Monday, April 20, 2015

Capital City Washington DC

I had the opportunity to drive down to DC over the beautiful weekend and spend two days wandering around. I decided a week prior that I needed to visit DC once more. There is so much to do in DC. With free entry into all Smithonian museums, beautiful architecture and sprawling parks, you can spend days exploring. 


I drove down from Philly on Saturday morning taking back roads to avoid tolls and parked at Landover Hills Metro station, which parking is free on weekends and took the train into DC. The metro in DC is one of the easiest to use. With clear maps and not too many different lines and routes it's easy to figure your way around the city. I took the metro to Federal Triangle to get to the national mall and monument, Smithonian stop also works. I walked along the epansive park from congress all the way to the Lincon statue. It was a beautiful sunny day. 


Along the way I stumbled upon the Global Citizens Earth Day Festival. Could not have been a more perfect day to visit. Not only did I enjoy bands like Train, Fall Out Boy and NoDoubt, I also got to hear speeches from leaders around the world talk about important issues of poverty and pollution globally. Tents were set up to show off new innovations to decrease pollution and end world hunger. Entry to the festival was absolutely free. 



Empowered and exhasted I headed to Burgers Taps and Shakes near George Washington University. I enjoyed a falafel burger and a cookies and cream shake and headed back to my car for some sleep. 



One of my goals recently was to try out car sleeping, boy was it hard. I slept in a Walmart parking lot because I heard it was good to car sleep, because people are around. I laid out my camp mat and covers and tried to fall asleep. First it was too hot so I cracked the windows, then I got nervous that security would see me and arrest me so I put shades over the windows, next I got nervous that someone would break into my car to i rechecked the locks and turned off the smart car feature. Finally at around 4am I was finally able to fall asleep. I woke up at 7am to realize that no one had arrested me nor had anyone broken in. I was still alive!


A little tired I again boarded the metro back to federal triangle station to explore some of the free Smithonian museums. I first visited the Air and Space museum. I watched a show in the planetarium, I walked around the exhibits and even tried out the flight simulators. I then headed over to the Museum of Natural History where I learned about weird ocean creatures, got really excited about stuffed mammals and awed over gems and rare crystals. I even turned myself into Paranthropus boisei, an early ancestor of the human species. I was thouroughly exhausted so I headed back to my car and drove back to Philly. 


Overall DC is a great place to visit especially for someone who wants to travel on the cheap. With so much stuff to do for free, everyone will find something exciting and interesting to discover. 

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