A Foodeating, Sightseeing, Subway Hopping Trip -NY&DC-Day 10

[Hannikins]

So sorry this has taken so long, I’ve been trying to set myself up making wedding stationery and it’s taken a lot longer than expected! ANYWAY

A Foodeating, Sightseeing, Subway Hopping Trip -NY&DC-Day 10

With today being our last day you would assume we were up with the larks, you’d be wrong, the candyfloss cocktails had taken their toll ☹

We did eventually surface from the candy induced haze (I imagine this is how I would feel if someone had injected pure sugar into my veins the night before… several times) and were soon packed and heading on our way, the plan to was try and get some last views of the city. With the memorial closed off there really is only one other ‘free’ location left to go for a view… The Post Office



Make the most of this place ladies and gents, it was recently purchased by Mr Trump and he’s coming to turn it into a luxury hotel in the very near future.

Like all buildings in DC we were greeted by the bag scanner, luckily there was no queue.

This place is rather odd, it’s not a working post office and seems to be mainly staffed by grumpy security staff, presumably the ones who weren’t deemed cheery enough to staff the capitol building and museums. Too scared to ask for directions we followed the makeshift A4 photocopied signs towards the lift where an equally cheery volunteer took us to the top.

It was worth the grumpiness on the way, the views are great!





There were handy signs all around so we were able to locate lots of places we’d been in the skyline.

It may look pleasant in these photos but it was WINDY, not wanting to stand around getting blow away we took the stairs to the level below to see the bells.



Interesting for a quick look but this really is all there is to see. On the ground floor there’s a mini shopping mall with cheap eateries and things, we managed to pick up the cheap and tacky magnet we’d been looking for to add to the collection before moving on.

I can honestly say that at this point I realised I’d reached my limit, this ‘restful’ holiday was catching up with me. The plan had been to head over to the memorials to visit those we hadn’t seen on the segway tour but the thought of walking all the way to the capitol AND THEN SOME was more than I knew I could manage.

Instead we agreed that Adam would head to the memorials and I would visit the last two museums we hadn’t seen instead, meeting up for our late lunch reservation at the old ebbitt grill.

I can’t say exactly what Adam got up to but I do have some photographic evidence…





















As you can see, he gets around a bit my hubby!

He did however manage to make it back to the white house for yet MORE piccies though.

[Hannikins]

I on the other hand had a much more ‘relaxing’ morning. Firstly I visited the ‘castle’, it’s a very small building, the original Smithsonian, and they showcase things of interest from all the different museums. It’s supposed to be a ‘taster’ but I somehow managed to do it last. I then headed over to the Hirshhorn museum to see some sculptures.

I seem to remember this one being mentioned in a dan brown book



it’s an unbreakable code I think?



I’ll be honest I only looked at the outside exhibits, sculpture doesn’t really do it for me I’m afraid. The adjacent sculpture garden however did provide a nice area for me to sit and read my book for a while ;P



After my relaxing read I felt ready to head further east up the mall, conscious of the need to head that way for lunch anyway.

On the way I headed into the national gallery again to take in some of the French collections

So stunning



Marie Antoinette


and her writing desk



This was my favourite. A lovely portrait of Madame du Barry, a truly stunning lady.



Without a rudely protesting husband in tow I also paid a visit to the modern art section again and found some real gems.

[Hannikins]

It was nearly midday now and today was shaping up to be one of the hottest yet. I did consider queuing to get into the archives but I found standing still in the heat so unbearable as the queue was HUGE and I gave up. It was a good job I did, I barely made it to Old Ebbitt Grill for our 1.45 reservation!



It was heaving inside, we’d somehow managed to book it on the day and time when all the graduating students were eating with their families, luckily as we had a reservation we weren’t turned away.





We were seated in one of the big booths which I was pleased about and were assigned the cheeriest, happiest waitress I’ve ever encountered, boy could she talk! Eventually after recommending some cocktails she was off to chew the ears off the couple next to us.

She was good, the cocktails were yummy!





The menu here is odd, they are really an oyster bar but they do ‘lunch’ food to.

We decided as the plane food on the way here had been so poor we’d fill up now and ordered starters.

Adam had the biggest pile of wings we’d ever seen



which he was pleased about ;P



and I had the American cheese selection



Both were very nice.

I was a bit unsure about my main, I ordered the ‘french dip’ and I wasn’t sure what to expect..



