Ms. Mae Travels

My daughter and I spent a long weekend (November 5 – 8) in Washington, D.C., visiting another of my daughters.  There is so much to see and do there – we tried to hit everything, if just for a quick visit.  I’ll try to write more later, but here is our itinerary with some notes and a few pictures:

1. Hot Cider Hustle – My daughters ran in the Hot Cider Hustle; I slept in since we had taken a late flight the night before.
2. Silver Spring Farmer’s Market – My daughter recently moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, a short commute from D.C. We explored the local farmer’s market on our way to the metro.

3. 

   The Nicest Metro I’ve Ever Seen – The D.C. Metro is beautiful!  It is clean, the tunnels are large, and the trains are efficient – and there are escalators everywhere!

4. The Library of Congress – We walked from the metro station to see the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court Building and the Capitol Building.

   

   The weather was perfect for photographing the buildings – we planned to go inside them at a later time.

5. Lunch from a Food Truck – This is common for those of you that live in a city, but I rarely get the opportunity to have so many choices of ethnic food.  I chose Mediterranean; it was very tasty.
6. The United States Botanical Gardens – We sat on a bench in the Botanical Gardens while we ate.  After lunch we went into the conservatory and explored the various gardens.
7. Walking the Mall – The Botanical Gardens are at the southeast corner of the Mall, so when we left, we were able to stroll along the mall, taking more pictures of the Capitol Building.  We saw the Garfield, Peace, and Ulysses S. Grant Memorials.
8. The National Gallery Sculpture Garden – We walked through the sculpture garden connected to the National Gallery, on our way to…

9. 

   The United States Navy Memorial – At the memorial, there was a group of veterans that had come to D.C. through the Honor Flight program.

10. Dinner – After a long day we had a relaxing dinner at McGinty’s, an Irish Pub in Silver Spring.
11. Sunday Brunch – Sunday Brunch is a “thing” in D.C. – many restaurants offer it. We chose to eat Balkan cuisine at Ambar, TripAdvisor’s number one restaurant in the city.
12. Eastern Market – After brunch, we walked to the highly acclaimed Flea Market at Eastern Market.
13. National Archives – We made a quick stop at the National Archives to see the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence
14. National Cathedral – We attended an evensong service at the National Cathedral, which also included the installation of Rev. Dr. Rosemarie Logan Duncan as Canon for Worship. We ate at a restaurant near DuPont Circle before heading back to the Mall area to see…
15. The White House -(just from the outside),

16. 

    The World War II Memorial,

17. The Lincoln Memorial,
18. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and…
19. The Korean War Veterans Memorial – It was dark by the time we saw these memorials, but they are impressive even at night.  We walked nearly 20,000 steps on Sunday, but we didn’t want to miss anything
20. Supreme Court of the United States – We arrived early and stood in line waiting to see the Supreme Court in action.

    

    The officials bring in groups of around fifty people for a “3 minute” tour.  We were excited to get a peak, but unfortunately, court was finished for the day (the day only lasted about 40 minutes) before it was our turn.  We had arrived about fifteen minutes before the court opened, but we should have been there even earlier.

21. Library of Congress Tour – We walked next door to tour the Library of Congress.  This was my favorite building tour of the weekend.  The architecture and decoration of the building is beautiful, the docent was clear and informative, and the additional exhibits were interesting.

    

    Although we had a good view from the overlook, next time I’d like to get a library card and actually go into the reading room.

22. Lunch and the United States Capitol Building Tour – We ate lunch at the cafeteria in the Capitol Building as we waited for our scheduled tour there to begin. The tour was interesting, but I would have liked to spend more time looking at all the statues.  Each state is allowed two, so there are 100 state statues located around the building in addition to those of presidents and other important people.
23. Concert at the Kennedy Center – We went to a free concert at the Kennedy Center featuring some of the National Symphony Orchestra’s Youth participants.  After the concert, we enjoyed dinner at Vapiano’s (an Italian restaurant) in Chinatown.
24. Bureau of Engraving and Printing – The Bureau of Engraving and Printing opens at 9:00 (not 8:30, like we read on the website).  We waited outside until they opened, but were asked to join a tour almost immediately upon entering.  I’d recommend the tour for someone who is interested in collection bills or coins, or for families with children. After the twenty minute tour, we walked past the…

25. 

    Washington Monument, (which we could not ascend because the elevator is being repaired), on our way to the…

26. National Air and Space Museum – One of the Smithsonian Museums, the National Air and Space Museum deserves way more time than we allowed. I would plan an entire day here to be able to fully explore all the interesting exhibits.  I especially enjoyed the information about the Wright Brothers and Amelia Earhart.
27. Lunch in the National Museum of the American Indian – We ate traditional style Native American lunches in the Museum of the American Indian.  I wish we had allotted more time to explore the museum.
28. The National Gallery of Art, East Building – The National Gallery is split into two buildings.  We explored the east building first, trying to leave time for the west building.  This never seems to work for us – we can’t explore quickly.  We loved the east building which housed art by some of our favorites – Alexander Calder, Matisse, and Mondrian.
29. The National Gallery of Art, West Building – We went straight to the Impressionist section in the west building, but unfortunately, a large part of it was closed.  We quickly walked through a couple other sections, but decided that with this first look, we preferred the east building.

    

    We will explore the west building further next time.

30. Newseum – We walked past the Newseum on our way to the metro. It looks like it would be interesting to visit.  Outside the building was a display with the front page of one newspaper from each state.

31. 

    Looped Yarn Works – Of course, we had to check out a couple yarn shops. Looped Yarn Works has great yarn and friendly, helpful staff.  I plan to visit them on my next trip to D.C.

32. Second Story Knits – This shop in Bethesda, Maryland, was a little smaller and we were disappointed that the staff seemed more interested in their own knitting projects than the customers that were visiting the shop. The owner appeared to be busy with a vendor, but I’ll try to give her a second chance next time.
33. Taking a Break to Watch the Election Returns – We finished up our whirlwind trip by watching the election returns at a fantastic barbecue restaurant, Hill Country.  The large TV’s around the room were all set on channels projecting the results.  We headed back to my daughter’s apartment long before a winner was declared as we were taking a red-eye flight back in the morning.