Our Washington DC Itinerary

See the full post of our time in Washington DC - Part 1 & Part 2

So I started this post shortly after we were in DC back in April and it's been sitting in my drafts ever since. I figured I might as well finish it, so here it is finally!

This was our second time visiting Washington DC, the first time being 10 years ago when my parents took us on a family trip there. 

Since we had been before and we knew we were only going to have a day there this time, we had a little bit of an idea of what we wanted to do. 

The rain kind of threw our plans off a bit as we didn't get to do quite everything we wanted, but overall it was a fun day!

Hotels in downtown DC were quite expensive, so we opted to stay at a Mariott in Maryland for a couple of reasons. One reason being price; but also because we had a rental car and I didn't want to deal with driving and parking in DC. Parking is hard to come by and very expensive. This hotel was near a metro station (the Largo Town Center station.) that also offered parking. 

Just a note on the hotel: it was very nice, new, and clean. And the rooms were pretty big too! Great for a family with room to spread out. We would definitely stay here again. Prices, of course, fluctuate, so while it was affordable when we were there, it might not be so much in the future!

We had a bit of trouble figuring out the metro cards (the DC metro system is VERY different than what we experienced in Europe. Specifically way less efficient and way less easy to navigate!), but an employee helped us figure out and purchase them.

And since we were there just after the cherry blossom festival, we got these fun metro cards! And yes, I totally saved mine for my scrapbook.

Once on the metro we rode to the Smithsonian - National Mall stop. It was about a 20-25 minute ride and took us right to the National Mall.

We checked out the sites around the mall before walking over to get some pictures of the Jefferson Memorial. This was the only area that had some cherry blossoms left, so we made sure to get plenty of pictures! We decided not to walk all the way over to the memorial to save some time and it wasn't a priority to see it up close.

Next we walked over to the WWII memorial. While not a huge memorial, there is still a lot to look at. We spent a fair amount of time walking around here and taking pictures.

We then walked to the Lincoln memorial and then to the Korean War memorial. It was raining pretty good by the time we reached the Korean War memorial, so we just took a couple of pictures before continuing on our way.

It stopped raining for a bit as we walked toward the White House, but then started raining again once we got there. By the time we reached the front of the White House, the rain turned into a pretty good downpour so we hurried into a nearby gift shop to wait out the rain.

We were all pretty hungry by the time we finished walking around the gift shop (after picking up a few things of course!) so we decided to try to find a place to eat some lunch. I looked on my phone and found a Pret nearby, so we walked there. 

By the time we finished eating the rain had finally stopped. We made our way along Pennsylvania Avenue, where we had to stop by the J. Edgar Hoover building. My sister was very excited to see it!

We then headed to Paul bakery; a bakery we really enjoyed while we were in France. I got an almond croissant, which was delicious!

After our snack we walked to the National Air & Space museum. The museum was pretty crowded, so we just quickly wandered through the exhibits without spending too much time there.

After we finished at the museum, we weren't really sure what else to do as it was nearing 5 o'clock, so we decided to walk over to the Capitol building. 

When we visited back in 2008, we didn't get to go to the Capitol building, so it was neat to finally see it up close!

There was quite a few people around taking pictures, so we just took a few before walking around to the backside, where there was no one! So if you visit the capitol, make sure to walk around to the back as well.

For dinner we went to Good Stuff Eatery which was extremely disappointing. Despite having fairly good reviews, it was pretty terrible. The staff were not friendly, the burgers were just okay, (really nothing special), and the fries were just disgusting. They were so greasy and limp they couldn't even hold up under the weight of their own grease. My family loves fries, and we couldn't even eat half of them they were so bad! Definitely wouldn't recommend eating there! 

Overall though, we had a fun day in DC! If you've never visited it's definitely somewhere I would recommend visiting! There is SO much to see and do! And now that I live closer I'm looking forward to exploring all that it has to offer!

Five for Friday

Hello and welcome to my Five for Friday! I am linking up with Cup of Tea , Bright on a Budget, Della Devoted, and BYBMG!

1. Well, this week has just been the worst. SO MANY things have gone wrong. We've had issues with the contractors doing the repair work on our house, issues with the carpet people when we went to pick out replacement carpet, issues with my mom's car, then issues with the dealership who lied about a bunch of things and tried to scam us. Then we had major issues at the DMV when we tried to get new licenses, so now we have to go back and try again on Monday. Then I've tried to look into health insurance (since I don't have a job yet since we moved) and I apparently don't exist. I've submitted documents proving I do, in fact, exist, and they were supposed to email me back and they never did. So I now have to deal with that crap. And this is freaking the SECOND TIME I've had to prove my existence since moving. And yes, I already have run a credit check to make sure my identity wasn't stolen. And there are SO many other things like this that have gone wrong in the past few weeks that it's honestly too many to list. I am just so done.