I LOVE THIS! Soooooo much MEAT!



and a beef juice dip! Nom nom nom. I did only manage half though ☹

Adam opted for the burger and said it was nice.



The bill came to a total of $84 including tip which I felt was very reasonable, this was definitely somewhere I would love to return.

Two doors down from the grill is the white house gift shop, an odd place where spending $20 gets you the option of having your photo taken at the desk of their fake white house ‘set’… I wish I was kidding. I’m not.

Even if you aren’t in the market for overprice novelty DC gifts this place is worth a visit (if you are in the market they have a catalogue on their website! - whitehouse.merchantcart/) I took some photos of my personal favourites



nodding heads of past and present leaders, would be leaders and frankly odd looking people I’ve never heard of.

The best of the worst was this:

A colour your own postcard pack, the theme?



Civil Rights!

Made all the more odd when you realise one of the postcards in the pack is of the back of a bus, example of segregation at it’s strangest



I still to this day don’t know if this was a serious piece of propaganda or clever satire, I’ll let you decide ;P

We decided that on the way back to the hotel to collect the luggage we’d try and get in the archives again, for the first time on our trip the queue wasn’t round the block so we joined it. All I’ll say is looks can be deceiving, we only queued for 20 minutes to get in but like any good theme park queue it hides the evil within! You pass a mini exhibit of the magna carta and then join a roped off area. I knew it was bad when I saw the sign on top of the first rope post, which said “you are 30 minutes from the front of the queue” greaaaaaaaaat.

It wasn’t all that bad though, people must have been reading quickly today and we were in the fourth group of 30 people they let near the display cases at any one time.
I think it was worth the queuing to say we’d seen the declaration of independence … and the air conditioning wasn’t bad either!

I do recommend you book in advance for this, like the capitol. Throughout the trip I’d always thought the line of tour groups running around the block were waiting for buses, but no, that was the QUEUE!

They should really make large groups book, this was the queue when we came out, the OTHERSIDE of the building, you can’t even SEE the entrance from this angle.



An that concludes our little trip! Nothing like ending on a high eh! I won’t bored you with the boring bit other than to say that the quick metro ride back to the airport was as uneventful as arriving and exactly the same but in reverse.


My thoughts on the holiday?

Well worth it! I don’t think I’ll be back to DC any time soon, it feels more of a ‘one trip’ place but I will definitely be making my way back to NY again soon, mainly for the food if I’m honest, especially the DREAM COOKIES! I’m going to get a few more years in at the gym though first so I can recover

[JoJo88]

Ooooh, I was so pleased to see you'd posted your final day. I've really enjoyed your report, so informative and with great pictures as usual.

Really looking forward to your next one

Jo x

[Hannikins]

Originally Posted by JoJo88

Ooooh, I was so pleased to see you'd posted your final day. I've really enjoyed your report, so informative and with great pictures as usual.

Really looking forward to your next one

Jo x

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thanks! glad you enjoyed it

[hross42877]

Thanks for sharing, really enjoyed reading about your trip!

[Gill635]

Brilliant Hannah, thanks so much for sharing. As always with your trippies, I loved every second!

That Beef Dip looks amazing, as did the Candyfloss cocktails.

Good luck with the Wedding Stationary


Gill x

[Guest]

That was definitely worth waiting for! Thanks for sharing your report. Here's to the next one!

[Hannikins]

Originally Posted by hross42877

Thanks for sharing, really enjoyed reading about your trip!

See more...

thanks

Originally Posted by Gill635

Brilliant Hannah, thanks so much for sharing. As always with your trippies, I loved every second!

That Beef Dip looks amazing, as did the Candyfloss cocktails.

Good luck with the Wedding Stationary


Gill x

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oh yes it was yummy! I just wish I had been able to finish it. I'll be looking for that on menu in orlando though now I know how yummy it is!

Originally Posted by ppodangel

That was definitely worth waiting for! Thanks for sharing your report. Here's to the next one!

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yep! now I've finished I have two pretrippy's to tackle!

[KK_Cat]

Really enjoyed that, some of these days I must finish my own DC trip report, I started well & abandoned it half way I loved DC & definitely want to go back sometime. When we did the National Archives we had booked in advance (free) and it was great to bypass that big long mad queue - we did get a few filthy looks from people in the queue