Washington, D.C. | Travel Guide

The destination for our annual holiday abroad would be Washington, D.C. to begin with; a city that both of my parents had visited before but my brother and I had not had the pleasure yet. As usual our holiday was packed with wandering around to explore the local area, museum visits, guided walking tours and trying local food. Particular to Washington was also the whole cluster of monument and memorials that we obviously also had to visit.

We landed very late on Monday, technically it had just passed midnight and become Tuesday and we would be flying out Saturday morning at 10 AM, which left us with four full days to explore the city. Instead of going day by day like I have done in the past four years that I have been writing about our holidays, I thought I might split it up into sections by theme instead to try something new. Most of the notes below have been written down during the trip itself and I have added and modified here in the edit for it to be a coherent post.

Stay

The Hamilton Hotel

We were staying at The Hamilton Hotel, which I immediately loved solely based on its name. The musical that share the name with the hotel has been gaining a lot of attention in recent years. While I have never seen the musical, I have seen so much Hamilton hype online and it definitely brought Alexander Hamilton’s name and story to the masses. But other than the awesome name, another very good thing about this hotel was the location, which is always something that is of the highest priority when we are picking where to stay. It has to be easy to walk to things and a central location is usually worth paying for. We were also located close to metro lines, though we did all of our moving either by foot or the occasional taxi ride, if we were feeling a little tired. Washington is a pretty walk friendly city and pretty easy to navigate because of the way they have named their streets (numbers going one way and letters going the other with the occasional named street going diagonally through). We walked between 10,000-20,000 steps each day.

Locations

Downtown

We lived in Downtown, just 500 meters away from the White House and it was a great area to be in. We found a ton of restaurants on our street or the adjacent streets. A park was located around the corner, which was pretty, even if it was also a place where homeless people spent the night. It was lovely strolling up and town the streets and being centrally located. So many of the buildings were grandly built and caused me to pause and pull out my camera, so enjoy a little collection of buildings I wouldn't be able to tell you what housed if you asked me now. Probably something important government stuff, if I were to guess. Many politicians and organisations seemed to be located in rather impressive buildings.

National Mall and Reflection Pool

Perhaps one of the most famous locations in Washington. The noteworthy strip between the Washington Monument and U.S. Congress houses many of the Smithsonian Museums, which all have free admission and together cover huge chunks of American history. On the other side of the Washington Monument, you have the long reflection pool the stretches between the Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. We explored quite a lot of the monuments and memorials on our first full day in Washington and it was a wonderful way to start the trip.

Georgetown

We were recommended to check out Georgetown and it was a very beautiful area, packed with shops and food places. Georgetown were one of the two towns (the other being Alexandria) already on the spot of land that later became the new District of Columbia and would house the political decision makers. The French architect L’Enfant who was commissioned to design the new city was actually instructed to place Congress in the already established Georgetown but he ignored this and instead placed it on the hill where it resides today, which back in the day was in the middle of nowhere. Our visit to the area was a bit short and I was too tired to take a lot of photos but take m word for it; it's a cool area. And apparently Barack Obama lives there now, at least according to the taxi driver who took us to the airport when we left Washington.

Monuments and Memorials

White House

No one in the family is fond of the guy currently living in the house but we still couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see it. The real fence and then a temporary fence with Secret Service posted outside looked weird. Even more so when we were later told that during Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and up until a few years after, you could literally walk up to the door and knock and ask to get a tour. Times have changed a lot since then but the White House is still an impressive sight.

Washington Monument

We never walked all the way to the Washington Monument since my brother had looked up that the National Park Service has it closed until 2019. I do not think we would have had the patience for an undoubtedly long queue even if was open. If you watch the Monument closely, you can see where the stones used to build it changes significantly colour. This is because they had to cease the building because of lack of funds and by the time they started working to finish it, the original ore where they had mined for materials was closed. We joked about the Americans and their phallic symbols. Almost wherever we were in the city, we’d be able to spot the Monument in the distance.

World War II Memorial

This was the first of the memorials that we visited on the first day where we had decided to explore all the memorials located around the area of the reflection pool. This particular memorial was beautifully made and the sound of the gushing water and the almost cove like feeling when you walked into the centre served to isolate you and demand your full attention. A few quotes were engraved on the walls but one in front of stars representing fallen men stuck with me, even as we left: “Here we mark the price of freedom”. It is coincidentally also probably the only quote that I did not photograph since, it hit me at the core and I completely forgot about capturing it. Still, I have plenty of other quotes to share as well.

Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial was awe inspiring but the many people milling about took a bit of the grandness away from it. Sweating tourists, us included, pumping shoulders and trying to get a good look at the statue was a bit suffocating. Still, it was a grand place that inspired me to keep quiet as I walked around and took it all in.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

We walked down the path next to the thousands of names engraved on the wall besides us. The slow rise of the wall, peaking and then descending again, again caused me to keep quiet as I walked and took in the memorial. Small momentums were left in the small crevice up against the wall - probably placed by family members or loved ones of the people who lost someone.

Korean War Veterans Memorial

We managed to overhear a bit from a tour guide talking to his group, as we were sitting on a bench and enjoying ice cream and cold drinks before approaching this memorial. It’s a unique one, with statues of soldiers walking in triangle formation. Wherever you are around the triangle, you will see eyes on you because that’s how the real soldiers walked to ensure that they could not suffer a surprise attack. Most of the statue soldiers are said to represent the army, but the group also includes three marines (who you can identify by they fact they have their helmet strap fastened), a medic (who isn’t carrying a gun) and a pilot (who is wearing a soft hat). Since the Korean War is often called The Forgotten War, it was really nice to see that it has gotten such a beautifully constituted memorial that will help people remember.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

My brother has always had a fascination with USA and he has collected so much knowledge about the country, and since he is also politically inclined, it’s natural that he has an interest in the American Presidents. FDR is his favourite, so obviously we had to find his memorial, even if it was located a bit out of the way. And what a sight it was. Probably the largest memorial with a prologue area and then an area dedicated to each of his four different terms. His best quotes were scattered throughout the memorial and each time we took a pause and read it out loud. It is a wonderful memorial. I still find it so fascinating that it's because he died early in his fourth term that they made the rule that US Presidents cannot serve more than two terms, consecutive or not.

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

I quite liked the imagery of this memorial, even if we initially had a discussion why Martin Luther King Jr. might have been carved in white stone. The stone that his statue rises from looks like it has been yanked out of a mountain, which is supposed to symbolise the struggle he faced with his cause Along the apparent mountain range are quotes from the man’s great speeches.

Museums

Thomas Jefferson Library of Congress

I’ve always loved books, so the chance to explore an old library was interesting. We passed through the library as part of one of our walking tours, and it was great to learn a bit of backstory. Such as the fact Thomas Jefferson did not chose to donate his large book collection of over 6,000 books for free but rather that he allowed the State to buy them since he was in a spot of money trouble. We also learnt about how a huge chunk of the original collection got burned down when the Brits attacked the Capitol where the library was originally located before they moved it into a separate building to be able to expand it and keep the books safe. And the library worked diligently to repurchase or relocate copies of the books lost from Jefferson’s original collection.

U.S. State Capitol

Our first walking tour (more on that below) took us to and inside of the Capitol Building and also provided us with tickets to see a film in the south theatre and got us on another tour where we walked around and explored the place with a guide, a group and headphones. It was neat to get to explore it a bit, but with Congress being in session, it was also a bit odd as tourists to be walking all around politicians' work place. We were told how each State is allowed to have two statues placed around Congress that they get to pick to represent them as a state. Some statues are also ordered by Congress specially, like the sitting statue of Rosa Parks below. I also quite liked the statue of the pioneers of the women suffrage movement but mostly because our guide told us why it looks like like it does - it's done entirely on purpose because it is to show that there is still work to be done with women's rights and I thought that was quite nice symbolism. My family and I had a bit of a discussion of what or who the statute on top of Congress is. She can be seen up close in marble below but it is Lady Liberty, with a bald eagle on her helmet, which is then wearing a Native American headdress.

