Today is the birthday of one of my favorite people and to celebrate I thought I should finally finish up editing the pictures from our latest adventure in Washington D.C. and Richmond, Virginia. (I’m really bad at keeping up on personal pictures!) Rachel and I have taken two trips together now and it’s quickly becoming a tradition since we are long distance most of the time. We grew up keeping in contact through letters as pen pals when she moved from Spokane to Alaska and although I love the fact that we can talk much more easily now, I know that our communication skills as kids and our friendship was forged through those early letters. One day when my kids can actually write letters I will be encouraging them to find a pen pal as well because there’s nothing better than receiving something in the mail just for you!
Also quick shout out to our amazing husbands and families since they took over all the things with our combination of 6 children and allowed us to have such an incredible experience!
Just a shttps://www.dcmetrofoodtours.com/ide note, I will never call myself a landscape or place photographer, these were just for fun, getting to work with people is definitely more what I'm called to, but I had to take advantage of having my good camera in a big city!
We chose Washington D.C. because I had a photography conference in Richmond, Virginia and it was easier to fly into D.C. than Richmond, plus we had never really been! Rachel and I are not exactly pros when it comes to navigation, in fact her husband was placing bets on how many times we would get lost, which I don’t think he was quite able to cash in on because we aren’t horrible either. It’s just not really our priority when we have months of each other’s lives to catch up on in one week! Now both trips that we have taken I have been pregnant and being in the first trimester this time was not exactly something I would recommend, since there were definitely days I was just done and would rather stay in the Airbnb or hotel and watch a movie than go adventuring. Thankfully Rachel is great at flexibility and we were able to do a lot in a short amount of time.
Here is the run down for visits in case you are planning a trip in the near future. One of the best things we did was a food tour with DC food tours. One day into our stay we attempted the subway, missed our first train and made the second (I’m pretty sure the attendant was very unimpressed with our subway ticket buying skills!) Then we headed all over the Capitol Hill area trying various foods, from Spain to Belgium to El Salvador/Mexico and then finished with a specialty pop tart! I will definitely be going on a food tour every time I travel now because it was so interesting to ask the guide 100 questions, meet new people and see the area, plus get great recommendations! 
Most of my tourist pictures are at night, for two reasons. Number one, we never get to actually sleep in or sleep through the night based on our wonderful children so sleep was a top necessity and two, when you visit D.C. in the winter there are very limited amounts of daylight especially nearing Christmas. However, I think it’s a different perspective than I’ve seen in a lot of pictures from D.C. and there were also a lot less people at night so we were able to experience each place in a quiet and calm atmosphere.
One of the locals recommended we try Compass coffee which was a great little spot to stop with a lot of varieties of their own roasted coffee. (I have to say though that Washington State is where it's at if you want good coffee everywhere, it was very hit or miss in D.C.)
Next we went to “A Christmas Carol” at Ford’s Theater where President Lincoln was assassinated. I loved the history of the place and the production was very similar to a Broadway show so we were enthralled every minute. Before visiting I had no idea how much of D.C. has become focused on amazing food and it was the best to be able to have so much variety to choose from. We also went to a tea in Georgetown and after that found the most amazing little restaurant with Mediterranean food for $3-4! When I’m in the first trimester of pregnancy the only time I don’t feel nauseated is when I’m eating so this was the city of my dreams in that respect because I could literally eat the entire time! 
Another monumental visit was the Arlington Cemetery, we chose to get the bus pass instead of trying to traipse through that many acres of land and it was so worth it. Getting to see the changing of the guard and see where so many notable people were laid to rest was sobering and incredible at the same time. The culture of honor and respect that the military creates is one of the most fascinating pieces to me and we were even able to see how a member of the cemetery is laid to rest since there were several funerals there the day we were there. I’m even more in awe of the great sacrifice that so many people in our nation have made to allow me to have the life in this country and it was a very impactful day.
In the middle of the trip we traveled down to Richmond so I could attend the photography conference and got to meet the photographer that I love, Katelyn James! It was such an inspiring day and I was so glad I decided to go! Then the next day we got up ridiculously early and drove back to D.C. just in time to attend our White House tour. The White House at Christmas is breathtaking and getting to experience the inside was absolutely a highlight. To see rooms that so many historical figures have lived in and experiencing history first hand was really hard to express but so valuable. I definitely think going at Christmas time was the perfect decision since there was so much more to see, also more people visiting (I’m assuming), so that was a little bit on the busy side but we were all loving the experience and you could learn so much just from other tourists and locals that it wasn’t bad. (All of the White House pictures were shot on my Iphone since my Canon wasn't allowed.)
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If you actually made it through this post, thank you for following along and I love giving tips and tricks if anyone has any questions about our trip!
