Washington D.C. and Virginia

To some people a vacation means doing nothing. If I want to lay around and do nothing, I’ll just stay home and save the money. To me a vacation means getting out and seeing new places, trying new foods, and, best of all, learning something new. Staying in bed beyond, say, 8:00 (at home or on the road) becomes kind of tortuous for me. I often just get up and leave the room for a walk, jog or to get a snack and read the local paper while my poor exhausted traveling companions snooze away. (Some of my favorite times have often been these little solitary reprieves.)

So, with that, earlier this year, I got an email from United Airlines saying that I had 49,750 frequent flyer miles that were about to expire if I didn’t use them within a week or two. So, back in February, I had to look ahead and think of someplace John and I could fly to later on this year. In the end, (after buying up a missing 250 miles) we just picked Washington D.C. We’re both history nerds and love United States and Civil War history so this seemed like a good plan.

I got a great deal on one of those bidding websites (it was Hotwire...for some reason, I just can't ever remember the name of that website) for a great room at the Capital Hilton (just a block up 16th street from the White House).

That's our hotel across the street there..
….yeah, us and the Obama’s were pretty much next door neighbors for one week in September.

And, who knew, that with our great deal, our room key also got us passage to the VIP lounge on the 13th floor with breakfast and a fridge stocked with pop anytime we wanted it. OK, so, we’re really easy to impress…free breakfast and cans of pop make me pretty happy.

We’d been to D.C. once before back in 2005 with a great group of students and teachers from Grace Yokley Middle School where John taught. Mr. Collin Kenny and Randy Garrett, both history teachers and engaging historians really made that trip come alive for us -- especially, Yorktown, Gettysburg and Williamsburg. But, on that tour, there were a few stops we weren’t able to make, so this time, I contacted our congressman’s office and go tickets for the White House Tour, the Capitol; the Supreme Court, and the Kennedy Center. We also stopped to see the National Cathedral but found that it was closed down from some damage from the huge East Coast Earthquake (did you sense a bit of mocking in that statement?) a week or two before our trip. We went to several of the Smithsonian Museums as well as the Folger Shakespeare Library (I'd just finished reading two good books about Shakespeare "Will in the World" by Stephen Greenblatt and "Shakespeare, the World as Stage" by Bill Bryson) and just had to visit after this place's collection of folios was mentioned in the latter.John in the long dark main hall of the Folger Library

A highlight was a boat tour up the Potomac.

We also went to the National Archives and saw the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution (now I want to see National Treasure again). We ate in fancy pants places and at dives, and, as usual, I like the dives best. Our most memorable meal was the one Saturday night we were there eating at a Peruvian restaurant near our hotel, called, what else, but, The Casa Blanca. Because we were the only people there for a while, we had the owner turn the channel to ESPN. We watched the entire BYU game, cheering for a win even as the place filled up through the evening and we just kept getting refills on our sodas. Another night we grabbed pizza near the hotel and ate it in our room while we watched the TV version of the movie “Gran Torino” in our room. I’ve given a lot of thought to the story in that movie since that night – I’m not sure what the original uncut version was like, but I highly recommend the edited version we saw..

After a few days in the city, we were ready to head out and see a few other sites. We first went by to see the Washington DC temple

then headed to Manassass to the see the sites of the 1st and 2nd battles of Bull Run.

Looking for Civil War ghosts in the basement of an old inn that was used as a hospital at Bull Run.

We HAD to eat at least once at the Golden Corral buffet and it didn’t disappoint (steak, shrimp, hush puppies, okra, sweet potatoes, and lots of desserts.) I don’t know if they have these buffets in California and if there are any near me, I really don’t want to know. Eating at these palaces of gluttony is a treat I want to reserve just for my infrequent visits to the south. And, beyond the food, oh, just the people watching at this place was worth the price of admission. And we fit right in after a long day on the road.

We loved our relaxing day at Mount Vernon (on our last trip we spent a morning at Monticello; they’re both amazing homes).

I dragged John to a Cuban restaurant (Kuba, Kuba) in Richmond I found on the Food Network site. I loved it, he remained reluctant. It was in a great old neighborhood though which was totally worth seeing up close and walking through.

We spent a day in Richmond, toured the Confederate White House & Confederate Museum drove down Monument Avenue and ate for the first time in both of our lives, at a Waffle House. We both liked this place -- what's not to love about waffles and Virginia Ham anytime of the day or night?

From there, it was time to head back up to Dulles for our flight back home. Another great vacation for us. Now, I’ve got to renew my passport, I keep seeing these great ads for tours to the Holy Land and think I want to be on one of them in the next year or two…oh, yeah, there’s also the temple dedication in Rome – sometime in 2013. With that, I need to get back to earning money to support this habit.