olivia and i woke up bright and early {meh} on our second day of vacay.  as we were getting ready, we played and replayed our outfits for the day.  the weather wasn’t cooperating!  it was quite chilly {brrrrr} in the morning but the temperature was going to get up to a high of 60 degrees with sun shiny skies…so i was in a pickle on what to wear!

anyhoo, we suffered a bit for fashion and just went with what looked nice {chilly or not, here i come!}.  we discussed our directions with claire {um, we weren’t really listening…oops!} and scooted on our way to explore the delightful d.c.!

we took the bus to the pentagon, right where the metro is located.  once we got off the bus, olivia and i literally wandered back and forth, up and down to find the train!  finally, we asked a gentleman and he pointed us in the right direction.  we took claire’s advice, just follow the crowd!  so, we did and finally found our way down below and the to the right spot to take us to our destination!

the metro is so clean {compared to the el in chitown // ewwww}.  we had a cozy, quick ride straight there.  we found ourselves a starbucks, grabbed some coffee, and a bite to eat before we began our journey through monument/museum land.

we finished up our petit dejeuner and headed towards our first destination, the smithsonian!  we passed quite a few buildings…still figuring out if we had an interest to stop in certain ones to explore.  before we knew it, we walked almost all the way to the capital.  so, i got excited and wanted to keep going towards it!  it was so fun to see such landmarks!  i felt so proud to be an american, funny how it is so novel for us first timers, huh {dorky}?!

after the capitol, we walked through the mall and passed up some more museums.  we decided to go into the nature museum.  let me tell ya…the bus loads of kids {and i mean bus loads by the dozen} were no fun!  olivia and i thought we were going to fight these churlish, bratty 12 year olds!  oh em gee!  no bueno!

i loved the nature museum, we had a great time exploring!  my favorite was the harry winston gallery {hello! diamonds!!!}.  i was mesmerized by the all that glitters and shines!

we moseyed along to the american museum for a nano second and went forth towards our next stop, the white house!  oh, it was hilarious.  every big, white building with pillars in the front, i would scream out loud, “oh!!  there’s the white house!”.  olivia would say, “no, i don’t think that’s the white house”.  then i would see another white building and say, “oh!!  there’s the white house!”.  and olivia would then say, “no, i don’t think that’s the white house”.  this happened just a few more times {snicker}.  we got a bit lost {it happens again later, hold on!} and finally backtracked ourselves to the right sidewalk towards the [real] white house. olivia warned me that it was a surprise to most people on how far away the white house is to the public {understandably} but i did’t realize it was going to be a speck!  {wha wha}

we were on our way to our next destination, the lincoln memorial, when we realized we were hungry.  so our debacle ensues after this.  we were halfway to the lincoln memorial when we noticed that there were no restaurants.  we mapped a few and found out that they were back up north {on 15th st.} where we came from!  ugh.  so we had to trek back up!  we found a restaurant on our map that we wanted to go to, when we got to our ‘destination’ on the map, the restaurant was no where to be found!  arrggh!  so, we mapped another restaurant and it was further up north!  and walked we did to feed ourselves.  we definitely walked off our breakfast and then some.  we finally settle in elephant and castle and ordered some grub {yum yum in the tum}.

we had plans to meet owen, olivia’s brother in law’s brother {who lives in d.c. as well} after our stint at the lincoln memorial.  olivia and i decided to walk to the memorial and then cab it to meet owen.  so, we walked and walked and walked to the lincoln memorial.  we were so confused by our map on where the location was!  we were led towards the direction of the jefferson memorial but my iphone kept saying it was the lincoln memorial!  well, we trusted that darn phone and it led us to the…jefferson memorial!  not that i was disappointed in seeing the jefferson statue {ok, i was a bit disappointed!  i was hoping it was the lincoln and gosh darn it, we have been walking so much!}.

we finally asked some girls for their paper map and realized that the lincoln memorial was all the way around the lake!!!  oy!  determined to see it, we traipsed our way to the next and {hopefully} final destination!  we started walking around the tidal basin, and walking and walking.  we ran into the roosevelt memorial {in all honesty, i love roosevelt too but we were so tired!  we just wanted to find the lincoln memorial!}.  we kept walking and almost gave up.  olivia was tenacious and was much more determined to find it for me [what a friend!].  i felt bad because we had been walking for what felt like forever!

so, here’s the funny part.  we found a cab {yay!} and only had $8 in cash on us.  we asked him if he knew where the lincoln memorial was {duh, of course he did!}.  we asked if it would be under $8 dollars, he was like ‘yeah yeah, it’ll be $8’.  so we hopped in the cab and we were on our way!  he drove a few hundred feet and said, “here’s the lincoln memorial.”  whaaaaaaaaa?!?!  it literally was around the corner!!!  oh my goodness!  we felt so defeated before and we were so tired, we didn’t see that it was sooooo close!!!  lol, so our cab ride was $3…yeah.  at least we finally got to our destination; i excitedly took pictures and soaked it all in!  i love lincoln!

we then went to find a cab so we could meet up with owen…i was searching for one when a rickshaw driver kept calling at us to get a ride from him.  i rebuffed his offer but he zoned in on innocent olivia.  she succumb to his offer and before i knew it, we were on a rickshaw adventure!  he was in motion to place a blanket on us when i halted him with my hand.  i asked him, “ew, is that a blanket you put on everyone?  like other strangers?!”  he just stared at me.  i said, “no, thank you…you can place that germy thing elsewhere!”.  he was very comical about it and asked if he could place it under our feet.  no problem!  and under our shoes went the dirty blanket!  he weaved in and out of traffic {a little concerned for my life} and continued to pedal his way towards our desired location in dupont circle.  i kept chuckling to myself…where we were headed was uphill all the way!  i felt a little bad.  i text olivia {people are walking faster than us!!}.

we finally reached big hunt and met up with owen!  we ordered beers and made plans to meet up with another friend of o’s, patrick.  after we quickly imbibed our drinks, owen led the way to the next bar, a beer garden packed to the gills.  after some time spent there, we finally headed on our way home to have dinner with claire and ben.  owen so graciously hailed a cab for us and we were on our merry way home to fill up our bellies again {feed me some irish grub please!}.

it was a long, fun filled day full, full of walking!  we really had a wonderful time and i am so grateful i was able to see everything that i did.  it was quite a successful day exploring d.c. {if i do say so myself}!  amaze.  thank you olivia for trekking all over d.c. with me.  muwah.

starting the day off with emma

metro tunnel

metro

more sculptures

and more

capitol 

sculpture garden

hope diamond

emeralds

watch out olivia for the bear!

pink blooms

whitey

me + the speck!

washington monument

smokey!

jefferson

rickshaw

lincoln

me + liv

owen