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Two weekends ago I was in Washington D.C. I finally uploaded photos so what naturally follows is a blog post.

To start, we took a red-eye out of SFO to get to Dulles. I don’t recommend this – the flight was a bit too short so we only got around 5-6 hours at most and since it was a really bumpy flight, I think I was near 1-3 hours. We landed in Dulles and took a $70 cab ride to our hotel in downtown Washington D.C. We did, however, have all of Friday to explore the city but I was so tired I fell asleep during the National Museum of the American Indian movie which was actually really really loud. Not sure if I would do the red eye again. Ronald Reagan is much closer and accessible by metro, but the downside is there are no direct flights from SFO to the airport. So, we traded route for price and convenience. Better solution would be to not visit D.C. for some time so I don’t need to think about this.

I’ve been to D.C. numerous times (lived in Rockville, MD) so visiting the museums was nothing new to me. My compatriots, Arden, Justin, and Kolina had never explored the city so going to all the museums and attractions was great for them. And not going to lie, I do really like museums so I enjoyed walking around as well. What’s great is that the Smithsonian Museums are free to the public. This means huge crowds, but also a great, inexpensive way to spend your day. Only $8 to get an all-day metro pass and you’re set!

Anyway, where did we go? Had a good time exploring the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum:

From Washington D.C. Aug 2010

And the Smithsonian Natural History Museum:

From Washington D.C. Aug 2010

I’ve been really enjoying taking jumping photos in front of national landmarks:

From Washington D.C. Aug 2010

And got my college friend Mariana in the action:

From Washington D.C. Aug 2010

We also made our way to Virginia to check out Ray’s Hell Burger, made famous by a visit from President Obama:

From Washington D.C. Aug 2010

Let me tell you, it’s one hell of a burger. Highly recommend going. 5+ stars on Yelp. Inexpensive. Amazing toppings (foie gras! truffle oil?!). ATM with no fees!

Spent time also at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. My second visit and really glad I went back. It’s an incredible museum, both in terms of layout and subject matter. Finally, we ended with a trip up the Washington Monument and then I ran off to the airport.

From Washington D.C. Aug 2010

Luckily the weather worked out and it wasn’t incredibly hot. It was a bit humid, but cloud cover and then a downpour of rain on Sunday helped.

Anyway, if you’re looking to visit D.C., the following site really helped us out in terms of ideas of things to visit:

http://washington.org/visiting/browse-dc/attractions/100-free-things-to-do

I would say though, that exploring the Mall took up the whole weekend and we didn’t even get to all the museums. There’s plenty of stuff to do!