Travel Journal 3: D.C. Adventures Continue...

Today's travel journal is a quick recap of the rest of my trip to D.C. After Heather's fabulous wedding, four of us stayed in D.C. through New Years with our friend Aysha who lives there.

I had not been to D.C. since my 6th grade field trip there, other than briefly stopping through on a road trip. So I was very excited to see some sights and explore the city not with a school group.

The day after Heather's wedding we helped her pack up and get everything in a U-Haul for her and Chris's move to Florida... Well, let's be honest, the girls were all recapping the wedding together while the guys did the heavy lifting! That evening, the five of us girls staying in D.C. went on an evening walk to the White House, World War II memorial, and out to dinner/exploring in Georgetown.

The WWII Memorial was so  pretty at night with all of the lights and fountains! 

Showing our school spirit for Vandy!
(From left to right: Alex, Aysha, me, Alex, and Leah)

The next day, we walked by some more highlights, including my favorite stop: the Library of Congress. How beautiful! The inside was stunning, and it was also incredible to see Thomas Jefferson's library. The book worm in me could have browsed all of his books for hours. In his words, "I cannot live without books."

The beautiful Library of Congress

The Capitol

Afterwards, Aysha taught us how to use the Metro, which was super easy even for directionally-challenged me.We walked around several cute neighborhoods and ate at a delicious Turkish restaurant for lunch. That afternoon, Alex, Leah, and I headed to the National Museum of Natural History while Aysha brought (the other) Alex to the airport. The museum was a lot of fun to explore, from seeing the dinosaurs to the gems/Hope Diamond.

Turkish vs. American coffee... cheers!

For New Year's Eve we decided to relax. After getting dressed up for all of the wedding festivities, it was nice to celebrate the evening in sweat pants! We each made a favorite dish of ours, and had a wonderful home cooked meal of salmon, brussels sprouts, and avocado quinoa for dinner.

It was a perfect girls getaway and so wonderful to catch up with college friends!