The Dang's: DC Day 1: Arrival & a Rainy Moonlight Tour

Last Thursday, our vacation finally began! Our flight didn't leave until after 10, so we had plenty of time to get going in the morning. We parked at Terminal 2, and then took the light-rail and tram over to Terminal 1. The lines to get through security seemed to take forever, but we had allowed plenty of time for it. Our flight took off on time, and we were on our way to DC.

photo from mom's camera

We got in around 2 local time, and made our way to the Metro where we bought our 7 day passes. Buying the passes was a bit stressful as the system had changed so you first had to buy the Smart Card from one machine (which didn't accept $20s AND the credit card reader was down), and then load the 7 day pass on another machine which also wasn't taking credit cards. Super frustrating!

photo from mom's camera

Finally we got to our hotel around 3 and checked-in. We were lucky to have our rooms right next to each other. Adam and I had a large room with a king, while Mom, Dad and Christine had a suite with two rooms. I was pleased with the rooms.

photo from mom's camera

We got settled in a bit, and then we were off to an art museum, The Phillips Collection. It was about a mile walk from our hotel, but it was a lovely afternoon. On the way there, we walked through Washington Circle.

photo from mom's camera

The main thing to see at The Phillips Collection was Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party. It was so neat to see in person. Photos can't do it justice.

I also really appreciated it Van Gogh's The Road Menders,

as well as Mondrian's Composition No. III.

Others in my party were less enthused about the museum and took every opportunity possible to sit down!

After the museum, we made our way back to the hotel with a brief stop at Trader Joe's to stock up on some food and beverage.

That evening, we had a Monuments by Moonlight Tour by Trolley planned. We headed over to Union Station where we had a quick dinner in the food court. Then we headed up for the tour just in time for the downpour to start. Lovely. Luckily, we had all our rain gear with, but it was still unfortunate. It continued to rain pretty hard throughout the whole tour, until the very end. It was pretty disappointing, but we made the best of it and saw a lot. We didn't get a lot for photos though.

We started by going by the U.S. Capitol and then looking at the Washington Monument (which is covered in scaffolding to repair it from the 2011 earthquake, so not very picturesque).

Our first stop was at the FDR Memorial and MLK Memorial. We had a half hour to explore the two.

FDR -

MLK -

photo from mom's camera

Looking across the Tidal Basin towards the Jefferson Memorial -

Next, was the Iwo Jima / Marine Corps Memorial. We only had about 10 minutes there.

photo from mom's camera

Then we drove through part of Arlington and over the Arlington Memorial Bridge. From by the bridge we could see Arlington House atop the hill as well as a flickering which was JFK's eternal flame.

Lastly, we had 40 minutes at the Lincoln Memorial, Korean Memorial, and Vietnam Wall. It wasn't nearly enough time, but we did manage to see them all. By then it was really dark which made things hard to see, yet made for a neat effect especially at the Korean Memorial.

Lincoln Memorial -

photo from mom's camera

Korean Memorial -

This is with flash, without the flash it looked like figures standing in the dark - really spooky

Vietnam Wall -

Also with flash, it was much more moving in the dark though.

photo from mom's camera

On our way back to Union Station, the rain had let up so we could have the side awning and windows up. We drove by the World War II Memorial (with the Lincoln Memorial in the background),