Mini vacation in DC

A couple weekends ago we took a mini vacation down to Washington, D.C. to visit some family and a friend. We were pretty excited about the trip, because we haven't gone on a vacation longer than a weekend in a long time, so it was nice to get away for a couple extra days. We drove down to DC, and so like most road trips, this meant leaving at midnight.

We've driven to Indianapolis, Chicago, and Florida, so we've gotten pretty good at timing and taking turns driving. We figure out what time we want to arrive, and backwards calculate what time we need to be leaving. I take the first leg and drive until about 2 AM (drove till 3 AM on this trip, so very exciting!), and then Marek takes over until about 5 or 6 AM. He sleeps while I drive, and vice versa. We typically stop after Marek's turn and sleep for a couple hours. Then I wake up and drive for a long while.

Friday morning we arrived in Virginia, where we were visiting some cousins of mine. I always think of them as my dad's cousins because that's how we are related and he knew them growing up. (If you want to get technical, these are my first cousins once removed.) Marek and I stopped by and visited with them and had lunch. They were so kind - I haven't seen them since I was probably 10 years old or even younger! They really amaze me with their energy, too! They own a couple of stores and are very lively and just great people to spend time with. I reconnected with them after my Nana passed away recently, so it was really nice to see them again.

We stayed until about mid-afternoon, and then we had to head into DC. I was disappointed we couldn't spend more time together (and that I didn't get to hang out with any of my other cousins (their children, grandchildren, and even a great-granddaughter!)), but we'll be back soon, so I'm hoping to see them all then!

The drive into DC wasn't too bad (we'd been warned about it), and we stayed at my cousin Kate's apartment. Here's her adorable dog Addie, who is such a sweet, good dog. (Looking at you, misbehaving Claudius Weenie.) She is so friendly and was excited to hang out with us.

Friday night Kate was actually getting her haircut, so we hung out with Airport Chris. We went and got some Thai food and then some ice cream, and then we sat at Dupont Circle and people watched for a bit. It was a pretty nice night out, and it was nice just to relax, but Marek was falling asleep! (Which is funny to me, since he got about 4 more hours of sleep than I did.) We made it a semi-early night.

On Saturday morning, I got up in the morning and went for my long run for the week. I ran down to the National Mall and ran by the White House, the Lincoln Memorial and the reflecting pool. I was supposed to go up past the Washington Monument and to the Capitol, but it was hot and I was tired, so I half-assed it and walked a bit, and then ran home. I did a little over 7 miles, which I was very happy with, because I was on vacation and still running! And it was wicked hot and humid down there, my least favorite type of weather, especially for running.

Marek and I went and sat at Starbucks for awhile (he had some work to do...some vacation), and I took Addie for a walk, too. In the afternoon, we met back up with Airport Chris to go do some sightseeing. We were supposed to take the Metro, but it was running late, so we decided to walk to the Smithsonian, and oh my God, did that take forever! I only forgot one thing when I packed, and that was my Birkenstock sandals, which are much better for walking miles and miles than cheap, Old Navy flip-flops (I love me some Old Navy flip-flops, but they are not good for walking and standing around all day).

Here's a statue of Andrew Jackson, aka Old Hickory. I don't remember much of my junior year American History, but he always seemed to be quite the character.

We decided to go to the National Air & Space Museum, which was okay. I honestly thought it was going to be a bit more interesting, but we still had fun. Here's a picture of Marek looking at the piece of moon rock. (Because US astronauts totally went to the moon!)

Here's a donation box...international tourists seemed to be a bit more generous on this day than US tourists.

I thought this poster was pretty neat. Can you imagine taking 48 hours to get from one side of the country to the other? The trip was a combination of planes and trains, too. That must have been pretty interesting, but I bet exciting at the same time. Early flight seemed pretty scary though. I liked some of the museum exhibits, but I was chastised by Marek for taking too long...I guess I was just supposed to be looking at the pictures, and not actually reading anything!

We left the museum to head back to my cousin's because we were all going out for some dinner. My feet and legs hurt so much! I had run that morning and then we walked down to the mall, and then walked and stood around the museum for a couple hours. :( Luckily Airport Chris suggested we take the Metro back (after he was done poking fun at my tired legs), and we only had to walk a little back from the stop.

The walk from the Smithsonian back towards the Metro stop was very nice. The clouds and sun were looking very pretty above the Washington Monument.

