Washington D.C. for the first time, Nine Things

Our Uber driver on our evening trip back to the hotel was a local who had recently moved to DC for a girl and wanted to marry her. Or… they may have gotten married and then gotten divorced…

But the most important part is that he is still in love with her and she is now with someone else. He eventually married another woman he wasn’t in love with and told us they were expecting a child.

He may have not known our names but when he got us to our destination, we wished him the best and told him everything would work out the way it was supposed to.

I hope he ends up with the right one.

THINGS TO KNOW…

I would pair DC with NYC or Philly. Only a 3-hour Amtrak away!

There are 5 universities, in a 2-mile radius, plenty of residents are of a different nationality, and a man passing by asked if I was on my way to a protest.

The walk from the Washington Monument to the MLK memorial is far for non-New Yorkers. And all the famous landmarks and museums on the National Mall (Lincoln Memorial, WWII Memorial, Capitol Building, the mains) are not a hop, skip, and a jump from each other.

Eat at Sweet Home Cafe after touring the National Museum of African American History and Culture, so you don’t get sleepy. I thoroughly enjoyed my macaroni & cheese, potato salad, fried chicken, sweet potato, and cornbread.

Most Smithsonian museums, free or not, require you make reservations online.

You must contact your senator to tour the White House.

Stay right in the center: Dupont Circle, Georgetown, Capitol Hilton. See, I’ve stayed both steps from 1600 Pennsylvania and in Arlington, Virginia. Crystal City is nice if you’re not interested in museums or the city.

We Ubered everywhere through that horrendous traffic and walked on occasion, but I hear the public transit is very clean.

Central hotels are very pricey during cherry blossom season (March/April). I’ll say though, we arrived days after the Cherry Blossom Festival and didn’t see an ounce of cherry or blossom. I guess we were cheating.

Cover Photo: Chris Grafton/Unsplash