One year on: Exploring Washington D.C
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It is exactly one year since I visited Washington D.C! And I still haven't posted about everything there is to do in Washington! I've been to quite a lot of states in America now and many places in between, and not to mention living in Florida for three months so it is safe to say I am pretty in love with the place. Washington D.C has 100% been one of my most favourite locations I've visited as there is so much to explore! I went here as part of my two week American coach tour where I previously stopped off at Philadelphia and Baltimore and "rested" in D.C before heading onto Canada. This post is going to be the first in a series of posts about some of the fabulous locations I visited while on that tour last year and the tour I recently done this summer. This tour I talking about at present actually followed on from when I finished working in Disney World for three months, you can read all about my Disney cultural exchange experience if you'd like. I hope you enjoy reading about these places as much as I enjoyed visiting them and hopefully it inspires you to visit some yourself!
Monuments, memorials and things to do at night time!
So, what is there to do in Washington D.C? What are the best things to visit in Washington D.C? Being the capital, you can imagine this place is a pretty big deal, and it is. There is literally, so, so much to do and see in Washington just like New York. It is definitely the place that has the most memorials and museums that I've ever seen. At first you may think "meh, memorials. Boring museums" - oh hell no!! There are so many famous and iconic structures that have such a huge, significant mark in history and feature many times in 100's of films. You can visit the Capitol, the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr, Abraham Lincoln, Jeffereson, Korean War Veterans and The National WW2 Memorials to name a few!
Arlington National Cemetery is an impressive one, it is the country's largest military cemetery and is the resting place of J.F.Kennedy and his family - it is a very peaceful and beautiful site. I also saw The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier which is a tribute to those fallen soldiers who could not be identified in a number of wars. It is constantly guarded and it is well worth sticking around to see the changing of the guard ritual which is very interesting to watch the respectful, strict and precise way the guards (who dedicate their lives) complete this. I believe you can take tours around this area but there are always lots of plaques to read to tell you what's what.
I visited most of these memorials as it was getting dark. We were part of a large coach group so we managed to get a private tour in our own coach but there will be loads of tour groups you can join - it's worth it as it is a lot of walking. It was really lovely to visit everything as the sun went down. I got some lovely photos with the sky all pink and it was just beautiful to see all the memorials lit up. I think the darkness added a bit of eeriness to the whole thing, as some of the information in the memorials is sad and pretty chilling. The only downside is that I didn't get great pictures as I only had my little pocket camera (LUMIX TZ60) which is super duper for blog pics and day time shots, just not great for night time! So I would go back during the day. The other downside about going with a group is that you have to keep up with everyone and can't take your time as much if you're a super slow reader. But day or night, you cannot go to Washington D.C without visiting the majority of these incredible memorials.
Museums and things to do during the day
I only had two nights and one full day which was absolutely no where near enough time! To explore everything Washington D.C has, I needed so much more time! I completely missed out on the majority of museums and didn't even get a sniff and the shopping or restaurant facilities! However, in the full day I did have, me and my wee chum crammed in so much we developed colds by the evening we were so tired! We got up relatively early, and jumped on the metro to visit the Zoo! The metro is like the underground and really simple to follow - red lines, yellow lines and clearly marked stops so super easy and inexpensive to get around. The Zoo is so impressive! You literally need the best part of the day to see everything there! The usual lions, tigers, elephants but also orangutans, pandas and much more! We just picked a few that we wanted to see and were in and out in about an hour or two, so it is possible if you don't have time! Oh, and the Zoo is free entry!!
Next we headed to some museums! All of which are also free! Well most, I think there are a few that you have to pay for, Smithsonian ones are all free. We checked out the Holocaust Memorial Museum first, which you can imagine was very chilling as well as extremely interesting. Note, it left us feeling a little deflated, it is so hard hitting. You see real artefacts from the Holocaust, real personal items, shoes of the victims, hair, beds, chambers and hundreds of pictures. There is a really beautiful memorial room where you can light a candle to remember the victims. The advice given to us was to go get a nice ice cream afterwards to cheer you up as it really does leave you on a downer - but again, a must see!
After that we visited some more museums - I loved the Air & Space museum! There's also a Maccy D's in there, which was our pick me up from the Holocaust museum. If you're a super geek like me, this place is heaven. You see the very first plane ever made - made out of paper! Famous planes like that big retro red one Amelia Earhart flew. You can go inside aircraft and even touch a moon rock! And there's tons more spacey, planey, sciencey things to read about, learn and interact with. Loved this museum.
Another must-do is the National Museum of Natural History. Loads of animal and natural specimens, loads of info and lots to learn. It is super huge so you could spend all day here too. You can even see real diamonds, worth millions of dollars which are so sparkly and pretty!!
All of the main and best museums surround the Washington Monument (the tall thing with the spike) in a square so they are super easy to navigate but it is a very long distance the whole way around. Good walking shoes deffo needed to get from museum to museum at the least! So, after the museums, the sun was starting to go down and it was a really nice time to visit the Monument in the middle. If you get to the memorial for about 6 or 8 am (I can't quite remember which) you might be lucky enough to grab some tickets to go up the top of the monument which would be so fantastic! But we would not be able to make it around all those museums if we had gotten up that early haha.
Our last visit of the day was to visit Obama at the White House! It is about a 10 minute walk from the monument, maybe less, you can see the back of it from there. We had some photos by the back gardens and then it was another 10 mins or so walk around to the front. You see some cool buildings on the way round too! It felt kind of surreal visiting the White House. You see it in so many films, all over the news etc, etc, it was amazing to actually be there! You need to visit this place, even if you have to squeeze it into your last 10 minutes of being in D.C!
Temperature and how much money to take to Washington
So I went in mid August and the weather was really hot, 30 degrees plus and it was really tiring and hot walking around from the zoo, between museums and then to the White House so it may be best to go when it is slightly cooler as it is a very busy, full on experience. I crammed so much into one day and an evening but I could easily spend perhaps 5 days to do everything at a leisurely pace. You don't need a lot of spending money with you if you visit Washington D.C because, as I said, most of the main attractions are free of charge. Of course, you need some dollar for food and more if you plan to go shopping.
This has been just a very brief over view of everything there is to do in Washington D.C., there is so much more I didn't get a look at and I will certainly be returning in the future to do it all again and more. Have you every been to D.C? What museums did you visit/love?
Beth x
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