Great Loop: Side Trip to DC

Days 80-84: April 7-11, 2023

When traveling on the Great Loop there are times you can’t or don’t want to boat to a location that you really want to see. In this case, it was Washington DC. Yes, you can boat there. However, we chose not to for a few reasons. The boating distance and time to get there would have added to many days to the schedule. And a bonus was we could get direct flights to Seattle for our upcoming planned trip back to Seattle. The plan included driving up, getting an Airbnb for a few nights, and checking out what DC has to offer.

National Mall

The first stop in DC was the National Mall area to check out the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and all the stuff in between. We used the Capital Bike Share, which turned out to be pretty convenient (our Airbnb was only about a mile and half away) and quite cost effective (was just $20 flat rate/person/month with unlimited rides). Below are pics of the Hodak family making their way past us at the Washington Monument.

Smithsonian Natural History

The next stop on Day 1 was the Natural History Museum. Lots of cool things to see! We especially like the ocean exhibit. 😉

National Zoo

On Day 2 while having morning coffee, the question came up of what we should do today. I grabbed the DC guidebook and said we’d do whatever I randomly selected. The random draw was the Smithsonian National Zoo. After a few minutes of discussion, we were off to the zoo. It was a great excursion and only line was for the pandas, of course. Pro tip: The lumpy blankets in the photo with the sign are the orangutans hiding for a nap!

Fascinated by the rays

Family time and snuggles

Bubble time!

This guy was a character! We missed capturing the best of his tricks.

Smithsonian Stamp Museum

On the Day 3 we decided to go check out Union Station. While walking over we got sidetracked by the Stamp Museum. That’s right! The Stamp Museum. Who could pass that up!?! It was on a whim though actually turned out to be surprisingly neat. Tonia found the Bugs Bunny stamp of which she still has an original – saved from the year Emily was born. Can you find the misprint stamps? We also could create our own Forever stamp and it surely would be a collector’s dream! We even mailed postcards from the post office there.

Union Station

Once we had our fill of stamps, we trekked next door to Union Station. Tonia had pictures of it from high school, so we were reliving her past trip. It has a cool design and houses lots of shops and places to grab grub on your way.

Dinners: Croatian restaurant & Easter dinner

During the trip we had a couple memorable dinners. One was at Amber Shaw, a restaurant that specializes in cuisine from Boris’ homeland of Croatia. It was a fun night trying the various dishes and listening to Boris converse with the restaurant manager. We were treated to

Another memorable dinner was for Easter. Tonia and I stopped by Safeway and picked up all the fixings for Easter dinner. We made due in the Airbnb and made our traditional ham with mashed potatoes and corn. Yum!

It’s all illusions

A fun stop was the Museum of Illusions. We enjoyed going thru the different rooms and seeing all the ways you can trick your brain. My favorite was a room that had a walkway in the middle and the sides spun around you. It really felt like you were going upside down. I couldn’t stay in there long though Tonia fared better in it.

Around DC Part 2

We decided to hit some of the areas we didn’t get to see on the previous days. We biked out to the Jefferson, FDR, and MLK Jr Memorials and took in other sites along our way to the White House.

DC at Night

On our final evening in DC, Mayli declared we were going to see the National Mall at night. We hopped on the bikes and were soon viewing the wonderful images of DC lit up. It’s a perspective not to miss!