D.C. 🇺🇸

laurenlcoon
Jul 12, 2017
3 min read

Visiting my in-laws in D.C. had been high on our list of things to do but finding a weekend that both of our families were free was the challenge. The opportunity arose at the end of June and we couldn't have been more excited to explore the city and get to spend some time with our niece, Ava.

She just recently turned 3 and is a ball of energy... face-time wasn't cutting it!

We hopped on a 5pm flight on Friday afternoon and landed in D.C. shortly after 7pm. As we were about to deplane, the pilot came over the intercom with an announcement of a fallen soldier. It was such an unreal thing to see and the plane sat and watched the family in tears. I couldn't get the thought of this sight out of my mind for awhile afterwards, it was very humbling and a reminder of the impact our freedom has on our soldiers.

After the family had left and we got it together, we took the train to our hotel and quickly changed so we could get a bite to eat. Our friend had recommended Fig & Olive to us, he is total foodie so we took his advice and I am so glad we did. The food was great (gf friendly) and the ambiance was even better. They had a DJ and comfy couches. It is located right in City Center which as a bunch of cute restaurants and shopping and is not far from the National Mall.

After dinner we wandered around, got some ice cream from Dolcezza and then rented some bikes to tour the Mall.

There are bikes all over that you can pay by the hour to explore and dock at a new station. We got to see a majority of the monuments this way and biked all over D.C. until pretty late, around 1a.m. The city is beautiful at night, so clean and we never felt unsafe. I imagine this is by design ;)

The next morning, we got up at a decent hour and immediately hydrated! After a couple drinks at dinner and biking all over in the late night humidity, we woke up so parched! We changed into our outfits for the day and headed out, first stop was brunch! I found a place on my gluten free app called Commissary and it was omg good!! They had froze, fun labeled cocktails and breakfast tacos!! Yum Yum Yum!

We stuffed our faces, drank a few drinks and then got a Lyft to head to the White House! I have to say I was a little shocked how small it looked once we got there! This was my first time to D.C. and first time seeing the White House aside from television so I was shocked! Of course, the gates keep you so far away anything would look tiny but alas...

Here it is:

Since we'd seen so many of the monuments the night before, we decided to check out the Smithsonian! We wandered through all of the exhibits and saw land and sea animals of current and past. It was so interesting and you could really spend all day in there. If you want to see the butterflies, make sure you go there first, get a ticket for the tour and explore the other rooms while you have to wait. We didn't do this and times were sold out too far in advance... :(

After traipsing around the Smithsonian... we got a Lyft to take us to my in laws. They live about 45 minutes away in Alexandria, VA.

Once we got to their place, we waited on my niece to wake up from her nap and then got ready to head to an early dinner and to explore their little town! We grabbed dinner at Virtue Feed & Grain.. if you're ever in this area... Go! The food was great and the restaurant was super cozy! Brandon wanted to buy their couch... from a guy who doesn't care about furniture that says something!

After dinner we walked down to the river, checked out some of the boats, saw some ducks and watched the sunset. We took our niece to get ice-cream and then headed back to their house.

The next morning we decided to take Ava on a hike... why? Because we don't have kids and didn't realize how silly it would be to take a 3 year old hiking. However, she did wonderfully... it just takes a bit longer than we're used to! ;)

We did the Billy Goat trail which overlooks the Potomac River and borders Virginia and Maryland. We did a couple miles of the trail before turning around as we had to get back in time for lunch and our flight.

We enjoyed D.C. and Alexandria both so much and know we will be back sooner than later to visit!