, Sunday was a tiny bit lazy for us. We decided to sleep in a little and tackle only the Arlington Cemetery. We saw the changing of the guard, where JFK and Taft are buried, and many of our nation's heroes.

JFK's grave

Taft's grave

That night, we made our way back to Georgetown for dinner at Filomena. Holy moly, it was yummy. Homemade pasta right in the front window of the restaurant and to end the meal, Amaretto. I'll take it. And as if that wasn't enough, we HAD to get cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes. Also delicious.

               

The next day, we saw the National Archives, the Holocaust Museum, the Capital building, and the Supreme Court. We didn't spend a ton of time at the National Archives, but we got to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. You can hardly see the writing on the documents anymore, but it is still makes you very awestruck to think about their past--where they've been, who has touched them, etc. We didn't take any pictures at the Holocaust Museum, but enjoyed walking through it very much, seeing all of the pictures and reading all of the stories from that time. We also toured the Capital Building. I think that was Matt's favorite part of the trip. The top of it is undergoing a two-year reconstruction project, so we hope to get a better picture one day. I guess we will have to go back! And after taking the tour of the Capital, we walked across the street to see the Supreme Court, probably his second favorite part.

Supreme Court

On our last night in D.C., we went to Chinatown for dinner at Matchbox. It was such a fun restaurant for our last night. After dinner, we walked across town to get pie at Dangerously Delicious Pies.

We found out that they recently opened one in Austin, so if you are anywhere close to ATX, definitely worth a trip! On our way to get pie, we walked right by a group of people, about 1,000 in number, protesting the decision in the Michael Brown case. They were heading to the Supreme Court steps. It was crazy to see and to think about how often there are protests in D.C.

We had an incredible time on our trip, and we loved coming home to part of our family for Thanksgiving. We are now getting to enjoy this special season between Thanksgiving and Christmas with decorations, time together, and sweet smells of cinnamon--getting anxiously excited about all of our Christmas plans with family.