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Old 1 Nov 19, 02:22 PM  
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Goldia
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Washington DC - Memorials, museums and more Day 3 25/10/19

Day 3 – Friday 25th October 2019

Today we planned to visit the zoo, then walk to Georgetown via Dumbarton Oaks Park, I wanted to see if we could find the Exorcist steps, then we were heading to Dupont Circle.

Dave was the first awake again today at about 5.30am and I woke up around 6.15. Again we got ready fairly quickly, we noticed that the showers in the room were much better before 8am, as after this time the water wasn’t quite hot enough. Other than the showers we didn’t have any complaints about the hotel and we were happy with everything.

We went down to breakfast, there was French Toast today with an apple butter, which was pretty tasty.







As the zoo was out of the city we decided to make the most of our metro passes and made the short walk to the Noma-Gallaudet metro station which was about a 5 minute walk from our hotel. The station was opposite the entrance to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Headquarters. I didn’t take photos as we were keen to get going and needed to top up our cards for the journey. This was easy and the zoo station is on the red line so we didn’t need to change trains.

When we arrived at the zoo stop there was the longest escalator I think I’ve ever been on. It was huge. I tried to take a photo of it, but felt a bit wobbly looking up and had to hold on.





We walked to the zoo, it was a bit overcast today and a little chillier.





Of course in the zoo were lots of school trips and it was busy like the museum yesterday.

We decided to start with the Asia trail. Kate’s favourite animals are pandas and this naturally lead to the pandas.



Lots of other animals on the way though.





We were disappointed as we couldn’t see any pandas in their enclosure, but we hadn’t realised there was an indoor part to it as well and they were inside!

As we went into the pandas a talk was just about to start so we hung around for this. We heard lots of information about the baby panda that was born in the zoo.





Although he is now 4 years old which means he lives on his own as pandas are solitary animals.





It was a really interesting talk and we were lucky to catch it.







The zoo was getting ready for a Halloween event that afternoon and evening which meant it was closing early.





We still managed to see everything we wanted and had a good time walking around.

















We finished at the zoo around 1pm and decided to walk to Dumbarton Park and then onwards to Georgetown as we hadn’t seen any of the suburbs and we quite like seeing where people live in the cities that we visit. I was hopeful we would see some Halloween decorations on the houses we passed. It was a good start!







We ended up taking a wrong turn and passed a lot of embassy buildings on our way to Dumbarton Park.











But we made it in the end.











We stopped and enjoyed the park as it was now nice and sunny and quite warm sitting on the benches.



The kids made up a game of throwing acorns. We saw a couple of dog walkers but otherwise the park was empty.

Now we were in a neighbourhood which had a few houses with Halloween decorations.











I liked these terraced houses with their shutters.



We spotted the Georgetown University. When we visited Boston we took a trip to Harvard and so we decided to have a quick look at this university.



They must have had an open day as there were lots of groups of parents and teens taking tours. We sat on one of the benches out front and I listened to the guides explaining why Georgetown was the best university. It was a nice break and interesting to look at all the uninterested teens and their eager parents!



I got Max to take a photo of us, but a lovely girl offered to take on of all of us.



I asked if she went to uni here and she said she was a sophomore and then said to Max “Y’all should definitely come here” He was a bit embarrassed and just sort of shuffled, but she was off anyway and hadn’t wanted to hang around for a chat, she was just being polite.





The steps from the movie The Exorcist were just around the corner from the university. There are 75 steps and a commemorative plaque explains there significance.



Don’t read the plaque if you’ve not seen the movie as it does rather spoil the ending.



We noticed lots of support from the local business for the DC Nationals baseball team in the shops, bars and restaurants. There were lots of Go Nats! signs up around town. They were competing all weekend against the Astros, but this is the extent of my knowledge on baseball, the world series is not something I follow. It was interesting to see all the local support though and lots of fans were walking around town in the team colours. Dave tells me they won the series of games. Go Nats!



We were looking to see if there was somewhere we could stop for a drink on our way to Dupont Circle.





In the end we walked all the way there without stopping.



In the small park around the statue there were people playing chess.



