Northeast Train Trip pt. 2–Washington, D.C.

Continuing with our 2022 train trip, we pick up with our full day in D.C., where we had departed from The Cardinal the previous evening.

We started with a somewhat rainy walk around the neighborhood over to Ted’s Bulletin for breakfast. We were pretty impressed with the food, and it was our favorite breakfast of the whole trip. I ordered a breakfast burrito, and Ryan ordered the Big Mark Breakfast. Ryan’s breakfast included a Ted Tart–Ted’s Bulletin’s homemade take on a Pop Tart.

After breakfast, we knew we wanted to do some sight seeing, including some of the botanical gardens and the monuments. For some reason, my mom and I thought it would be a great idea to just walk over–the major attractions were supposedly three miles from our Airbnb, which didn’t sound that far, and on the map all the attractions seem really close together. We later realized that walking over was probably a bit ambitious, but more on that later.

Anyway, our first stop was the Enid A. Haupt Garden. As you can see, these are located right outside the Smithsonian castle.

Next, we walked through the Sculpture Garden outside the Hirshhorn Museum.

We were still full from breakfast, but the Boba Tea truck was calling our name!

We walked by the Capitol Building. There were lots of barricades up to prevent people from getting too close. The city was anticipating a lot of protests within the next few days over the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision.

Next, we visited the United States Botanical Gardens, home to the Corpse Flower, one of the largest flowers in the world! The corpse flower only blooms for a couple of days, and there was actually one blooming during our visit. However, I didn’t get a picture (much to Ryan’s disappointment) due to the number of people around it. But anyway, here are some other photos from the botanical gardens:

Finally, it was time for the memorials. I really wanted to see the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial since it was new, but I wasn’t exactly sure where it was. I knew it appeared close to the other memorials though, so we just started walking in that direction. This is when we started to realize that what looks close on the map is definitely not as close in real life, and it’s also when our feet were getting really tired from all the walking. So while we enjoyed the memorials, I think we would have appreciated them even more if we had taken the metro in the morning rather than walking the three miles. Oh well, we got in a LOT of steps and good exercise! Plus, we would be sitting on the train again the entire day the following day, so it was probably good to get some extra exercise. We saw the Washington Monument, World War II Memorial (new to me), Lincoln Memorial, and MLK Memorial. We also saw the Jefferson Memorial from a distance.

At this point, my dad declared that we should take the metro back rather than walk. That was a good plan as there was a metro station really close to our Airbnb. Then it was time for dinner. My parents chose to get some takeout, while Ryan and I decided to try out a little Ethiopian restaurant across from our Airbnb. I got the Doro Wot and Ryan tried their Gored Gored.

And so our day of walking had come to an end! The next day, we would board another train, this time to Vermont! Be sure to check back later when I share about our journey to Vermont and the adventures we had there.