Washington D.C., U.S.A

Washington D.C. was the first road trip I ever took with friends. If I were to judge road tripping by just this one occasion, I would say there’s no better way to travel, if you’ve got the time. Obviously, this isn’t always realistic (wasting a day or two of your vacation time in the car) or fun (that many hours in such close quarters with friends can cause issues even with the best of us.) But for some reason, in our case, it worked. We wrote down every song we wanted to hear on a piece of paper (this was pre-Spotify days) and just kept adding to it for the entire 8 hour ride, so music was never an issue, and we jammed the whole way there. If anyone wanted to listen to something, they would just add it to the list. We filled the car with snacks, stopped for Starbucks (this was back when I was a card-carrying Starbucks member,) and made the 8 hour journey from Detroit to D.C. fun.

I can’t give recommendations on where to stay because we stayed in a friend’s dorm who was attending George Washington University at the time. The dorm was much bigger than expected and we loved the neighborhood. One major plus of staying in a college neighborhood was the happy hour deals. As in, still to this day, the best happy hour deal I’ve ever had. And I am a fan of a good happy hour, so I’m usually on the lookout. We’re talking $1 cocktails, people.

We made reservations at a restaurant called 1789 because Sara, who had been to D.C. before, had already eaten there and loved it. I’m glad we did, because apart from the food being delicious, it was all old and historical looking, and felt like Declaration of Independence was definitely signed at the table we ate dinner at. If I remember correctly, several U.S. Presidents have eaten there.

You know this trip happened a long time ago because Sara would never wear that bright of a red lip and I have no idea what’s going on with the color scheme in my outfit.

The monuments to see in D.C. are the obvious ones: White House, Capitol Building, Lincoln Memorial.. etc, etc.

I cannot reiterate enough how young and stupid we were at this time, clearly, to go somewhere with so much history and barely take any photos. I mean, look at our white house photos. We should have shown some respect- Obama was president at the time! What is going on in these shots!?

Recommendations: Make a reservation and eat at 1789. It’s worth it. Definitely go to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. They have a full display of all the first ladies’ dresses. And the Rotunda of the National Archives Building to see  the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. It was so cool.