Saturday-
Daniel and I headed off to Washington D.C. on Saturday the 24th. We made it to our hotel right next to George Washington University in Foggy Bottom. Our room wasn't ready yet so we left our bags with the bellman and went exploring. We walked the short distance to Watergate (yes, that Watergate) and were surprised to see how nice the complex was. We also walked around the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts that is right along the river.
The building is free to go in (I think), but we were way under dressed compared to the people we saw walking out of there (shorts and t-shirts instead of dress clothes). Well, we saw a school group arriving that was going to be performing there in a little bit dressed like we were, so we pretended to be high school kids and followed them in. (one of the few times where it has been a positive for Daniel and I looking so young). We were able to see the inside without looking too out of place. Around the outside there are various quotes of JFK's engraved in the walls. Daniel really liked a few that said something to the effect of
"This Country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor."
and
"I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit."
After spending some time walking around there, we finally headed back to the hotel. After dropping off our bags and armed with a free map, we decided to see the sights. We walked to the Lincoln Memorial. It was about a mile or so away. When walking, we noticed hundreds, if not thousands, of Harleys parked by the National Mall. For Memorial Day weekend, Washington D.C. has the Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Rally. About 400,000 veterans ride their motorcycles as a tribute to American war heroes. Today, they were just parked, but on Sunday they had their rally and we learned why it is called Rolling Thunder. Just imagine 400,000 Harleys riding down the streets at the same time. Anyway, we made it to the Lincoln Memorial and it was crowded as expected, but not too bad for being a holiday. We continued walking around the mall and got to see the WWI, Korean and WW2 memorials.
Rolling Thunder
Lincoln Memorial
DC's World War I Memorial
Washington Monument
WWII Memorial
Later that night we decided to go walk around a little more (This is what being married to a Silver is like I guess...). We walked past the Ford Theatre where Lincoln was shot but it was closed for renovations and we saw the White House from a distance. We then headed over to Chinatown because I had always wanted to see what it looked like. I thought that it would have some shops but basically all they had was restaurants. So I was a little disappointed seeing that I don't even really like Chinese food. As I didn't want to eat in Chinatown where they had ducks and other things just hanging in the windows, (Daniel was a little heartbroken) we decided for dinner we would just go to the grocery store since our hotel room had a refrigerator/freezer and microwave. We picked up some food including some nectarines and I discovered that I had never had one before and LOVED it. So I ended up eating lots of nectarines during the the first part of our trip.
Chinatown
Ford's Theatre
The Whitehouse
Oh, just FYI, Daniel didn't want to take too many pictures because he just kept saying, "Why take a picture when I can go online and download a much better one later?" So if anyone wants to see more pictures of DC, you'll have to follow Daniel's suggestion and google it. Coming soon...Day 2.
