Labor Day Wknd- Washington DC Monuments

We had a long weekend full of lots of steps! A few days after celebrating my birthday in Old Town Alexandria, we made the 35 minute drive into Washington DC for some sightseeing. 

I had visited DC once (very briefly!) with Shane a few years ago when we were visiting his family nearby for the holidays. Since moving here, we've headed into the city a few times for errands or for the airport, but this was our first time truly sightseeing.

With us living so close, it's nice not to feel the pressure of cramming everything into one day...especially with there being so much to do in DC! We decided to start with the monuments and to walk around the city a bit just to get the basic lay of the land.

We got there around 9:30 in the morning and it started out as a gorgeous day! It soon became hot, hot, hot as I'm sure you'll be able to tell from many of our pictures. I'm not one to ever complain about the heat, but...it was hot.

We started at the Thomas Jefferson monument. I kept accidentally referring to him as George Jefferson or Jefferson Davis, so we're thinking I deserve to have my Virginia/DC resident card revoked. 

It's so surreal seeing all these monuments you always see in movies, TV, in books, etc. It's hard to wrap my head around actually seeing them. Some of the glory and power is taken away and you realize they're somewhat just another building/statute/whatever in just another city. They're definitely cool and interesting to see, but it's also somewhat weird to be able to walk right up to them/in them. I don’t know, does that make sense?!

With Shane originally being from near DC, he can speak a lot to the monuments and history here...super interesting!

We walked for about 2 or 3 hours to take in all the monuments and memorials...although they are all surprisingly somewhat close to each other- definitely walking distance.

On this day, I was feeling really grateful for the places the military has taken us and all the places I've been fortunate enough to live in/near. I am very blunt with the fact that there are a lot of challenges to military life, but there are times where I am so glad for what it has contributed to with this unique lifestyle. Who knows how much longer we'll be doing this military life, so we definitely want to take advantage of the different places it allows us to see, on their dime. 😉

Being an Illinois girl originally, I knew some of my Abe Lincoln facts as we approached his monument.

Lots of pretty monuments! This was the WWII monument.

Did I mention how hot it was?!

That's the US Capitol back there. Next trip into the city will have us checking that out! I also need to just get the dogs packed up and walk them around here some days throughout the week, with it being so close and with so many new/interesting things to see.

After the monuments, we stopped for lunch...yum! I always crave lobster rolls when I see them on the menu at a restaurant, but I can never get them while still being g-free. This restaurant had g-free rolls and also Lobster Bisque that was g-free. I was in heaven! It felt very Labor Day-ish to me! East Coast life, I suppose.

After lunch, we walked to the White House. I remember us briefly seeing it a few years ago (see the pics just below, clearly we saw it in much different weather back then!).

And here we are in the same spot again! It's so surreal for me to see the White House because I read quite a few books from people that work there or fiction books of characters that work there. Plus, ya know...hearing everything else in this crazy world of ours through the media.

It's so built up in my mind, but especially from this front side (that we also walked around to see), it almost seems like just another house in between normal buildings in the city. It's cool to see all the security measures (and probably a million security measures we don't see or know about), but it's also hard to wrap my mind around how close you can get and how so much has happened/happens in that house, but it can also seem so normal in its surroundings. I remember thinking how small it especially appears...but I think I'm jaded from all the oil money houses I would see everywhere in Houston, haha.

Love all the cities this guy and I have seen together!

Shane and I walked some more through the city. Ahh, I was so happy to be back in a city city again! Seeing so much fashion, so many cute outfits, so many city people, lots of different buildings...haha my North Carolina previously living self was loving all the sights. I was feeling some Chicago vibes. 

We grabbed coffee and then were on our way back to the apt to walk the dogs, shower off, cozy up, and be in our pajamas by 8PM...just the way we like it. #old

That's it for our first "tourist" day in our new city together! What do we need to add to our ever growing list for the next trip in?

Happy happy Wednesday! Hope your week hasn't been too tough getting back into the swing of things!