Kate spotted a bar called ‘Mad Hatter’ so we decided that was definitely the place for us.



I always like to check that children are welcome in bars as I don’t know all the rules. Everywhere we went it was fine, sometimes there were people to seat us and other times we were told we could seat ourselves but that the kids couldn’t sit at the bar, which of course we didn’t mind. In here there were lots of posters and it was a stunning room.









We were shown to a table but then we were told we couldn’t sit there as they had a reservation for later. So, we had to sit outside, which wasn’t so nice as it was just a small 10 foot square terrace basically on the pavement.



We only stayed for one drink and moved on.

There was then a misunderstanding between Dave and myself as he had pointed out a restaurant called ‘Luna’ and I thought he meant that he wanted to try it out I went in. It turned out to be a bit of a dive and this was apparently what Dave had been saying to me. Oh well, we were the only people in the place and we decided to just order food and get on with it.



Dave and me both had Margaritas (which were pretty awful and I’m not that fussy). The kids had cokes.



I decided to play it safe and went with a ham and cheese toastie and fries. This was ok.



Dave was not sensible and went with pasta as that’s what he fancied, it was not good, edible but only barely.



Kate had BBQ bacon burger and fries.



Max had a burger and fries. He had wanted to have steak, but I talked him out of that on the promise he could have steak at a different (nicer) place.



It was a cheap meal, which is a blessing, but it was the worst of the trip.

We paid up and left as quickly as we could, it was around 6.30pm and we’d had another busy day so we headed back to the hotel for the evening.



We’d seen lots of these rental bikes and scooters around the city.





Often just abandoned and often going at break neck speed, you really had to watch your step for fear of being clattered by them.





We chilled out in the room and once again Dave and me were happy to turn the lights out at 9pm whereas the kids were furious that we wanted to sleep and didn’t want them watching TV. They definitely have more energy than us.

It was interesting going to the zoo, I’m not a massive fan of zoo’s to be honest but this was another pick from the kids and I wanted them to have things to enjoy on the trip, plus it is part of the Smithsonian Institute so it was free (as were all the museums we visited on the trip). The walk through Georgetown was my favourite part of the day, the university and it’s grounds and the houses around it were all good to see as it took us away from the Mall and the center of DC for a day.

Steps 28,278 – hmm, slowing down now, with lots of rest breaks on benches, the over 30,000 step count is not sustainable!

Coming soon

Next up, tomorrow I had booked a tour of the Capitol Building, which was at 9.20am so we needed to be up early. We had a look around the Library of Congress and the Botanic Garden, before heading back to the hotel for a break (I know it’s unexpected!). This was because I wanted to see the memorials at night as they were supposed to be stunning all lit up and I knew that we (well me and Dave) would need a rest in the afternoon if we were going to have a late night.
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Old 1 Nov 19, 02:41 PM  
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What an adorable panda!

Again, a lot of walking! Your kids really are superstar walkers! Shame dinner was a bit grim. At least it was cheap(ish?) - nothing worse than an awful expensive meal!
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Old 1 Nov 19, 08:28 PM  
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Goldia
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Originally Posted by Melbatb View Post
What an adorable panda!

Again, a lot of walking! Your kids really are superstar walkers! Shame dinner was a bit grim. At least it was cheap(ish?) - nothing worse than an awful expensive meal!
He really was adorable. The keeper was telling us all about his eating habits and how much bamboo they have to eat each day. It was fun to watch him eating and then walk around the enclosure. It has openings for a another room, with a bed in and also openings to the outside area so he can choose where to go.

The kids did do really well, much better than the two of us we were very stiff in the mornings.

The meal was cheap, less than $80 considering we had 4 meals and 2 alcoholic drinks that's not bad. But it really was great. It was the only bad place we are at though.
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2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
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Old 2 Nov 19, 01:17 PM  
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How lucky to arrive in time for the panda talk.

The park and Georgetown look lovely. Would you believe that we chose our hotel based on its proximity to Georgetown, then never got to see it in the day. 🙈

What a shame dinner didn’t quite work out well. I felt meals were the least planned part of our holiday. We missed far too many, so didn’t necessarily make the best choices when we were hungry.

