Updates! DC Trip in April

First update, back to April.  Kim and I took our trip to Washington DC, something we had been planning for a few months.  We learned a few things on this trip, including the fact that we have somewhat different travel styles.  We did see pretty much all of the major sights, and the weather was perfect.

We had planned to be there to see the Cherry Blossom Festival in full swing, but with the warm weather this spring most of the blossoms were already done.  However, this lovely tree in Arlington was a perfect specimen of the puffy pink blossoms that DC is known for.

Arlington was a little overwhelming, so many grave markers, so much sacrifice.  But it was also serene and beautiful.  And packed with tourists, turns out our trip coincided with spring break in some parts of the US so there were a LOT of people.

In the information centre there was a fantastic quilt, the Lost Heroes Art Quilt.

And looking at the detail, you can see that there's a scanned image of each soldier as a child in each jacket, as well as details of at least one person lost from each state.  Very sad.

The following day, we went to Georgetown.  Can you tell how happy Kim is at the counter?  We're visiting a place she was pretty excited about, from the TV show DC Cupcakes.  It was super busy, we arrived around 10am and had to wait in line outside the shop for about 20 minutes.

But, we got a box of 6 cupcakes, and then proceeded to pretty much eat them all, naughty girls that we are.  The coconut cupcake was amazing!  I was surprised that the cupcakes were so delicious - the best I've ever had!

Notice the picture below is of Kim stuffing a cupcake into her mouth - trust me I was doing the same thing on the other side of the camera.  Yummy!

Georgetown was beautiful, we wandered around a little and the gardens were all in full bloom.  I loved this little church (who can resist a red door???), pretty green gardens all over the place.

We stopped at a park half-way up a major shopping street in Georgetown - there was a path up some stairs with flowers on either side, and then a sweet park up top that provided a great view.

Gotta love a town that invests in its gardens.  Look at this view back down the hill towards the shops.

We had lunch at a waterfront area in the afternoon, with occasional important-looking helicopters flying  along the waterway.

The next day, we went to a number of places, starting with the Newseum.  It was the highlight for sure of the trip.

I didn't take too many pictures inside but this is a cool one, it's the handwritten and typed up notes that Katie Couric used to prepare for her interview with Sarah Palin.

Up top, there was a balcony affording a view of the Canadian embassy next door, as well as the US Capitol building in the distance.  Nice.

Then off to the Smithsonian to see an exhibit of First Ladies' inaugural dresses.  Again with the school tours and tourists, huge lineups inside to see anything.  Finally, we saw Michelle Obama's dress!

While wandering about outside the Smithsonian, we passed the outdoor sculture garden - isn't this installation cool?

Next, on to the FDR memorial, and a series of major memorial places along the water.  I love this bronze of FDR with his little dog.

The Korean War memorial was eerie.  It looks like the soldiers are really walking through the bushes.

The Lincoln memorial was very popular, lots of people standing around and sitting on the steps outside the building.

And what would have been a great view, except that the reflecting pool is under construction, looking back from the Lincoln memorial to the Washington monument.  It's still amazing.

The last day we made it to the Capitol and were able to take a tour.  What a beautiful building, I don't have enough superlatives on hand to describe how magnificent it is.

So many things to see, so much history in one place.  You can see Kim here beside Abe with the tour headset on - we had a great tour guide.

After some excitement at the airport - turns out you can't bring duty free alcohol through security - it has to be checked in, who knew - we arrived home.  Here's Kim, happy to be home as we went along to the parking area on the automated monorail.