DC Hits & Misses

This past weekend my husband and I went away for a couple of nights. We had been wanting to get away for some kid-free time before baby #4 arrives and, thanks to some credit card miles, were able to do so with free airfare.

Washington D.C. in January might sound like a strange place to pick but we chose this for a few reasons. 1) I had never been before and he had not been since high school 2) Most of the sights & museums are free 3) I had no interest in going someplace warm where I might have to get into a bathing suit at 6 months pregnant ;)

We arrived in D.C. on Friday night and took a taxi to the hotel. This I'll count as a miss because I should have done more research on the Metro stops and rather than spending almost $17 to go about 4 miles we would have only had to spend about $1.65 since there is a Metro stop at the airport with a direct line to the block where our hotel was.

As for the hotel, this was definitely a hit. We stayed at The Sofitel Lafayette Square. The staff was very friendly, concierge was helpful and the room was great. It wasn't overly fancy but nice. The biggest "point-getter" for the hotel is definitely it's location. We were one block from the White House and about 3 blocks from the National Mall plus within walking distance to many restaurants and most of the museums.

After checking into the hotel we walked to a nearby restaurant called "Mezza Luna". It was more of a tapas bar, which was great because neither of us were very hungry.

Saturday we spent the day walking...pretty much everywhere. We started with seeing the White House (we did not take a tour inside), then went to the National Aquarium. The Aquarium would be another miss. It is not free ($9/pp for ages 12 and up) and is very small. We spent about 1/2 hour there, did not rush and still saw everything. It is literally a room in the basement of the Dept. of Commerce where they have tanks around the edges and a few tanks around a central block. It was very disappointing for the money we spent.

Our next stop on Saturday was the Museum of Natural History. This was free and was very interesting...and huge. We spent 3 hours here and more browsed than really looked at everything. We did see the "highlights" such as the hope diamond and the dinosaur fossils. My favorite room was probably the mineral room. It's fascinating to see how each one naturally forms so different. Some form in cube shapes, others in "V" shapes and others form small "hairs" on them. The minerals were beautiful and yet another example of God's creativity.

After the Natural History Museum we walked a block or so to the National Archives. This was another of my favorite stops. It was amazing to see the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights and other historical documents. When looking at these it is easy to see the care and time that went into drafting these documents and why they are still so important today.

I'll pause here to say that one of the advantages of going to DC in the winter is that the crowds are much smaller. We waited about 1/2 hour in line to see the documents at the Archives and, while still very busy, the museums were not over crowded and it was easy to see everything we wanted to see.

After the Archives we walked across the street to one of the National Art Galleries. Since most of the museums close around 5PM we didn't have much time here but still enjoyed looking at the paintings and sculptures. Another interesting display they had here was the original scale model cast of the Lincoln Memorial. It was interesting to read the thought process and planning that went into making this monument. After the museum closed we walked the rest of the distance to the Capital building and were able to get some nice outside shots before heading back to the hotel.

Our last stop Saturday night was Levante's for dinner. This Mediterranean restaurant was nice, the service was pleasant and the portions were huge. We could have easily fed both of us with one dinner, needless to say neither of us finished our dinner but it was good.

Sunday was another day of walking. It was drizzling when we headed out so we decided to take advantage of the Metro. The DC Metro is a hit/miss. The pricing is crazy and while you can get an all day pass it's confusing that they don't have set rates. Each stop is a different rate so you have to sort of plan out your stops to figure out how much you need to put on a fare card. Once this is done; however, it's very easy to use and find your way around town. As a side note, my husband enjoyed the fact that the game "Fallout" got the graphics for the DC Metro correct :)

We started out on Sunday taking the Metro to the Air and Space Museum. We were here for about 4 hours and didn't go to any of the shows or see some of the exhibits. It's just that big, you could easily spend a full day at each of the National Museums. Again, this was free admission and would be a great place to take kids as there are several interactive displays.

After the museum we took the Metro to a stop closer to the other end of the National Mall so that we could see the monuments. We started at the Lincoln Memorial and this was by far my favorite. Not only is it beautifully constructed but the quotes on the walls are inspiring and the view down the mall is stunning. The other monuments we walked to were the Korean War Memorial, The Vietnam War Memorial and the WWII Memorial. All of these were very touching and it was humbling to really get a sense of the sacrifice that our Veterans have made over the years. We ended with the Washington Monument, which is just big!

For our last dinner in DC we went to Georgia Brown's Restaurant. This was a favorite for both of us. The atmosphere was great; it was relaxed, yet elegant, not pretentious at all. As my husband put it: "they're not trying to be more than they are". The staff was extremely friendly without being fake and the food was delicious.

Monday morning we did take the Metro to the airport, which was very easy and much less expensive than a taxi ride.

I know this post is long and if you've read this far I hope you have enjoyed it. I wanted to write this all down while it is fresh in my memory to look back on in the future and see what we did and didn't like. I'll be doing another picture post of some of the sights we saw.