D.C. Girls Trip - Day 2

Saturday: We were up bright and early to head to the Mall and see the monuments and memorials. We saw and did more this day than any other I think, and the amount of pictures prove it. First up the Washington Monument, which we were unaware was closed (since an earthquake a few years ago)... but I believe is open as of this week - we just missed it! It's a great monument, I just loved that you could see it from almost everywhere you were in D.C.

Down the way from that is the WWII Memorial, that is very beautiful and impressive. It was pretty cool that there was actually a large group of WWII veterans there being shown around and honored, very touching.

On the other side of this is the famous reflecting pool, and at the other end of that... the Lincoln Memorial. My favorite. I felt many powerful moments on this trip, but this was the one that brought me to tears. What an incredible president, and the perfect spot for MLKJ's March on Washington continuing the work that Lincoln started. I'm so proud to be part of a country that counts these men among it's leaders.

Standing on the "I have a dream" spot, MLKJ's view

180 degrees around

so impressive, love this guy

Just to the left of the Lincoln Memorial is the Korean War Memorial, very moving.

A walk through some warm east-caost sun, and we came to the MLKJ Memorial - wow! I think I may have teared up a bit here as well.

My favorite quote of his

I took about a hundred pictures here, knowing that our next story at school would be an MLKJ biography - pretty perfect timing! We were pretty hungry and hot as this point, so we took the Metro back to our hotel to change and then walked across the bridge to Georgetown - the cutest little town just across the Potomac River. We ate lots of delicious food here - it was quite packed however, shockingly really. It wasn't really conducive to shopping or mozying.

Pie Sisters - cherry pie and chocolate bourbon pecan
- macarons and Sprinkles cupcakes were courses 2 and 3

Real Maine lobster roll! Oh yes, deeeelicious

Old Stone House - oldest house in Georgetown, dating back to 1766, super fun to tour inside 

I kind of don't remember what exactly happened after Georgetown, but according to my photos we headed back to the Mall - took some photos of the Capitol and then walked to the White House. I really wanted to tour the White House, but donchaknow you need like 6 months worth of advance planning to get the clearance. Next time. It was cool enough just to see it and be as close to it as we were, along with the Secret Service on the room watching us with binocs!

The front door was open!

I was stoked

Hey SS!

I can't say I was hungry yet, but we were kind of pooped out and discovered that after 5 all the Starbucks and and restaurants were closed (so weird!) EXCEPT Founding Farmers, which was highly recommended. So it took another hike and a good wait to get it, but man it was worth it, we seriously ate so good - all thanks to Jacqueline for stalking the bar seats, so we didn't have to wait until the 10 pm reservation! Along the way I had to take a picture of these funny little situation, some historic old buildings surrounded by the modern - I think this was the Mexican Embassy

hooray for seats!

Nicely rejuvinated after dinner we wanted to go see the monuments after dark - some more rain, umbrella mishaps, getting lost, and serious laughs - but we made it, the buildings are pretty impressive lit up at night! Trying to walk up the reflecting pool while Facetime-ing with Todd and the kids so they could see the memorial, while holding an crappy umbrella in the wind and rain... interesting.

the exposure was definitely different here, same time of night, but the sky looks bright, and just about sums up the patriotic-ness!

Highlight: Hard to pick one, this was overall my favorite day in D.C. - but I'd have to say the Lincoln Memorial!