And those scooters were a bit of a nightmare weren’t they? Or rather, some of the people on them were a nightmare.
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Old 2 Nov 19, 06:02 PM  
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Goldia
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Originally Posted by jocat View Post
How lucky to arrive in time for the panda talk.

The park and Georgetown look lovely. Would you believe that we chose our hotel based on its proximity to Georgetown, then never got to see it in the day. 🙈

What a shame dinner didn’t quite work out well. I felt meals were the least planned part of our holiday. We missed far too many, so didn’t necessarily make the best choices when we were hungry.

And those scooters were a bit of a nightmare weren’t they? Or rather, some of the people on them were a nightmare.
We did get lucky a few times, with the Guard Change Ceremony the day before and the panda talk today.

We liked looking around Georgetown and it was a nice change from the Mall with it's memorials and museums. We should have stopped there for a drink and some food, it was quite a lively place and there was lots going on.

You're right that sometimes those scooters seemed to come out of nowhere. It didn't help that we had to watch out for the kids as well as they are not as aware of their surroundings as we would like sometimes and frequently changed direction to go and look at something right in the path of a scooter or bike
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New pre trip report - Summer 2024

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2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
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Old 2 Nov 19, 06:16 PM  
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Oh my heart melts at the panda photos! They are just the cutest animals. A lovely morning at the zoo, how fab that it's free. You can't imagine London Zoo not charging!
Georgetown looks like a pretty neighbourhood, I've got it pencilled in to visit for dinner.
I love looking at all the residential areas, I'm naturally very nosey so love seeing other people's houses
A shame about dinner but at least it was your only bad meal
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Old 3 Nov 19, 09:20 AM  
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Originally Posted by smithlane View Post
Oh my heart melts at the panda photos! They are just the cutest animals. A lovely morning at the zoo, how fab that it's free. You can't imagine London Zoo not charging!
Georgetown looks like a pretty neighbourhood, I've got it pencilled in to visit for dinner.
I love looking at all the residential areas, I'm naturally very nosey so love seeing other people's houses
A shame about dinner but at least it was your only bad meal
I agree we saved a fortune on tickets prices. The zoo was fun for the kids and something a bit different for them, plus the panda was cute.

We like walking around all the neighbourhoods too, it was fun to spot the Halloween decorations and Georgetown really was a pretty area.
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New pre trip report - Summer 2024

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2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
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Old 6 Nov 19, 06:28 PM  
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Not very successful on the meal front this evening they even spoilt the drinks!
I’m exhausted reading your step counts, I think Kate and Max are great...not sure my girls would be happy!
How cute was the panda, I’m pleased Kate got to see it.
I would have enjoyed walking around the neighbourhood to see all the houses.
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Old 6 Nov 19, 09:40 PM  
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Originally Posted by OB1LukeLucas View Post
Not very successful on the meal front this evening they even spoilt the drinks!
I’m exhausted reading your step counts, I think Kate and Max are great...not sure my girls would be happy!
How cute was the panda, I’m pleased Kate got to see it.
I would have enjoyed walking around the neighbourhood to see all the houses.
None us had a great meal today. Poor restaurant choice full of misunderstanding with me thinking Dave was pointing out a good choice and him actually pointing out a dive, still you've got to eat at one awful place to make you appreciate the good ones.

The kids did do well, they didn't moan at all, well they muttered quite a bit about finding a cafe or a pub. They know what we like so if it's after noon they suggest a pub and we usually bite not many options this trip though. We seemed to always be in the wrong place for a morning coffee or an afternoon pre dinner tipple.
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New pre trip report - Summer 2024

Link to all my completed trip reports
2017: NYC and Orlando. Salzburg. Boston.
2018: Orlando. Berlin.
2019: DLP. Orlando. Washington DC.
2020: DLP.
2021: Jamaica. Rome.
2022: Orlando.
2023: Orlando. Niagara and Toronto.
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Old 22 Nov 19, 08:49 PM  
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Nice to have a look around Georgetown and the uni, really good idea to get a different view of a place. So many beautiful buildings.
Great that the zoo and museums are free.

Shame about dinner, but one meal has to be the worst of the trip I guess!
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