Washington, DC: Part One

After sitting out last year due to our trip to Ireland in the fall, I once again headed to Washington, DC with my parents during the Cherry Blossom Festival (see previous trips here).  We arrived early in the morning on a Friday.  Our first stop was the Renwick Gallery.  It featured a new exhibit, No Spectators, that opened just that morning and was dedicated to the art of Burning Man.  After that we walked past the White House on our way to lunch at Old Ebbitt Grill.  After lunch we went to the Portrait Gallery so we could see the portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama.  The presidential portraits exhibit very neat.  Perhaps my favorite part of this museum was the courtyard! It was something to behold and fully enclosed. One last stop for the day was moseying through some gardens on the grounds of a Smithsonian museum on the National Mall.  We caught the metro back to Arlington, where we always stay, just as it started to sprinkle.  We had dinner at Four Courts just down the street from our hotel that night.

On Saturday we had our nicest weather day of the trip.  It was sunny and warm with gorgeous blue skies! We visited the Spanish Steps of DC on our way to the Woodrow Wilson House.  The house was one of my favorite tours in a long time.  So much of the items in the house are original and authentic thanks to his late wife, Edith Wilson.  After the tour we worked our way over to get lunch at Ben's Chili Bowl.  I had the original half smoke! So good!  Since we were close we also stopped at Meridian Hill Park before we made our way back to the National Mall for the Blossom Kite Festival.  It was so cool. I have never seen so many people on the mall! We also took the opportunity to walk around part of the Tidal Basin.  We were just a little early for peak bloom but there were some cherry blossoms.  After walking around a while, we headed back across the river.  We had dinner that evening at Tupelo Honey.  My burger had pimento cheese AND fried pickle slices.