National Air and Space Museum

This museum was the only one of the free Smithsonian museums on the American Mall that we choose to visit. You could literally spend weeks if you were to explore all of them properly but I particularly wanted to see this one. The reason behind might sound a bit lame, considering it was based on the fact the museum feature in the Night at the Museum sequel. But it was an interesting museum all the same and learning about the early days of flight was fascinating. Flying on an airplane later, I definitely considered how cool (and a bit scary) it is that we are able to do this. An earthbound species building technology to travel by air? It has become common place for us now but without the first steps and science behind it then we wouldn't be able to travel across the world so easily. I also spotted Snoopy briefly and got to read up a bit on the Red Baron.

Ford’s Theatre & Ford’s Theatre for Education

We obviously had to see Ford's Theatre while we were in Washington. You can get a free ticket to enter the museum during the day time, you just have to wait a bit to a scheduled time as the capacity isn't the largest. It was interesting to explore the museum and learn about all the things that happened on the day that Lincoln died as well as bit about the events happening prior to his death. Once you finished up the museum part, you got an opportunity to see the theatre and I remember being stuck by how small it is. I have no doubt that it was the grandest at the time. The balcony was surprisingly close to the scene and low down, so it was really no wondered that John Wilkes Booth had planned to just leap onto the stage as he was making his escape attempt - the fact that he got his foot stuck in the American flag draped across the front and landed awkwardly and injured his ankle was probably just karma. We also learnt that Lincoln is the most written about president and there are still being written books about him to this day and the stack photographed below is steadily growing. As part of the ticket to see Ford's Theatre, you also got to go across the street to the house where Lincoln died, which was a bit bizarre but interesting all the same.

Newseum

Mum was recommended to check out this fairly new museum by a colleague of hers and it turned out to be quite the experience. The first area we checked out was all the Pulitzer photographs through the ages and I got quite emotional walking through and looking at all the trudges captured through the ages. Obviously a lot of happy emotions are captured in the photos as well but the heartbreaking ones were definitely the ones that got burned into your mind the most. We also had quite a blast walking through the area where they stored news papers through the ages and you could walk through and see practically all the important things that happened, with representation from various sources, both domestic and foreign. They also had a section called First Dogs that showed photographs of the American Presidents' dogs, which was an instant hit with our dog-loving family. We looked through a book about the dogs in the gift shop and apparently Harry S. Truman's famous quote "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog" is a misquote and he wasn't particularly fond of dogs.

Walking Tours

Walking tours have become an easy stable whenever we go to a big city aboard. It is such a fun and interesting way to learn about the history and/or culture of a place. I am constantly surprised by the wealth of knowledge these tour guides possess and they usually have a burning passion for their city and it always shows through in the way they talk about it. This time we found our walking tours on http://freetoursbyfoot.com, which had the unique system that you do not pay upfront before the tour but rather you decide the price you want to pay after the tour is finished. It felt very suited to America, where the service people generally relay somewhat on tips and it is considered that they should work hard to earn the wages.

U.S. State Capitol and Library of Congress Walking Tour

This walking tour was quite a special one, as it was a little less walking around and instead giving us time to explore the Thomas Jefferson Library of Congress building on our own and later we were "handed off" to get a tour of US Capitol. Nevertheless, our tour guide was pleasant to listen to and we learnt quite a lot of information about how Washington came to be as a city.

Lincoln Assassination Walking Tour

We took this walking tour the evening after we had spent the day visiting Ford's Theatre, which meant that we experienced a really Lincoln centric day. We met up at Lafayette Park in front of the White House and we ended up at Ford's Theatre when the tour finished. Our guide had humour and she carried a book of photographs to help set the scene a bit better. We learnt how it took the Lincoln couple six tries until they found another couple that wanted to go to the theatre with them on that fateful night, because evidently Mrs. Lincoln wasn't very liked. We got a sense into the villains of the story, as well as the simultaneous attack on the Secretary of State, which failed spectacularly despite (or perhaps because of) him being sick in bed with a neck brace for his broken jaw. We also got some insight into the non-attempt on Vice President Andrew Johnson, whose scheduled assassinator got drunk in the hotel lobby the vice president was staying in and consequently chicken out. Fascinating stuff.

Food

Food isn't normally the driving force behind our holidays but we still need to find some place to eat three times a day, so naturally it becomes quite a big part of our time abroad anyway. I have chosen only to list my favourite places below.

