This was our first big road trip! Even though we had been to Washington DC already (in high school), we wanted to revisit to make sure we both saw everything we wanted to and to make our own memories.
Our trip started out on a positive sign- we found a vending machine that kept giving us free Sprite and waters! We drove into Arlington, Virginia for our first hotel for the trip. We stayed at Virginian Suites. This was a perfect area for us! We had amazing views of DC. We were within walking distance to one of our favorite road trip restaurants where they had buckets of blue crabs! We tore through those! It started storming on us on the walk back, and the wind blew my umbrella inside out!
In the morning, we walked to Arlington Cemetery to visit the graves of President William Howard Taft and President John F. Kennedy. There were many other famous burials here, as well as one of the homes of Robert E. Lee.
We walked the bridge across the river into DC. It was so cold with the open wind hitting us during our walk! We ended up buying hats and gloves from a street vendor. We visited the famous memorials of Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington, the Vietnam Wall, the WWII Memorial, the Marine Corps Memorial, etc. We visited locations such as the White House (sadly, we have yet to go inside), the Pentagon, National Archives, Ford's Theatre, Smithsonian, the National Zoo, and the National Cathedral to see President Woodrow Wilson. I didn't think I would want to revisit everything again, but once we were there, I couldn't stop from wanting to see it all! This city is one of my favorites! Most of the places to visit are free; however, they do fill up fast, so get there early! The metro system is easy to use, although we ended up walking for most of our visit.
After two days in DC, we set out to travel more areas of Virginia. We went to a small place, the James Monroe Museum. We stopped at Mount Vernon, the home and burial place of President George Washington.
One of our stops was the Berkley Plantation. This home is now recognized as the site of the first Thanksgiving in 1619. The home was owned by the Harrison family. It was the birthplace of Benjamin Harrison V (signer of the Declaration), birthplace of President William Henry Harrison, and ancestral home to President Benjamin Harrison. General George McClellan's troops were occupied here during the Civil War, and the tune 'Taps' was first played here.
We then traveled to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. This is the burial site of Presidents John Tyler and James Monroe (under construction at the time). Jefferson Davis and Civil War soldier George Pickett are also buried here. This cemetery was really neat with the different memorials and its beautiful views of the river.
Next on our list was Montpelier, home and burial site of President James Madison. We then went to nearby Monticello, home and burial site of Thomas Jefferson. It was so amazing to see how gifted and talented Jefferson was. He integrated so many ideas throughout the house that were ahead of his time.
Surprisingly, we completed this journey in only four days! This showed us just how much traveling we could do in a week's time!
Comments
Post a Comment