Day 9: Lunch and Home!

Written on Sunday...

Our flight did not leave until 5:00 today, so we still had most of the day to spend in DC.  We slept later than planned so it got off to a slow start.  We packed and checked our bags at the hotel.  We took the metro to a little place called Ben’s Chili Bowl.  A few different people had recommended this place to us so we were anxious to try it out.

Ben’s is off the beaten path.  We ordered chili dogs, fries, and shakes.  The food was average/good; the marketing and atmosphere was genius.  There was nothing fancy about the place; it reminds me of Arthur Bryants.  It has been open for 50 years and pictures the celebrities who have eaten there- notably Bill Cosby, Bono, and Barack Obama- grace the walls. Mark is sure to grace the walls soon.

 After lunch we still had a few hours before we needed to head back to the hotel and get our bags.  We had a few things we wanted to do, but nothing really worked out.  We wanted to go to the top of the Washington Monument, but we didn’t plan far enough ahead and it was a cloudy day.  We (I) wanted to have a picnic on the National Mall, but it was cloudy and a little cool.  We wanted to rent bikes again, but did not really have enough time.  So, we decided to check out a pub in the area.  Drinking in the afternoon isn’t a problem on vacation and travel days, right?

We came across a place, called RFD (Regional Food and Drink) that had LOTS of types of beer.  They had about 30 on tap and we had only heard of a few of them, and they had hundreds of bottles.  There weren’t many people here so I asked them to turn one of the tvs to ESPN2, where cheerleading was on.  Mark just shook his head at that.  We passed a bit of time here, collected our bags from the hotel, and headed to the airport.  Now we are waiting on our flight back home; we have a 2.5 hour layover in Ohio and don’t get home until 10:00.

A few other observations about this trip that I have not yet written about:

DC has a great metro system, but it is not cheap.  We got here Thursday afternoon and left Sunday afternoon, and spent $35 each.  It’s definitely the way to go, but it was more expensive than I thought it would be.

Even with the metro system you do a lot of walking.  Comfortable shoes are a must.  Even on a Friday or Saturday night, you don’t see many girls out with heels on.  Flats are very popular.  My kind of place!

Planning ahead in DC is also a must.  Many trips are possible, even fun, if you wing it as you go.  But DC requires several months notice if you want to tour the Capitol or White House, and many of the monuments and some museums have time-stamped tickets you have to get the morning of or pay a small fee to reserve online.  Also, the Supreme Court is only available for tours M-F, the museums have limited hours, etc, so not having a general plan of what you’re going to do on what days could cause you to miss a lot of neat things.

Security guards are EVERYWHERE!  This is one protected city.

Overall we had a great trip.  It’s always nice to leave reality behind for a bit.  We did not get to relax on this trip, but we saw and learned a lot about our nation’s history.  I was never that into history until we went to Germany- I truly believe that history comes alive when you’re seeing and touching it.  You just can’t get those experiences from a textbook.  

Until next time…