The Capitol Building on a perfect spring afternoon!
If you haven't read about our first day in D.C., click
here to catch up on all the fun! Otherwise happy reading:
To start off our second day in Washington D.C., we woke up early so we would have enough time to explore the rest of the museums that we want to cross off our list. For breakfast, we ate at a little diner across the street from Ford Theater (where President Lincoln was assassinated). The food was good but it was loud, crowded and the service was spotty, sooo it wasn't the best experience. After breakfast (which ended up being a brunch because we waited in such a long line to get into the diner), we tracked down a Starbucks because I hadn't had nearly enough coffee during our meal. Once sufficiently caffeinated, we had planned to head down to the National Mall but on the way, we passed the National Archives. We weren't planning on going here, but I immediately recognized it from its scene in National Treasure so I told John that we had to go in.
John looking incredibly pensive outside the National Archives.
I was in awe of everything we saw in this building! I wish I had been allowed to take pictures because I probably would have snapped a picture of every single document in there. My favorite part was the famous Rotunda where they keep the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. To be completely honest, I teared up a bit in here because of all the history that I was surrounded by in the room (secret's out--I'm a history nerd...scratch that, I'm a everything nerd).
From there, we went to the National Air and Space Museum. This one was definitely John's pick, but I still thought it was a little cool. What I really liked about this museum was John's enthusiasm for every single exhibit. He was so excited to explain the type/use/significance/specifications/etc. of all the planes in the exhibits and I couldn't help but smile while watching him talk (sorry for the sappiness!).
Right next door is the American Indian Museum, which John and I had high hopes for because we were expecting a ton of historical artifacts from tribes across America. Unfortunately, we thought that there wasn't a lot of exhibits in the museum to actually see so we didn't spend as much time there as we thought we would. One thing that I really did like about it was that some artifacts they had were dated B.C. so they were extremely old. I think they are supposed to be expanding the museum, so we will have to go back and check it out!
The last place we wanted to be sure to visit was the steps of the Capitol building. On the walk there, we took a slight detour through the Botanic Gardens, which was so pretty. I would love to see the gardens in the summer, when more flowers are in bloom!
Slightly dorky pose, but I couldn't resist taking pictures in the garden!
We had ourselves a little photo shoot around the Capitol building and then just sat on a ledge staring at it, wondering what goes on inside. Maybe Frank Underwood up to his manipulation tricks?? House of Cards anyone?!
This was our last stop on our trip unfortunately. We had an absolute blast on this quick weekend...we were able to see so much history. I love how all of the museums are kept so close together; its how we were able to see everything we had on our list! We had so much fun so we want to plan another weekend trip this summer, but I am unsure where yet!
My favorite picture from the whole weekend!
Do you have any weekend summer getaways planned?
