His View 

Washington DC - Feliks' perspective

 

Where to start. DC had so much to offer and I feel like we only covered a fraction of it. First, there were so many tourist, so many. I did not feel guilty driving slow looking at all the buildings. There was so much to look at just from the car. All the buildings were about the same height so it was easy to see everything on the horizon. We parked a couple blocks away from the Capitol Hill and took the bikes down. We covered a lot more ground but navigating through the crowd was a challenge. Only one accident and it wasn't me. 

 

We started at The Castle and got the tourist info we needed to help us decide where to go. First stop was the Air and Space Museum. IT WAS PACKED! Probably because it was Saturday. Still, it was worth it. There were all types of planes and space crafts hanging from the ceilings, lots of history on aviation and navigation. More displays than I could look at and some of the coolest examples of old and new technology in aerospace. Since there were so many people there, we somewhat rushed through the exhibits and only took the time on a few that we really liked. If you go, plan for at least half a day. Most of the hold up was people taking pictures and you having to stop to avoid getting in the shot. Lots of that. 

 

Our path took us to the Capitol Building next and that thing was huge! We didn't even go to the steps and it still was overwhelming on how big it was. I think the coolest thing was that from the front of the Capitol Building you had an awesome view of the National Mall, the big grass area in the middle, all the way to the Washington Monument, where we headed next. While riding down the National Mall we saw the presidential motorcade rolling around. So we thought. After talking to one of the on-lookers (he had a badge so I thought he was official), I got the truth. They were shooting for the show House of Cards. The thought that I would see Obama was shot down, but seeing a live show production was cool. They had huge trucks on the side of the road, people everywhere, actual cops, not sure if the secret service was real but they looked official. 

 

As we peddled down the mall, we couldn't help but stop at every intersection to see what the buildings were and if we should go visit. Most of them were part of the Smithsonian and had tons of people pouring in and out. Since it was getting close to dinner we decided to pack up and leave. 

 

We had dinner at Ella's Wood Fire Pizza in downtown DC, really good pizza. We walked around downtown for a little and saw China Town, which was cool. Lots of restaurants, hole in the wall types that you know are going to be amazing. Saw some street performers break dancing, went into an oversized candy store. All the boxes of candy were like 5 pounds... I felt tiny. Overall, downtown was really cool. 

 

The next say we finished our tour of DC with the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the White House, and a number of others that were on the way. 

 

Overall, there was much more that we wanted to do but did not. This is definitely a potential vacation/visit later spot. We are not huge history buffs but even for us it was very interesting. The city was overrun by tourists, but it seemed that the local people were used to it and stayed clear of Capitol Hill. 

 

Parking was difficult and meters were confusing. There is a transit system that I could see us utilizing when staying a distance away from Capitol Hill.