DC Trip Part 1

Hey, I'm back! I finally decided to upload my D.C. pictures so you can see all the amazing places we went:) So this summer Kathleen came home, and we decided to give ourselves a birthday present and take a trip to our Nation's capital. Both being history majors, and having our birthdays in July, we decided to head over for the 4th and celebrate anniversaries all around. 

So we left the 3rd, early in the morning to catch our first ever flight. Yeah, that's right. We'd both never flown before. I was a ball of anxiety. Even though we were at the right gate, hours before take off, I was sure something was going to go wrong. Anyway, we got on, and even though we were half an hour late taking off, we got to Phoenix in one piece. We practically jumped off that plane right onto our next one to D.C. This flight was really long, and when we got above Virginia they were having some delays from the hurricane over on the coast. It was pretty rainy, and we had to circle over the city for like an hour before we finally landed. Pretty much everyone on that plane wanted to barf when we got in. 

After landing, we went to the metro and I panicked some more as we tried to figure out the best pass to get. Luckily all the metro people we super nice and they guided us safely to the stop closest to our hotel. We had to walk quite a ways to get there though, and we couldn't have looked more tourist-y with our rolling suitcase, bulging camel-back, and unfolded maps. 

Our hotel was kinda strange. It looked like it was once a really old apartment, and was run by this old French guy with one crossed eye. He even had a little hotel cat who just hung around the halls. Even though I was freaking out at a level 10 at this point, we got into our room and unpacked. The French dude gave us some great advice for places to eat that night, and we ended up walking down a few blocks to get some really delicious Belgian waffles and chocolate.  

So for our first day we took some time walking to the metro and enjoyed the sites in our little neighborhood. Then we walked a bit around the city just looking at all the amazing buildings.

Kathleen posing at a really pretty church on our block

Our street

This Freemason Building of the Scottish Rite was really close to us 

Another church

We got really excited to see an actual Burberry store in person

The National Press Building

Part of some huge building

Kathleen gazing at this building I forgot the name of

Here's a better view of it

Kathleen at the Old Post Office building

The White House

A War Memorial for the 1st World War I think

Red Cross building

The statue out front was for some Catholic Lady. I forgot a lot of these buildings

World War 2 Memorial

All the Gold Stars

view of the reflection pool and Lincoln memorial 

The 4th of July parade come down this main road, and was actually pretty lame

Colonial marching band

the freakiest float of all

Old fashioned bicycles

The building of Agriculture

So after watching the parade for a minute we went to the Holocaust museum. It really was amazing to go through and very haunting, but it was hard to enjoy because I was starving and it was so crowded in there. So after that we quickly found me some sustenance and then decided to go to the American History Museum. I loved that place. My favorite was probably the room that gave a quick tour of all American history, or the old house that documented pretty all of American history as well.

We found a place to eat, and then since it was starting to get closer to evening we walked over to the Lincoln memorial. We thought it would probably be the coolest place to watch fireworks, and we were right:)

waiting for nightfall

Kathleen on the 4th

Me at the Lincoln memorial for the first time

Kathleen

We found a place to sit down. Probably the first time since that morning.

the view of the bridge from the back of the memorial 

There were so many people, and the fireworks were so amazing

Super blurry pictures, but you get the idea. There were so many people, and it was pretty annoying a lot of them wouldn't sit down so we could see. There was also this one lady who kept yelling really loud at all the fireworks. Like "OOH did you see that?' Yep. Yep we did. Or worst of all, when they shot up fireworks that burst into hearts: "LOVE." *another heart* "LOVE." *another heart* "LOVE." It got pretty annoying. After that display was over, we were swept up in the crowds on the metro and it was pretty intense. I've never been around that many people before. We kinda got lost trying to find our hotel in the dark, but after a few map checks we found it and pretty much collapsed into bed.
So that was our first day in D.C. It was so much fun, and I was in heaven looking at so many amazing places and things I had only read about in history books.
Stayed tuned for day 2!