Today (Day 2) has been a good one (I'm seriously becoming obsessed with this city!). We started the day pretty early, 7, and went down for breakfast. We're both loving the omelets, and then headed back up to get ready and head out.
We started by heading over to Arlington, we had to walk through a park area and saw the Netherlands bell sculpture thing that they sent us...we didn't even know this was a thing! We found out we wer eon the back/side entrance of the cemetery so we had to walk all the way across to get to the trolley starting point. Luckily the line wasn't too bad to get on that. That took us to the Kennedy Eternal Flame and then over to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
This was MUCH cooler than I expected. We just happened to be there on the only day of the whole year that you can actually walk up to the tomb to lay down memorial flowers. The benefit offered white roses or pink carnations (one represented remembering and one was like a mother's flower or something like that). It was REALLY cool to see the changing of the guard, I had asked Stace if they ever let women do it and she said she remembers seeing a woman the last time we went, and then, while we were in line, they did another change and that was a woman, so that was kind of cool.
After that, we got back on the trolley to go to the Arlington House (this was owned by George Washington's step grandson), which had pretty fancy slave quarters. We hit up the gift shop (where we found a cool lego set we just had to get) and then back to the front of the cemetery/drop off area (which now had a very long line, so we got there just in time). We were probably there for a few hours, which I didn't expect, but we learned a lot there.
After leaving the cemetery, we headed over to the zoo (since it was free), but turns out they only sell so many passes each day and they were sold out (bummer), but we hurried and got tickets for tomorrow, so hopefully that works out. So we headed to look for lunch. We ended up passing this guy giving out coupons for a nearby Italian place, and I LOVE Italian food, so we figured we'd try it. Turns out it was the SLOOOOWEST place ever! Not sure why it was so slow, but they were in a hurry to get our dishes, as Stace was taking a bite of her food, the lady came and asked if she was done and if she could take her plate (I wish I could describe Stace's facial reaction, she just looked like she wasn't sure if the lady was really asking her and took a pause before saying "I'm not just done yet" haha). We joked they must only have one or two plate sets and that's why it's so slow haha.
After this, the day took a fun turn. We rented scooters and took a ride over to Georgetown. Riding where there is a lot of foot traffic isn't as fun, but when we got to a park area and could zoom around, that's when I was having much more fun. This area was really pretty, I loved the houses, but there wasn't a whole lot to do. Stace talked me into doing some Game Show experience thing at this place that did that and an escape room, but this was much different than an escape room(I wasn't feeling excited about it, but I'm SO glad we did it, we ended up really having a lot of fun). I was nervous because we got there early and we were sitting in the waiting area and this group of people sat with us but they could NOT have been more dull and just subdued. I was worried they were with us and since I wasn't feeling excited I thought "this group is NOT going to help my attitude" and I didn't want to ruin it for Stace. Luckily, that group got called in before we were set to go, so we realized it was the group before us. Then our group showed up and we got along with all of them so much more, they made it fun. We ended up on the red team and we beat the blue team, which made it better, so we celebrated and took some pics and then headed back out for more exploring. I highly recommend this if you have one in your area (it's not really a tourist thing, but still a recommendation)
We walked Georgetown more. Stace wanted to find an old house she remembers from last time, but we never did find it. So after a while we got on the bus to head back and realized we wanted to see the monuments at night. There was a night monuments bus tour that took you, but it was $60.00, so we figured why not just go ourselves? The ladies on our Game Show team said the Jefferson Memorial at night is really cool. So we headed that way.
Let me just say, I thought my big things this trip would be seeing the Lincoln Memorial, but man the Jefferson one might be my favorite. Lincoln is cool, but I think the Jefferson one doesn't get enough recognition so it surprised me. It's funny because as we were walking around I had this thought that if I lived in this city I'd love to get engaged at a monument. Not sure why I thought that, just thought it would be cool. Then we heard a bunch of cheering and someone mentioned that a couple just got engaged and the guy made sure her friends were there for afterwards, so sweet and so funny it happened as I was thinking that same thing.
After taking in that monument close up, we headed to the other side of the lake to park it and wait for the sun to set to see it all at night. After a while we realized we still needed dinner and it was Sunday (and Memorial Day weekend) so things closed early, so we figured lets just go get dinner and then come back another night to see the monuments lit up. The only thing open for us was Shake Shack so we headed that way. The food took a lot longer than I think fast food should take, we just split the food and it ended up being really good and kind of the perfect amount (we weren't starving, but knew we needed to eat something before bed).
After that, we got back to the hotel, did our calls to home, I took a shower and now I'm headed to bed. I'm very much looking forward to the other things we have to do on this trip. It's been so great so far!
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