How to CAPITALize on 24 hours in Washington, DC
One thing about working full time that people don’t realize is that when you want to see the world around you, you need to get creative on how to see it! My fiancé, Gabriel, and I were heading to the DC area for work so we figured on our way home we would find a way to explore Washington, DC in 24 hours!
We checked into our hotel around 8pm the night before and we were staying RIGHT downtown. We could see all the monuments from our window and the city was just as lively at night as we would have expected! We were eager to wake up and get exploring… minus the 4:30am alarm clock I set.
One thing I have learned from some of my fellow travel bloggers is that if you want to get the best pictures at touristy locations, you need to wake up early and be the first one there – which isn’t easy after a long day of traveling but you gotta do what you gotta do!
First stop: Lincoln Memorial. We actually parked our car near the Tidal Basin and across the water, we had a gorgeous view of Jefferson Memorial. This was a total bonus for us because it was not originally in our plan of 24 hours in DC but we made it work! From there we wanted to be able to make our way to Lincoln Memorial and be able to watch the sun rise over the Washington Monument. We did just that AND more! We saw Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, WWII Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, and finally making it to our main destination of Lincoln Memorial. We really wanted to make this our spot for the sunrise and figured this would be the best view of the sunrise and boy were our expectations blown away! If you know Gabriel and I, you know that we have many very special sunsets and sunrises together.* We have kind of dubbed it “our thing”.
*Gabriel told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me in Minnesota in 2014 while watching the sun set then proposed in San Diego in 2017 while watching the sunset at Sunset Cliffs National Park.
Second stop: Following the advice from our fellow bloggers, we were recommended that if we want to beat the rush of people on a Saturday, we need to arrive at Capital Hill as soon as the Capital Visitor Center opens at 8:30am. When here, we took a FREE tour of the U.S. Capitol Building and saw the Hall of Columns, the rotunda, and the old Supreme Court chambers. We went at an intense time in U.S. History during the Kavanaugh Confirmation. When you visit and look through the visitor’s gallery, you can watch bills being debated, votes being counted, and speeches being given. It’s a really cool experience.
Third stop: It’s amazing to me of how we managed to see EVERYTHING I am about to say and it’s not even noon yet! We made our way around the other memorials near the National Mall. It’s good to note that they are all within walking distance of each other which made this second stop an easy choice! We then visited the Vietnam War Memorial, Korean War Memorial and the World War II Memorial which are nearby the Lincoln Memorial. Also located near one another on the Tidal Basin that we visited were the Jefferson Memorial, the FDR Memorial, and the Martin Luther King Memorial. Yes – this is a lot of monuments and memorials but if you have the time and are willing to do the walk, it’s worth it!
Fourth stop: FOOD! Oh boy at this point we didn’t realize how hungry we actually were until we could smell the street tacos and other food trucks that were all lined up for a parade! We had prime location to watch all of these cultures come together to put on whatever parade was going on plus we were able to fill our bellies while doing this!
Fifth stop: Smithsonian Museums! We wanted to see as many as we could within a days time and we know were going to have to come back to DC another time to see all of these FREE museums again. Did you know there are 19 museums? NINETEEN! We simply weren’t able to absorb all the history and see all the artifacts there which was expected but we know we will be back. This time we hit up the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History! Ya know, the ones you usually see in movies and the ones that we believed would give us that little bit of education that we needed that day! 🙂
Sixth and final stop: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue also known as, The White House. It’s remarkable to see this in person. We actually saw it from the front and back! We weren’t quite sure where the best view would be so we went to both sides. It’s like seeing something in pictures in school books and the news for YEARS and then finally seeing it in person, it still doesn’t look real. This should (for obvious reasons) be on your list of places to check out while in DC.
For being Gabriel’s first trip to our nations capital – I like to think we did a great job doing it justice in seeing all there is to see! Thank you for reading this and special shout out to Washington, DC. You are a gem and we loved visiting and cannot wait to come back and explore more!
