While Liz has visited our nation’s Capital several times when her cousins lived in Bowie (a suburb of DC) several years ago, we have only been here together once. This time we could stay longer, almost a whole week, and had a few friends who lived in the city that we could catch up with along the way! We also visited in October, which brought slightly warmer weather than our last visit which was November and was the weekend of DC’s first frost, way to cold! We just love this town. If it wasn’t so expensive (and the traffic wasn’t so horrible), we’d love to own property here and visit when or as we please. There’s so much charm and history. Great restaurants, fun bars, free activities indoors and out, and the metro’s – I wish every city had a metro! DC just has a lot to offer.

What do you think? We had a great time, we especially loved the Halloween Party! We rarely go to parties as extravagant as that, it really put us in the Halloween mood and motivated us to step up our Halloween game.

The Smithsonian Museums are a true treasure for the American People. Each museum offers incredible history, knowledge, culture, and artifacts for our enjoyment and education, 100% for FREE! I know mostly out of town tourists go to these museums, but if I lived there, I feel like I would take advantage of it (who knows though). Liz’s friend Kiana, who I’ve known since elementary school, was able to meet us at the Air and Space Museum which has a ridiculous amount of information about air and space travel. I feel like “the guys” would love this museum. My favorite museum we visited this go around, was the Natural History Museum. I love learning about our origins in addition to the world and nature around us. The collection of animals they have here is something else!! If you have more time and really love museums, the botanical gardens is lovely (especially at Christmas time), the Native American Museum is really beautiful and informative. It also doesn’t hurt that their restaurant serves delicious authentic native cuisine. The newest Smithsonian, is the African American History Museum which is on a free time ticketed entry since it’s still rather new. We would have loved to have gone here, but we weren’t prepared enough to get a ticket in advance. Next time!

Mt. Vernon, George Washington’s personal residence is a must if you’re into American History. His home sits on the Potomac River and still has the same unobstructed view George had when he resided in the home. Unfortunately there is a strict no photography policy while on the tour, but you can take pictures of the grounds themselves. Purchasing tickets in advance is advised and I would set aside at least 3 hours to take advantage of the full grounds. He has several hundred acres originally which now has mostly been sold off. Since we were there toward the end of the tour day, we missed the actors showing you the daily tasks on the farm, such as churning butter, picking crops, or cracking corn. It was no easy task!

Moral of the post. Go to DC. It’s awesome!