Back From Washington, D.C.

Last week, my hubby and I visited our nation's capitol.  It was my first time there and we planned a full week of touring.  It was one of the best vacations we've ever enjoyed.  I wanted to go in September because I was hoping the weather wouldn't be hot, and it wouldn't be too crowded as all the kids were back in school.  Boy, we were blessed in every way!  

We had perfect weather...in the 70's all week.  No rain, no crowds, no waiting in line...it was as if we had DC all to ourselves!  We heard, a bit too late, that we should have dropped a note to our representatives for tickets to tour the Capitol, etc., and we just didn't get around to doing that in time, so we figured we'd have to take our chances and wait in line.  Not so in September!  We were able to book a tour of the Capitol building the day before, and we never needed another ticket, or waited in any line at all for any of the things we wanted to see in D.C.

We flew into Baltimore (better fares) and drove to see Annapolis, MD on our way to Washington.  Not only did it save us some money, but it served another purpose for me in visiting another state, and crossing that one off my bucket list.  We had a wonderful dinner at The Severn Inn across the river from the Naval Academy.  What a great town Annapolis is!  I also visited the one and only quilt shop on this vacation, Cottonseed Glory.  After dinner, we headed to Old Alexandria, VA to our hotel.  

For the next three days, we walked, and walked, and walked, and took cabs, rode the Metro, and saw as much as we could see.  We visited The White House, The Mall and all of the memorials, Ford Theater, and the house across the street where President Lincoln died, and Arlington National Cemetery.  The National Archives were just awesome, where you can view the Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights...quite humbling.  We toured the Capitol, and were able to sit in the gallery of the House of Representatives.  We could have done the same with the Congress, but it wasn't until later in the day, and we didn't want to hang around.

We ate great food, visiting Old Ebbits Grill twice (Ed's favorite for their raw bar), and were serendipitously treated to a visit to the rooftop penthouse where we got an extraordinary view of all of DC, as well as the White House as it was only one block away.

Our last two days were spent visiting Presidents Monroe, Jefferson and Washington's homes.   We did book tours ahead of time there, and highly recommend taking the "Behind the Scenes" tour of Jefferson's Monticello.  They don't allow you to take photos except for the out-buildings, which in most cases were the kitchen houses.  

For this Prairie Girl...I was intrigued to see the kitchens!

This was fancy living for the eighteenth century!  Still....you can't help but imagine cooking in these kitchens.  Just looking at the ironware in the fireplace leaves me scratching my head.  Add to that wearing those dresses with all those layers.  Those were some hearty, hard working people!

We spent our entire last day at the Smithsonian American History museum, spending the morning with the docent of the quilt collection.  I'll tell you all about that in my next post!