We just got back from a Spring Break jaunt to our nation’s Capitol. I know what you’re thinking. Why didn’t I blog about the hours of preparation that we did and how excited I was about going? Well, because my dad told me to never write about your travels on the internet, just in case robbers are waiting to come in and interupt the roach fest that was undoubtedly going on in our place while we were gone. That’s why I kept it on the d.l. but don’t worry, dear readers, I kept a running commentary of what we did there so that you won’t miss one exciting minute.

Day One

We stayed up way too late Thursday night so the 4:30 Friday morning alarm was quite a shock to the system.  Alex’s father was nice enough to drive us to the airport. We got in okay. Both Alex and I were “randomly” chosen to go through the body scanners at the airport and we both opted for the pat down so we were groped by two different people at the same time. Aw, cute!

Quite frankly, the flight was not exciting, except for the two screaming babies. It was pretty turbulent. As we were making our descent into DC, Alex looked over at me, sweating bullets, and said, “I don’t feel so good.” I quickly located the throw-up bag in the pocket in front of me and handed it to him. So…most of our descent was Alex trying NOT to throw up and me watching him in horror while he tries to not throw up. We exited the plane in DC, picked up our suitcase (whose wheels were already starting to bow out, like it has knobby knees), and hopped on the Metro (DC’s awesome rail system).

Now, I have forgotten to mention that I am wearing the DC equivalent of pajamas (sweatpants, t-shirt, toms that don’t match any other part of my outfit)…out in public. For some reason, I have this vision in my head of all DC-ites wearing black and high heels (which isn’t too far off). Why do I feel this way? Quick! Tell me which of these people is from Texas and which is from DC.

POINT PROVEN.

Despite this correct perception that I have,  I prefer to be comfortable on flights.  So, when we got to DC, and we were among the magazine models on the metro, I’m sure they were wondering, “What is that normally dressed man doing with that circus monkey pulling a knobby-kneed suitcase?”

When we got off the Metro, we were standing around trying to find out which way was North and a really nice lady pointed us in the right direction. I thought it was going to be a short jaunt over to our hotel, but it ended up being slightly longer than we thought. When we finally got to the District Hotel, sandwiched in between a trendy hotel called The Helix and The Hilton, we knew we had made it.

I’ll be honest, they really tried to make us feel at home. By that I mean, it seems like the spirit of the duplex followed us to DC to dwell in our hotel with us. For starters, the building hasn’t really been updated in about fifty years. Our room is approximately the size of our walk in closet and while we don’t have a cool patio like The Helix, our windows overlook the Helix’s patio so we can enjoy everyone’s all night revelry. Also, while we were napping there were phantom bells ringing and our phone rang twice. So…good.  (Post-trip addendum: The District was just FINE for people who just needed a place to lay their heads at night. Free breakfast, free wi-fi, no rats. That’s all we look for in a hotel, really.)

After our nap, we wandered around looking for a place to eat. I knew that we were close to a Whole Foods (very close). We ate at a local Mexican food place, which was good, and then stopped by Whole Foods for a few snacky things- fruits, tomatoes, some bagels. Traveling as vegetarians was going to make for an interesting trip. After that,  we walked 100 miles to the Capitol building. We’ve heard that the monuments are cool at night  but we left too early and the sun just wouldn’t go down and our feet started hurting. Unfortunately, I thought that Tom’s would be appropriate footwear for walking around and I started to get blisters…and we hadn’t even really been in D.C. for six hours.

Stay tuned for day two.