I think I can see the President from here.

After watching the Hunger Games (did I mention we saw it in IMAX?!), we headed to Washington, DC.  DC is only about 4 hours from Raleigh, so we got in town about 9 Sunday night.  We stayed with some friends and headed to have dinner and drinks at Mad Fox Brewing Company.

[Pretzel bites + a pilsner]

Max Fox is actually in Falls Church, VA about a mile from where we were staying.  They brew their own beer and foster a pretty cool atmosphere in the place.  They had a solid food menu as well.  It's definitely worth checking out if you head about 7 or 8 miles outside the DC area.

We I took Monday to sleep in a bit while D got up early to do some work.  The weather was projected to be around 60 and pretty sunny.

I opted for this flowy blouse from Target (which I am in love with by the way) with my dark skinnies.  I paired it all with my Toms, which don't match but were well worth the decision.   

After our later start and fueling up at Starbucks, we spent additional time trying to figure out how to get into the city.  Since we drove to VA, we could easily drive into DC.  There was also a metro station about a mile from where we were staying.  After much debate and driving around, we decided to just drive into DC.  We got a spot on the same block as the Smithsonian Museum of American History, so we figured it was the perfect place to start.

Museums can take up a significant amount of time, and I certainly don't want to bore you with a million pictures from a museum.  Here are a few of my favorite things I saw at the Smithsonian.

[Top R to L: The Star Spangled Banner Exhibition, old pins used for propaganda; Bottom R to L: More propaganda (which coincidently I can still relate to), the presidents exhibition, revolutionary lighthouse light]

There was so much to see and do in the Smithsonian that we just did not even get to see it all.  The museum is free though, so it's worth a walk-through even if it is quick.  After leaving the museum, the weather was windy (20+ mph winds!) but beautiful and sunny.  We braved the wind and walked out to the Washington Monument.

[Yeah, that's a tiny D in the bottom middle]

The park areas around the monument are gorgeous and open.  Due to the windy conditions, there were lots of people out and about flying kites and picnicking.  

 [If I lived in DC, I would totally be hanging out here!  That's a view of the Lincoln Memorial as well]

[View of the Capitol Building from the Washington Monument]

Tomorrow I'll update on our favorite monument and how we spent the rest of our first day in DC.