(Smithsonian Museum)
(Washington Monument and US Department of Agriculture building)
On Sunday, after my coworker Jen and I registered for the conference and checked out the Washington Convention Center, we visited the Jefferson Memorial.
The only monument/structure Jen had not seen before, the Jefferson Memorial commemorates one of the founding fathers of our nation, a hero who authored and signed the Declaration of Independence.
The journey to the monument was rather long, so after walking about halfway to the monument, we lured a pedicab to pedal us the rest of the route. Neither of us had taken a ride on a pedicab before so it was fun to try something new.
(our peddler - he wouldn't look at the camera because he said he was "in disguise")
Interestingly, as we were riding by the Washington Monument, our peddler told us that since the earthquake that shook the east coast last year, no one has been able to visit the Washington Monument because of fear that the monument may collapse. A number of cracks surfaced the structure after the quake and architects are still unsure how to reconstruct the monument.
The evening was beautiful and from the the Jefferson Memorial, the landscape of DC was glowing.
After about an hour of checking out the Memorial, we headed to dinner at Oyamel Cocina Mexicana, a Spanish tapas restaurant in downtown DC. We enjoyed a few small plates as well as an air salt margarita, their signature drink. Everything was delicious.
After a long day of adjusting to the four hour time change, walking around and eating, Jen and I were exhausted. We headed to our hotels and called it a day.
More to come from DC (sorry...I'm a few days behind).
Cheers,
Karen