Washington D.C. (Part I)

In January we took a weekend trip to Washington D.C. as kind of a mini-honeymoon (but really more of just a last-minute tag-along with some friends of ours who were headed there anyway).  When the Spero's told us they were visiting some family in Bethesda over the long weekend and we were welcome to join their roadtrip, we happily accepted.  It was a trip of many firsts: not only our first vacation as husband and wife, as well as my first visit to our country's capital city...

but also my first time dining at a Cracker Barrel!

 

Have you ever been to one of these? I'd seen Cracker Barrel cheese in the supermarket before, but never laid eyes on one of the restaurants. Quite the country experience. Corralling EJ in the store attached to the restaurant provided plenty of wait-time entertainment. Thank goodness the wedding diet was over prior to this pitstop on our roadtrip, or I'd have found very little on that menu to eat. But boy was it delicious.

Surprised I could get this far off the ground after sampling so many fine fried foods!

The drive took us through THREE states: New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.  I was fascinated.  Having grown up in California, where you can drive for ten hours straight and still not be anywhere near entering a neighboring state, it really struck me when we actually passed through other states (and multiple ones at that!) on our way to a city just 4 hours away. A 4 hour drive up the central coast will barely get you from Nipomo to San Francisco!

Though Bethesda is about 20 minutes outside of DC, the Spero's were sweet enough to drop us at our hotel.  We'd booked a room last minute after a quick search for deals near the city center and it was AWESOME.  Totally lucked out.  Easy walking distance from everything we were hoping to see, super fancy and super empty.  Plus a Starbucks onsite.  DONE.

We spent our first evening walking around the city, getting our bearings and shivering something fierce. We'd expected cold weather, but it was windy and FREEZING and we were far from properly attired. The only store open was a dinky little Macy's, so we spent too much money on stupid hats and gloves, which we'd dumbly forgotten to pack.  But what a thrill to see the white house!  All lit up and beautiful at night.  The actual real live white house, where the leader of our country eats and sleeps and meets with other world leaders and makes world changing decisions. I was blown away just to be standing outside the fence peering in at it.

 

 

Also loved the gorgeous building right next door, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.   Soooo pretty all lit up at night.  And little did we know, we'd find ourselves standing inside of it the very next day...