Katy's Trip: Our Super Awesome, Way Fun Day in DC

We began this totally awesome day by commuting into DC with Courtney which was good fun.  Well good fun in that we got to peek into the way she spends about half of her life (stuck in traffic).  She dropped us off and we headed to Lafayette Square behind the White House.  Lovely.  There are lots of places to explore here but they were still closed because it was early.  It was quite nice, because Katy bought me these cards with DC walks on it and so as we walked we read about what we were seeing in true tourist fashion.  It was terrif.

 We then went to say hello to the Obama family at their home, but I think they didn't know we were there because they didn't come out to say hello.

 So we went around back and tried our luck there.  No Obama's but Michelle's kitchen garden was worth the walk:

 And then of course we took some jumping pictures, and this is where things get really interesting.  As we were admiring the White House, Katy and I began to discuss how much we love London.  And suddenly this man with a British accent asked us to take a picture for him.  And he was kind of laughing because he had heard us pining away for the mother country.  And so we took his picture and he began to strike up a conversation, but Katy, afraid of love or something abruptly turned away and began walking in the opposite direction.  And that is when Katy officially missed her big chance.  I really think he was the one.  I do.  It was so sad, and we were both really bummed for a second.

 So to cheer Katy up after losing in the game of love, we walked to the Daughter's of the American Revolution building and went in to see the Period Rooms:

 When inside we went into the ball room, or as us Anglophile Austen fan's like to call it, the assembly room:

 Then we were going to go to the Corcoran which, like me, is "dedicated to art".  Except on Monday's when it is closed.  Oh well.

 So we high tailed it to Pret for a delicious pain au chocolat, and lunch to go.

 Just around the corner from Pret is Ford's theatre.  We ducked in and got tickets for the tour.  The last time I was there we caught the tour at the last minute and I didn't realize that there is a pretty awesome Lincoln museum in the basement.  Very worth a visit.

 We then did a run through of the American/National Portrait Gallery.  We saw the tinfoil altar, and the oh-so fabulous Normal Rockwell exhibit.  Katy wanted to see the Shepherd Fairey Obama portrait as she had done a paper on him. It was super cool.  And the coolest thing is how he is a street artist and getting his work to go viral is what he is all about.  Amazing the power his work of art had and how it went hardcore viral.  It was cool to see it live and I was glad Katy took a forbidden photo of it.

 Next we booked it to the mall to eat our Pret lunches.  As we were rushing past the archives we saw this falcon or hawk eating small bird.  It made us happy we were eating brie and basil on baguettes instead of sparrows.

 We ate our delish lunches and then hit up the Air and Space museum.  Katy observed, if you are into aviation this must be the coolest place on earth.  I am not as in to aviation that I think that, but it is pretty cool.

 Then we hailed a taxi and climbed in, directing the driver to take us to the National Cathedral.  We found that our taxi driver was a rabidly anti-Obama man who insisted on talking politics with us.  I wonder if he feels like a Fox news commentator and talks conservative politics all day every day with whomever he has trapped in his taxi. We just nodded and laughed and listened to him as he went on and on.  It was entertaining.  We were pretty happy to get out though.  And we jumped for joy:

 After a delightful self-guided tour of the cathedral we went to the Bishop's Garden.  I sat in rapture under this amazing holly tree:

 I stopped to smell the roses and Katy saw a photo-op and made me hold the pose until I was laughing and the picture turned out kind of silly:

 We then walked from the Cathedral to Georgetown (which is kind of a longer walk than I had remembered) and admired the amazing real estate:

 Katy honed her chess skills on the Georgetown campus:

 We were happy to warm ourselves and rest our dying feet as we waited to meet up with Courtney and Nate for dinner on M street (It was nice for Rob to have a night off of the sister wife thing, and it was nice of Nate to step in.  He handled himself very well and we decided he could hang out with us more if he wants to). 

 Katy made a special request.  She wanted to return to the Lincoln monument when it was lit up.  So we did and had fun being in Katy's ghost pictures:

 We decided, as long as we were seeing everything we may as well see EVERYTHING, so we walked to the FDR monument which I had no idea was there.  It was pretty cool and really big.  And then Nate and Court took pity on us and went to get the car.  

 While they went to get the car we pressed on to the the Jefferson.  The sky was gorgeous.  I am sure it is a combo of city lights and pollution that gives it that orange glow, but it was pretty nonetheless.

 Katy fell in love with another founding father (George Mason).

 This is where I collapsed in utter exhaustion in the Jefferson memorial.  Man my feet were in pain. 

I triple dog dare you to pack more into a single day than we did.  It can't be done.  I'm sure of it.