Brown Bag

This place was located pretty much right next to our hotel so naturally, we walked straight into it on the first day. We actually ended up going for breakfast a second time around as well, because it was delicious. You would fill out a little slip and they make your order exactly like you want it, which is always a big hit with myself. Furthermore, I'm pretty sure I remember seeing signs about sustainability, which is another thing that I love. I ate a build-your-own scrambled eggs both times with a side of fruit! Oh, and also we all enjoyed their homemade lemonades.

Chipotle

I do not have a single photo of our chipotle, which is quite astonishing as we actually ended up eating dinner from there two times while in Washington. Each time we bought it and then brought it back to the hotel and ate it just sitting on our beds. Probably not the most cultural experience but each of us loved a good chipotle burrito, tailored to our own taste, as well as a side of chips and guac. For the longest time, Mum could never remember the name for this restaurant and thus it now has a wide variety of nicknames in our family and it might become a necessary repeat visit like IHOP whenever we go to USA on holiday.

We The Pizza

We were recommended this pizza place by the guide of our first walking tour as it was located pretty close to the Capitol Building. Sometimes, I love pizza and other times it is literally the last thing that I want. But this place was freaking amazing and it had great vegetarian pizza options. You buy a separate slice rather than a whole pizza, so each of us ordered two slices each and got what accumulated to one huge pizza. It was delicious! Definitely one of the places that makes me appreciate pizza and the fact you just had to commit to one, albeit big, slice rather than a whole pizza was a wonderful construction.

Madam’s Organ
This place was recommended to us by my D.C. native professor and it was a quite interesting place. Unfortunately, we arrived way too early for the live music that they play every night, which we missed out on. It's a proper comfort food place and the food was good. Even if I must confess that the many stuff hunting trophies adorning the walls was a little much for me.

Seylou Bakery

This place was another recommendation from my professor and I can honestly say that we wouldn't have found it without being given the specific address and a word to check it out. It's a health place that does stuff with ancient grain and the moment we stumbled upon it, sitting in the middle of a residential area that we hadn't explored before, we were all a little sceptic. It was necessary our usual style but we tried it out and it was surprisingly delicious. My slice of bread had a bit of a hard crust and it was a bit burnt but the bread and jam was delicious and the juice had a quite unique taste but not all-together bad.

And that brings me to the conclusion of my list. It has been a pleasure to be back in America and there’s something quite special about Washington - the way the blocks with their numerical and alphabetical rules make easy to navigate; the way White House and Congress and the people who work there have a constant presence and the hoard of museums capturing different elements of the American history and culture in almost any aspect that you can imagine. Four days allowed us to explore a whole lot but you could easily spend more time here to explore the huge museums, enjoy the vibe in the city and learn about all the history that has seeped into every corner. It was special to see the American Capital and learn a bit more about the politics and history.

As always when we are traveling as family, we are bound to have a bit of squabbling but as usual, it was still a good trip despite the ups and downs. My parents had both been to Washington, D.C., before but I am very happy to have visited the city for the first time myself. It was odd seeing protesters outside of the White House and “the whip” walk into his office while we were in the U.S. Capitol building. We encountered so many American tourists during our time here but it was also interesting for us international folk. And finally, because I do not want the original notes of our day to day to be lost, I'll add them below.

1st Day in Washington 

Breakfast at Brown Bag

Stroll to American Mall

White House

Washington Monument

World War II Memorial 

Lincoln Memorial 

Vietnam Veterans Memorial 

Korean War Veterans Memorial 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial 

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

Lunch at Irish Pub

Shopping at Madewell and Banana Republic

Chill in hotel and takeaway from Chipotle

2nd Day in Washington

Breakfast at Le Bon Café

U.S. State Capitol and Library of Congress Walking Tour

U.S. State Capitol - inside tour

Lunch at We The Pizza

National Air and Space Museum

Rest at the hotel

Dinner at Madam’s Organ

3rd Day in Washington 

Breakfast in Seylou

Ford’s Theater Museum 

Ford’s Theater for Education

Lunch at Harriet’s Diner

Lincoln Assassination Walking Tour

Takeaway from Chipotle

4th Day in Washington 

Breakfast in Brown Bag

Newseum 

Lunch at Good Stuff Eatery 

Walk and shopping in George Town

Rest and relaxation at the hotel

Dinner at The Good Eatery

5th Day in Washington

Fly to New Orleans in the morning