megans knick-knacks: Washington DC 2012

I know I’m like two months behind on this post…but I finally got things working somewhat correctly and had the time to sit down and write it in little snippets.

My family went to Washington d.c. for a long weekend back in july. We went up there for a close family friend’s opening of an art exhibit at the Smithsonian (big deal, right?!) and snuck in some tourist attractions and events along the way!

Below are a ton of collages of different sights we saw and things we did and food we ate!!

First of all, it was a whirlwind to get up there because the night we left, there were huge storms in Atlanta RESULTING IN long delays AT hartsfield-jackson Atlanta international airport. I believe we were in the Atlanta airport on a delay for 3 hours. We finally MADE IT TO WASHINGTON D.C. JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT!!

THE NEXT MORNING, WE TOOK OFF ON A LONG day of walking, unbeknownst to us…

first stop was the pentagon, which I had never visited before. It was neat how they had the memorial set up to the victims of 9/11 but no pictures were allowed of the pentagon and on the premises.

Hopping back on the metro, we took off for Arlington national cemetery to catch the changing of the guards and see the Kennedy gravesite.

After the changing of the guards, we literally walked about 2.5 miles within the cemetery…all because we wanted to walk to the Iwo Jima (Marine Corps war memorial) monument…

We stopped into Bullfeathers for lunch & got a surprise since it was a day game for the Washington Nationals – it was happy hour with menu items half priced (woot!)

Library of congress was our next stop to explore the exhibits that were there. One exhibit that had a great layout was Jefferson’s library.

We briefly walked around the capitol building before continuing to the Smithsonian national air and space museum! We ended up spending, like, 4 hours in this museum! We were so worn out from the day’s activities; we were just snail-ing our way through!

For dinner that night, we hit up Old Ebbitt Grill! We ended up randomly running into our family friends there! All of our food was AMAZING! I had the pork plate in the picture and it was superb…in addition to the chocolate peanut butter pie…yes, please! Afterwards, Kristen, Jonathan and I went to a bar down the street to have a drink and hang out! It was a neat little bar – I wish I had taken a picture! It had skee ball and games downstairs and had a quieter upstairs!

The next morning, we went to Founding Farmers – a restaurant right down from the white house! They had amazing food WITH FANTASTIC NAMES…fluffer nutter…I mean, come on – DELICIOUS! Another side note about their food…I want to put this on record as founding farmers having the best chicken I have ever tasted and yes, I am including everywhere…even chick-fil-a & Zaxby’s!!!!

After breakfast, we decided to walk it all off! We made our way down Pennsylvania Avenue to the white house & treasury department buildings! At this point, it was starting to get overcast somewhat, so we ducked into the Smithsonian national museum of American history!

How cool is it that we were at the American history museum on the anniversary of buzz aldrin and neil Armstrong walking on the moon!?!? The other temporary exhibit was the history of the spar spangled banner which was cool as hell. I hate that you couldn’t take pictures in it.

We made our way – in the rain – back over to the Smithsonian Renwick gallery which was featuring “40 under 40” – the art exhibit where our family friend has art pieces featured. There are, obviously, 39 other artists featured in this gallery as well. We walked through the exhibit and saw many other very neat art pieces.

after the gallery opening, we had a low-key afternoon by partaking in some grub at busboys & poets before heading to churchkey bar to grab some brews about happy hour time. Mom, dad and I visited the Washington monument after partaking in a few drinks before walking further to the Lincoln memorial. We spent a while walking around the Lincoln memorial and people watching before we met back up with Kristen and jonathan. Our dinner that night was at pizza π beer.

The next morning, we ate breakfast at clyde’s before touring the archives of the united states where you can view the bill of rights and declaration of independence among other historical documents!

After splitting and going back over toward the natural history museum, the line there was too long, the bureau of engraving and printing was closed on Saturdays, so we opted for the holocaust museum. After that, we grabbed lunch at burger tap & shake! YUM!

We loved founding farmers so much that we went back for happy hour! Let me just say, their margaritas are top notch delicious!! Additionally, we loved their fresh fruit tray behind the bar!

Kristen, jonathan and I decided to attend the Washington nationals vs Atlanta braves game! Yes, we lucked out that the braves were playing up in dc while we were there!! we got standing room only tickets which ended up being pretty awesome! While we were there, we also got some concessions and came to the conclusion that nationals park food options were much better than braves….as in no comparison at turner field! Sorry Atlanta….

Our last stop of the trip was Sunday morning at the Smithsonian national museum of natural history. We saw the hope diamond and multiple exhibits (African animals, ocean creatures, dinosaurs and butterflies)! Of course, I had to get a picture with the elephant in the lobby of the museum!!! Classic!