On route back from NYC I decided to tag along with my family and stop off at Washington DC.  Below are a list of places we ate at and things that we did around the city!  I was surprised how grand all the monuments and memorials were, as many of them were structured like Ancient Rome architecture with large white pillars.  There’s definitely a lot of history within Washington DC and tonnes of free Museums to visit and explore!

LOCATION:
Stayed @ Air BnB farther up north from the National Mall, but it was super close to a train station to make it easily accessible to the sight seeing activities in Washington DC.  Taxis are pretty expensive around Washington ($3.50 start + $0.25 charge per person in the taxi), so if you can take public transit or walk around its recommended!

THINGS TO EAT:

1. Founding Farmers
   1. This restaurant is super popular for brunch!  Make sure you order the corn bread, it was delicious and had actual pieces of corn in it.  My brother ordered the $20 massive meal plate, while I opted for the Fried Chicken & Waffles and my parents went for the roast beef sandwich.  It was all super delicious and we some how had room for the beignets.
2. Teaism
   1. This place is a casual order and sit down yourself type restaurant.  It’s not a big place so there might be a line-up or no seats available, but a great spot to grab a quick and fresh meal.
3. Zaytinya
   1. We stumbled upon this place after walking around the National Mall.  It’s pretty close to the Archives train station.  Some of the tapas were average, but the stand outs were definitely the hummus, octopus, meat sharing platter and the vanilla baklava ice cream.  Also the free bread you get was amazing!  I think we ate 3 baskets of that bread, yes it was that delicious haha

THINGS TO VISIT:

1. Free Walking Tour (a little long with 5 hours, but a great way to see major things on the National Mall)
   1. Washington Memorial
   2. Lincoln Memorial
   3. Reflecting Pool
   4. WWII, Vietnam, and Korean War Memorials
   5. The White House
2. Malcolm X Park
   1. this isn’t on many lists of ‘things to see’ in Washington DC, but this park has a beautiful fountain that I just had to stop by for photos.
3. Tidal Basin (Jefferson Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial)
   1. takes about 1 hour to walk around fully – the Jefferson and Martin Luther King Memorials were an amazing sight to see
4. Printing Money Tour
   1. didn’t have enough time to do this, but we heard it cool to take a tour on how money is produced
5. Free Museums
   1. we only went to the Air & Space museum which was super cool!  There are several more that you can check out for free or a great place to recharge and relax after a long day of walking.

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