Experiencing Washington D.C.
Congress Building - Washington D.C.
My wife had a business trip scheduled in Washington D.C. this past weekend for a conference and training. I tagged along and considered it my vacation since I am on break for the summer. I have never been to Washington D.C. so I was pretty excited about seeing some of the national sites. I am big into politics, government and history, the areas of teaching I was certified in when I graduated all those years ago. My wife had been to D.C. before for another conference a few years ago, so she wasn’t as excited but was very happy I was coming along. We were also using this trip to mark our 29th anniversary and finally getting to celebrate it without having to haul children around everywhere.
I wish I could say our trip started bright and early, and went off without any hitches, but that is never our luck. Our trip started out bright and early, we were up at 5:30 am, at the airport by 6:30 am for our flight that was scheduled to leave at 8 am. Well wouldn’t you know it, right before our plane was scheduled to leave, take off was pushed back to 12 noon. We though okay, we can deal with this, it’s only a few hours and we’ll still be in D.C. the same day and have time to get around. Oh no, not our luck, because our plan didn’t take off until 5:30 pm. Yes, that’s right, we were there all day long, they even had us get on the plane, then get off the plane because they had to inspect it. At the end of the day, and I mean that literally, we eventually took off for our 30 min flight to Detroit, yes we waited all day for a 30 minute flight. And you want to know what was wrong with the plane, something in the restroom. Yeah, I guess you can tell I wasn’t happy about the start to this vacation.
Washington D.C. Sunset
Even though getting to D.C. was an adventure in itself, once we got there my wife and I had an awesome time. That night we took off walking to get some dinner and saw a great sunset. I didn’t have my camera with me but vowed to bring it back again and get a shot of this valley below. When I was finally able to get the shot the next night, I didn’t like how they were coming out in my camera, so I pulled out my Iphone and used the Pano setting and got this picture.
One thing that tripped us out was how much people liked to run in D.C. I mean, as soon as we landed and were on the taxi ride to the hotel, as we drove we noticed people running. We passed neighborhood, monuments, we passed hotels, building, highways, we even passed a lake, and people were running everywhere. It was pretty awesome to see though, we don’t see anything like that here in South Bend. That was part of the trip that was the best for me and my wife, the amount of people who were just out walking or being outside. I can imagine it being like that in New York City, but I have never been there before, so for me that was probably the busiest city I have ever been to in the United States. I say that because I have been to Dublin, Ireland and that place was jam packed full of people.
Secret Service Police Approaching me
At the end of it, we had a really good time, I spent a few days on my own while my wife was at her conference just walking around seeing the sites. One day ended up walking almost 11 miles total. I saw the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, the National Monument, went into the Congress Building, and was at the steps of the Supreme Court waiting for a decision that wouldn’t come. I got pictures everywhere, I was even approached by the Secret Service Police at the White House, which I will wear as a badge of honor. LOL
But the best part of the whole trip was spending it with my wife. It has been years since we got to go on trip just on our own and we enjoyed it. Took off when ever we wanted to. Walked around till late in the night without having to worry about who was where and what they were doing. We had an absolute blast and I got one of the best pictures I ever got of my wife while we were standing at night waiting for a cab which ended up being my shot of the trip. And one last thing, the return trip wasn’t any better. Flight’s delayed, moved and canceled. That was one of the worse trips in terms of the travel that I have ever been on.
My shot of the Trip
