Washington D.C.

Now we finally reach the highlight of our summer road trip...Washington D.C.  If I seemed a bit too negative in my reviews of other cities, you won't find it here.  I liked Washington D.C. a lot.  I'd even live there if I could afford it.  It's a bit hard to come back to Austin when you've just spent four days in Washington D.C.  You could be walking down the street in Washington, looking for a place to eat, and along the way, say "Oh, there's the Capitol building over there.  Oh...there's the Supreme Court.  Oh...there's the Washington Monument.  Oh...there's the White House.....the Federal Reserve...the FBI..."  Then you come back to Austin and it's.."Oh, there's the Rudy's BBQ.  There's the Luby's.  There's the pawn shop."  It's just not as exciting.  But...yes, I realize not every city can be Washington or New York.

There is so much history in Washington D.C. and by walking the streets and visiting all the numerous monuments and museums, you really start to appreciate the founding fathers even more.  I wasn't sure why the Lincoln Memorial had such a prominent place in the National Mall, while the Thomas Jefferson Memorial is relegated to the distant background (with far fewer tourists).  And you have to really search for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial.  Luckily, we had time to see them all.

I really wanted a tour of the White House.  I wrote to my congressman two months in advance, hoping to secure a slot on one of the tours.  No such luck.  We were declined.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it's because we were from Texas, which isn't exactly an Obama friendly state.  Or maybe it's because one of our group isn't an American citizen (yet).   Or maybe they just have too many requests.  Who knows?  We did, however, get a tour of the Capitol, and we also had passes to the House and Senate.  The debate in the House at the time was regarding Obamacare, and that was actually pretty interesting.  But when you're with two kids, you can't really stay to watch for too long.

We stayed at a very nice hotel called The Madison.  It's a 5 star hotel located just a few blocks from the White House.  I booked it through Priceline using the "name your own price" deal they have.  I told them I wanted a 5 star hotel in Washington and I only wanted to pay $99 per night.  I was pretty shocked to actually get one, so I'll give Priceline a little plug there for getting us such a great deal.  My only complaint with them is that they charged $40(!) per day to park there, and they wanted $5 to use their business center (computer with internet) for a mere 10 minutes.  The parking I can (kind of) understand, but most hotels offer free internet.

For someone like me who always likes to save money, the National Mall is a dream come true.  Everything is free.  Every museum.  Every historical building....free of charge.  I was telling Christy that they could easily charge money for a "National Mall Pass" which would give you access to all the museums for a price (say like $20 or $30) and it would be worth it.  But no...they are all free, which is awesome.  Even the Washington Zoo, which isn't even part of the National Mall, is free.  Food isn't cheap, though ($3.50 for a tiny hot dog?)  And the subway was a little more expensive than I thought it would be.  But I guess with all the free entertainment, it sort of balances out.

I hope I can go back again in the future.  There was a lot of construction and renovations going on when we were there, so it would be nice to see it again in all its glory.