(And yes, I spent way too much time picking out the appropriate gifs because why not.)

2. Anyways, on to more positive things. I got this really cute new dress from Amazon. I haven't had the greatest luck ordering clothes from Amazon, but I am really happy with this dress! The material is just the right weight. Not too thin and not too thick. I really like the polka dot print. And it has pockets!

The dress is a midi dress, but I'm 5'8" so the length is just past my knees, which I like. And I would say the size chart is pretty accurate too. 

(I've yet to find a decent place to take pictures in this house. It's so frustrating!)

3. I've made both caramel sauce and hot fudge sauce in the past couple of weeks and they have certainly been enjoyed lately! The hot fudge sauce is really easy to make (and definitely worth it if you've never made it!) and the caramel isn't exactly difficult, it's just temperamental. The recipe I use doesn't have the greatest instructions. Let me know if you're interested in making it and I'll give you some tips! Hot fudge and caramel sauce are way better homemade than store bought!

4. I finally got a longer charging cord for my phone earlier this week and I don't know why I waited so long to get one! I got this 6ft one from Amazon and it works pretty well! It does seem to charge my phone faster than the actual Apple one which is nice.

5. In case you missed it, on Monday I shared a review of my July Ipsy glam bag, and then on Wednesday I shared a currently post!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Currently

Working on - Lots of reorganizing! I just worked on my closet earlier this week and that was frustrating. I have probably half the hanging space in this closet that I had in the closet in our rental, so it's been frustrating trying to fit everything in. And I really don't have that many clothes in the first place! I might have to get just a rack to have outside of the closet, but I don't think I'm going to have room for one. 

Watching - I've been watching America's Got Talent and on Netflix I just finished season 2 of Nailed It. Which, if you haven't watched Nailed It, you really need to!

Reading - I just finished Formula of Deception by Carrie Stuart Parks and it was pretty good!

Needing - To work on some more blog posts. I always seem to get ahead for a while and then I fall behind. So I have several posts in my drafts I need to work on!

Buying - I just bought this really cute dress on Amazon!

Looking forward to - Fall! I am so sick of hot weather! The humidity here in Virginia is miserable. I've always hated hot weather, but adding the humidity to it just makes it so much worse!

Trying - I just got the Benefit Brow Contour Pro pen from Influenster, so I am interested in giving that a try! It's a pretty interesting looking product. It's four products in one pen. Just like those pens you might remember from when you were a kid that had multiple colors that you could slide down.

What have you been up to lately?

July Ipsy Glam Bag

SEBAMED Liquid Face and Body Wash: I didn't use this. It has tons of great reviews but I just couldn't get over the smell! I don't even know how to describe the scent except that it's terrible. And the odd green color is also not very appealing.

HEMPZ Herbal Body Moisturizer in Sweet Pineapple & Honey Melon: Unlike the last product, this smelled really good! Kind of like fruit punch Kool-aid. It seemed moisturizing, although I don't have particularly dry skin right now so I can't say how well it works on really dry skin. It does rub in well and isn't greasy, so that is always a plus!

SUNDAYS No. 45 nail polish: I didn't really care for this color as it looks a little bit more neon in person. Since it's a lighter color I had to use two coats because the first looked really streaky. And even after two coats it looks a little bit streaky in places, so I would say that it really doesn't go on too easily. After about the fourth day I started to notice some chipping. So overall the polish itself isn't too bad, I just didn't really care for the color.

SUGAR COSMETICS Stroke of Genius Heavy-Duty Kohl in 03 Green Light: While the color itself was okay, it's just not something I would wear. I just prefer neutral colored eyeliners. 

OFRA COSMETICS Eyeshadow in Exquisite: I was really disappointed to see this was the shade I received. I just don't have a use for black eyeshadow. I mean, I suppose I could always use it with a smudge brush as an eyeliner or something.

Overall I've been disappointed with my Ipsy bags recently. It seems that I get some great bags for a while, and then I'll go through a period with some really disappointing bags. I like trying new makeup products, but I hate feeling like I'm wasting my money!