Washington DC Day 1

We flew out last Thursday to DC as our vacation this year.  We had an incredible trip and crammed in so many things while we were there.  There are some things that we wanted to see that we weren't able to see because we ran out of time but it wasn't too many.  We are going back one year though, hopefully within the next couple of years and we will be able to see them then. 

Since we done so many things,  I am going to break the vacation down into different blogs.  I will do one blog per day that we were there so that it isn't just one HUGE blog. 

So here it goes.  We flew out of Huntsville, AL which was definitely interesting.  The only airport I have ever left from is Nashville and comparing those 2 is crazy.  Huntsville is a TINY airport with just one terminal.  I wish I had taken a picture but I didn't.  I will say if I ever have my choice again, I would definitely look up to see if Huntsville is cheaper and go with it.  It was such a simple airport to navigate and you get through security quickly.  If you are anywhere close to Huntsville even if it is slightly a longer drive, I would highly recommend looking into that airport.  Even though Southwest (which is what we normally fly) doesn't fly out of there and we had to pay baggage fees, we still came out cheaper going through Huntsville.  We had a nice smooth ride to DC and landed safely.  Once we landed, we experienced a first. 

We were dropped off at the runway and bussed to the terminal.  It appeared that the smaller planes done this as there were about 5 of them lined up here and at the actual terminals were larger planes.  We then went to get our luggage and it was already sitting there waiting on us to get it.  That was the quickest I have ever seen luggage unloaded.  We then caught the subway and rode it to the Metro (subway) station about 0.3 miles away from our motel. 

We got off the subway and was going up the escalators to get on the street and walk to our motel.  This is where we experienced our first rude local and I "got in trouble".  As we were going up the escalator, this man behind me in a really snarky and rude tone says, "Here in DC, if your not going to walk up the escalator, you stand to the right so people can walk up the left side."  I just responded with a yes sir, I'm sorry and moved over to the right side.  I mean, dang, I'm not from DC and had never been there.  How in the heck was I supposed to know this.  Me and Trent laughed as we hadn't been in DC for 30 minutes and I was already "in trouble".  You better bet though that the rest of the trip we made sure to stand to the right of the escalator.  From there, we walked to our motel and tried to check in.  We were a little early so we left our luggage there for them to lock up for us and we went out to explore the town.  We set out exploring around 2pm.  As we were strolling along, we came across Lafayette Park which is where the Andrew Jackson statue is and then right in front of us we see the White House.  The White House was only about a 10 minute walk from our motel if you were walking at normal pace. 

Trent in front of one side of the White House

One side of the White House

Me and Trent in front of one side of the White House

If you are facing the White House, directly to your left is the Department of Treasury.

Department of Treasury

Department of Treasury

As we were walking around to the backside of the Department of Treasury to get to the other side of the White House, we met this lady who's name was Nicole and she was alone.  She picked up on our accents and asked where we were from.  We told her TN and she said she was from TX.  She then asked if it was ok to walk and tour with us for a while.  We of course said that was fine.  Trent later told me that he would rather her to have walked with us instead of her walking alone and something happening to her.  That was instance #1 this trip of how Trent reminded me of why I love and admire him so much.

The other side of the White House.

As we walked on around the White House on the other side was the Old Executive Office Building which has now been renamed the Eisenhower Building.  It was an enormous building.

The backside of the Eisenhower Building.  I really wish I had gotten a
picture of the side of the building as that was what was so enormously
huge.

After that, we circled back around to the other side of the White House so that Nicole could see it because she hadn't been around to that side yet.  Once we got back around to the other side, our motel called and said our room was ready.  I told them ok and said we would be back later.  We then all went into the White House Visitors Center to look around.  This is the second place in which we experienced a rude local.  They had some mock set up's of the President's desk and podium in which you could pay $5 to take your picture with.  Trent didn't want to take his picture with it but he wanted a picture of it so took a picture of them.  A lady then came up and said no pictures allowed.  As we didn't see any signs saying no Photography allowed, Trent said he was sorry and she replied "Yeah, umm, hmmm, I bet your sorry.  The deed has already been done now".  Dang.  Only been in DC 2 hours at the most and already gotten in trouble twice.  We thought we was doomed and gonna experience rude people the rest of the trip.  Luckily, the rudeness ended here as far as locals.  Only one more incident but the other was totally uncalled for and I will get to that during Day 3 portion of the blog.

Mock Set up of the President's desk

Mock Set Up of the President's podium.

