DC Trip part ONE of a million

I realized, to Eric's chagrin, that now would be a good time to post about the first half of our DC trip, rather than waiting until we get home and I have other, uh, responsibilities! Yesterday we got up around 8ish and had an adventure finding a Starbucks before returning the rental car near the airport and then took the shuttle to the train station which took us to the 30th St Amtrak in Philadelphia. The train ride to WA DC was fun. Definitely a nice change from air travel since you can look out and see the scenery... shabby scenery of dismal neighborhoods in general, but still better than clouds I guess. This part of the country seems pretty sad if you're just seeing it from the train tracks anyway. It was about a 2 hour trip and we ended up at Union Station in DC where it was a $20 cab ride to our hotel. I think our cab driver did his best but the actual fare was only $9.50 so we're really not exactly sure where the other half even came from.

We got our stuff to our room which was nice, but with kind of a creaky bed and a tiny bathroom. We were starving so went to the first place that had been recommended to me -- a Cafe Citron in Dupont Circle. We had a chips and salsa/guacamole platter which was amazing. It had this green creamy salsa in addition to the usual and was delicious. Sadly we missed the free salsa lessons that take place every Wednesday night! After that we headed down town and checked out the White House and then had a couple of beers at Aria before seeing some of the monuments at night, which I guess is the way to go since they look a lot cooler (I think) in the dark when they are all lit up.



We saw the Washington Monument, and the reflection pool which is not really a pool right now -- just a pile of rubble since the earthquake caused a leak. Then made our way to the World War II memorial and the Lincoln Memorial then back to the hotel bar where Eric and I made a game of naming all 32 NFL teams. Fun! I know! I was actually really proud of myself when we had gotten to 31 teams and after at least a half hour or so I finally came up with the last one - Tampa Bay :)

Today we made the most of jet lag and slept in long enough to barely catch the end of our free hotel continental breakfast which was a real disappointment. I then did a yoga workout online before...

Well dang it. I just typed a bunch more and somehow managed to delete an entire paragraph. So to be continued I guess.