A Sweat-Fest in our Nations Capital!!

Every day we were in Washington DC there was an excessive heat warning. YUCK! It’s so much better to see our monuments on the National Mall when the sweat isn’t blurring your vision! Thank goodness for cameras.

Our “Nation’s Treasure Chest”… The Smithsonian. Of the 20 museums, we spent the most of our time at the Visitor Center and in the Natural History Museum. I loved the Panda cam, the Hope Diamond (45 ct. and $350 million), the Royal Butterfly brooch (2,318 gems), the Human Origins exhibit, and the giant shark in the cafe….how fitting! Our plan was to go back and visit more museums another day.…it was just too miserable.

For the next few days, we ended up getting into our air conditioned car to brave the DC traffic. We didn’t think it was as bad as Chicago traffic, but the road conditions and pot holes were insane!

Old Town Alexandria

Founded in 1749, there is so much history in this old port town. It’s a very cute place to walk around (in and out of shops to stay cool), a pretty waterfront, and wonderful historic neighborhoods and homes. This would be a fun place to stay when visiting DC. They have a water taxi to the National Mall.

Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

This is the Roman Catholic Basilica for North American and a shrine to the Virgin Mary. It’s the largest Catholic church in North America. The mosaics are amazing. There are Virgin Mary shrines from around the world.

Washington National Cathedral

It’s beautiful! There is still reconstruction going on from the 2011 earthquake that hit DC. One of the stained glass windows (see the last picture) is dedicated to the moon landing 50 years ago and has a piece of moon rock embedded in the design.

I loved the Bishops Garden….it was a little secret garden

Row houses…I was obsessed

In Alexandria, Georgetown, South Capital there were row houses everywhere. I wanted to go in all of them. The narrowest house in america is in Alexandria and it’s only 7 feet wide! Talk about a Tiny House.

The best thing about driving around DC (in addition to staying in a cool car) is that we get to see so many interesting things. The “Blind Whino” is a historic church that was painted and re-purposed to an arts center. There are lots of wall murals all over the city.

Hey! Was that Donald J. Trumps motorcade heading for the White House? Yep - that was him!!! I wanted to have a few words with him…but couldn’t run fast enough in that heat!!!