Once leaving the Visitors Center, Nicole went back to her motel for the day.  We decided that since she was parting ways with us, that we would go ahead and go back to the motel and actually get checked into our room and then come back out once we were done.  We got our luggage in the room and Trent got his unpacked so then we headed back out to see more of the sites.  It was so nice outside when we were out before but within the 30 minutes we were in our room, when we went back outside, it was sprinkling.  We had decided before we went that rain or shine, it wasn't going to ruin our trip.  We took umbrellas and jackets and we were ready to tough it. 

Once we got back out, we had to walk back down to the same area we had just came from so our next site to see was the Washington Monument which is behind the White House.  Unfortunately, the monument was under construction while we were there due to an earthquake last year.  They normally do tours in it which I would have loved to have done but I guess that can be done on our next trip also.  The series of pictures below were all taken together within just about 2 minutes from beginning to end so you can really see the rain pushing through.  It didn't rain long and then the sun came back out and was really nice again.

From the Washington Monument, you could see a portion the Capitol.  Trent stood up on a wall area at the monument so that he could get this next picture.

Of course, the Capitol is in the center of the picture but directly to
the right of this picture, the other dome looking thing is the
Library of Congress.

From the Monument, we walked on to the WWII Memorial.

I like this picture because you can see the Lincoln Memorial
off in the distance

From there, we walked along the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial.


The reflecting pool with the Lincoln Memorial in the
background

Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial

Standing in the Lincoln Memorial looking out over the reflecting pool
and Washington Monument.

The Washington Monument's reflection in the
reflecting pool.  You can see the Capitol also
just to the right of the Washington Monument.

From here, we walked over to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Next up was the Korean War memorial

We then worked our way over to the Martin Luther King Memorial

Our next stop was the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial

Last but not least, our last stop for the day was the Jefferson Memorial.

We liked this picture of the Jefferson Memorial with the ducks on
the water

The Jefferson memorial with the Capitol peeping through the gap in
the middle

The Jefferson Memorial and Washington Monument

I think this is my favorite picture of the Jefferson Memorial.

Jefferson Memorial up close

Jefferson inside the Jefferson Memorial

When we met Nicole earlier in the day, she had told us that the President was actually in Texas that day.  I don't remember what she said for but none the less, she said he was there.  Once we came out of the Jefferson Memorial, my feet were absolutely killing me so we sat down on the steps to take a little break.  The below picture is the view from sitting on the steps at the Jefferson Memorial.  Of course you can see the Washington Monument and you can't tell real good in this picture but in the small break of trees directly to the left of the Washington Monument is the White House.

 

You may be able to see the White House a little better in this picture

As we are sitting and taking in the view, we hear a helicopter coming in from our right side.  We look up and this is what we see.

Trent proceeds to say, "That's the President's Helicopter!"  There were 2 or 3 of these to fly over unless it just circled the area a couple of times.  We then wondered if it was like a decoy to throw people off and make them wonder if it was really the President however, we did watch one actually go over to the White House.  We didn't watch it land or anything but it did go over there.  We later got confirmation that it was indeed the Presidents Helicopter that flew right over us.  We may not like the man BUT, we still think it's pretty cool that he flew right over us.

After what you can tell was a VERY busy jam packed first day in DC, especially to not even get started until about 2pm, we made our way back to the room.  I don't even have a clue what time it was when we finally made it back.  I am thinking it was around 7:30-8pm.  Once we got to the room, we ordered in and had a Pizza delivered to us. 

I got some new shoes about 3 weeks before our trip and have LOVED them.  They have been so comfortable however, I don't know if it was just my feet or the shoes but after day 1, I arrived back to the motel with 2 full blown blisters on my feet and 1 more in the making.  I was already struggling doing all the walking that we had done that day alone and because of the blisters on my feet, I was walking funny which was apparently putting a strain on my knees and my right hip and was causing them to hurt.  I knew that I was in BIG trouble because the rest of the trip also included lots and lots of walking.  I felt bad because we were on vacation.  The last thing I wanted to do was complain and the absolute VERY last thing I wanted to do was ruin our vacation by not being able to explore like we wanted.  I knew I had to suck it up and tough it out.  Luckily, we had a CVS attached to the side of our motel which was very handy and we made several trips down there.  Once we got back in the room, I laid down and Trent ran down to the CVS to get me band aids and Neosporin.  He also later called the front desk and got a small sewing kit so we could have the needle out of it and we popped the blisters and covered them the rest of the trip.  I can't say the rest of the trip got any easier, in fact, the next day got much worse.  We knew we had a BIG day ahead of us the next day though and was very excited for what we were getting ready to potentially see.  Stay tuned for the next blog so you can see the once in a lifetime experiences we got to see on Day 2.