As I sit here this a.m. enjoying the quiet of the house, I am prepared to blog a bit about my trip to Washington, DC. Overall, the trip was quite interesting and I would enjoy going back for many reasons. The Guest House that we stayed in was part of the experience I enjoyed the most. The hosts were extremely hospitable, the food was delectable, and it was an overall nice experience. Part of enjoying a trip is always meeting "locals" and our hosts were from multi-cultures. Laura, the lady of the house, was born/raised in the DC area-she had MUCH insight to give about places to go, things to see, what to avoid, etc... Her husband, Raymond, was Arab. His perspective on the blessing of living in DC was very interesting-he said he would not live anywhere else in the U.S. and found it to be extremely welcoming. This couple runs their own contracting company in addition to 2 guest houses in DC. These houses were "restored" by them with the most elegant and usable of features. Even an "elevator" for luggage and such has been installed in the 3 story home. They were very vigilant in introducing everyone at the dinner table each morning and making sure everyone was included in conversation...it was a very personal type of stay and I really enjoyed it!
The weather in DC was HOT!!!! It was in the mid 90's and HUMID! We were not expecting that type of heat in May! Apparently, the heat/humidity did come about 3 weeks early...lucky us:( However, the heat didn't stop us, just slowed us down a bit. We were able to see a lot of the city and some things on the outskirts. There was only one thing that we were not able to see that I would love to have visited and that was the Newseum. It is a 3 story private museum about the print news. It has archives of papers from MANY years ago and you can go read the headlines from major papers from any day/time that may interest you. It also contains award winning photos from newspaper articles. When we arrived there was only 1 1/2 hours before it closed, we decided it wasn't enough time to enjoy the museum, so we chose instead to tour the National Gallery of Art instead.
The subway (metro) system in DC was very easy to use. MUCH easier than the one in NYC! DC was much smaller, less crowded, and slower paced than I expected...but then perhaps it's my perspective because I had been in NYC the week prior and things were ridiculously crowded and fast paced! DC was very beautiful, filled with gorgeous trees, flowers, etc... I never felt "unsafe" anywhere in the city. There were a few surprises on this visit to DC. First, I was surprised that they did not have "lockers" nearby the White House to put your belongings in while you toured. Because of this little surprise, Jennifer ended up taking the tour by herself through the White House-I stayed with the bags. She was disappointed and said there wasn't much to see-so it worked out o.k. and I decided not to go in after she came out. The Washington National Cathedral was VERY impressive. It certainly rivaled anything I ever saw while living in Europe and that surprised me. I didn't think we had such magnificent architecture here in America...particularly a gothic cathedral. It was a nice surprise and a gorgeous facility-well worth the journey to NW DC to visit/tour! The Capitol building was amazing as well. It is really beautiful with so much history. We saw several of the war monuments and even went on a boat tour to see them "in lights" by the Potomac River one night. However, to our disappointment, it wasn't yet dark and the ride really wasn't very impressive at all like the pictures made it out to be. We were disappointed in the boat tour. Of all of the monuments we saw, Arlington National Cemetery was certainly most impressive! Just an amazing humbling sight to see the graves of the thousands of men/women that have died in serving our country. The day we were in Arlington, there was actually a funeral occuring. It was so very sad seeing a coffin draped with a flag being pulled by a horse/cart. A beautiful sight to behold, but still so incredibly sad that so many do not appreciate or begin to understand the sacrifices our military make every day. The view of the city, from Arlington house, was just incredible! There was one other journey we took out to the NW of the city-it was to Hillwood Estate. Hillwood was the home of Marjorie Merriweather Post-heirress to Post (now General Mills) Cereals. At one point in her life (1937-38), she was married to the Ambassador of Russia and lived in Russia during that year, this was during the time of Stalin. Some of the things she brought back from Russia are just incredible and worth MILLIONS of dollars. It was much more impressive than the National Gallery of Art! It truly was a "museum" of artifacts that she collected and it rivaled any estate/manor house I ever saw in Europe! Definitely something worth visiting if you are ever blessed to visit DC.
My friend, Jennifer, did not feel so well during our trip to DC-so we didn't move as quickly as Rebecca/I had the week before in NYC. But this was quite o.k. with me, I was still running low on energy from the 10+ miles I had logged each day the week before! It was a nice trip and we did see many wonderful things. A city definitely full of history and has something for everyone. I'm sure I will most likely be returning to DC sometime in the future as this is a trip my husband has always wanted to take. Being amidst so much of the political climate that week, certainly made me appreciate that I am an American and it also helped me understand how precious it is to protect that freedom.
Sounds very interesting. DC is always a place I have wanted to visit.. my problem is there is so much I want to do, I'd have to stay for a month :) Arlington Cemetery sounds like it would have been a very emotional, yet moving experience to see. As well does the Hillwood Estate! ;) Thanks so much for sharing your travels with us... it makes us feel like we were a part of it as well! :)
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