We walked past the National Archives on our way to the Metro stop, so I stopped and took some pictures. This (and the Library of Congress) was actually my vote for sightseeing, but I was outvoted. Last week my dad told me I could just have all his pictures from the National Archives since I didn't make it inside, haha. Next time!

The National Archives is a pretty standard building, I guess, but I always like taking pictures of building fronts and stuff like that. There's a couple statues on either side of the entrance, and the one of the left says What is past is prologue.

Here's the front of the building. It was such a nice day!

And here's a picture of the columns. I found out on the ride home that Marek and Airport Chris were totally making fun of me for taking pictures. :( Marek blabbed that omg, hahaha, we were making fun of you because you were taking pictures like a tourist after making fun of all the other tourists. I IMed Airport Chris about it, and he said, oh no, we were just making fun of you for taking so many pictures. Gee, thanks, guys! Whatever, I like taking pictures of buildings. I don't pretend to know anything about architecture or anything like that, but buildings are always interesting to me.

We went out later that night for dinner, and then we met up with my brother and some of his friends for some drinks. Here's me and my "little" brother! This was my first trip to DC, so it was nice to get to see him for awhile, and meet his friends.

Here's Kate and I. Did you know if you put your hand on your hip and stick your arm out like we are doing it looks thinner? Nice trick! I hate when my arms look fat and flabby in pictures. I'm going to have my hands on my hips, sticking my arms out at an angle in all of my wedding pictures, no doubt.

I'm not really sure how this happened, but we decided to try to take pictures looking all serious. My cousin we saw on Friday mentioned how in olden pictures, no one is ever smiling. Kate and I tried, several times, but something about this exercise (I've tried to do it before, here) just makes me laugh a LOT. The boys said it really shouldn't be this hard, and here they are, demonstrating how easy it is to purposely not smile in a picture. Maybe I'll master this amazing skill someday.

Here's Marek, Airport Chris, and I before we all split up for the night. Hooray for airport friends! Also, I'm very short. I know this, but sometimes seeing it in pictures feels like a revelation.

On Sunday morning, Marek headed back to Starbucks to work, so Kate and I took Addie on a walk and then we walked down to the National Mall ourselves. We had some food and then walked past the WWII memorial. All these people were just chilling out, putting their feet in the pool, even though there is a big sign that says no wading. I'm not usually all uptight about this kind of stuff (many other things, yes), but that's kind of disrespectful. There are plenty of other bodies of water in DC to put your dirty feet in; you don't have to do it at a national monument.

For dinner we went to Texas de Brazil in Fairfax, because it's pretty much our favorite restaurant EVER. Seriously. This was our 5th different TdB we've been to (Aruba, Orlando, Denver, Chicago are the others), and I'm not going to lie - a small part of the reason behind his trip was because we wanted to go to TdB! We've been wanting to go to the one in Fairfax for awhile (it's the one closest to us), and we're lucky enough that we consider anything within about 15 hours to be "driving distance".

Here's Kate and I at dinner. This was before we started eating. If you ever make it there (if you live in Texas, lucky, lucky you!), I highly recommend the cheesebreads (I'm pretty sure these are just their version of gougeres) - I could eat these all day. (Now I want some. They are very easy to make, so maybe I'll make some tomorrow, hmmmm.) Also, their "signature" meat is picanha, which is freaking amazing. It's pretty much the only meat I eat there, and I wait until the meat guy comes around with all the ends intact, and just ask for all the end pieces. Honestly.

And here's Marek and I outside! We love spreading the TdB love to all our friends and family!

After dinner we drove back to DC and said good-bye to Airport Chris, and then just hung out at Kate's apartment for the rest of the night. It was nice to chat and catch up, especially since we live so far apart now.

Monday morning I got up and ran and then Marek and I headed back home. On our way home we stopped at a real Chick-Fil-A (not one at the mall), which made the trip totally complete! The drive home always stinks in comparison to the drive down, especially when you get stuck in traffic going over the GW bridge in New York, but oh well. (And especially when you get stuck and someone has to pee really badly because he guzzled down an enormous coffee and keeps saying how badly he has to pee for like half an hour even though there's nowhere to get off the bridge so he's just going to have to hold it or pee in a cup, which he doesn't want to do.)

It was a really nice trip, and we had a lot of fun. Although I don't know how people live down there in the heat and humidity! Right now we're planning on going back in October, so maybe it'll be a bit nicer then. Thanks to all our family and our friend for being so hospitable and showing us a good time! :)