I love vacations.
But even I think we've packed too many in these last few months! haha
This trip had a purpose.
To obtain our Chinese Visas.
When we bought our cheap tickets to China in October, we didn't think about the Visa.
We found out that a Visa to China is $140/person...
however, unless you go to Washington DC to obtain your "own Visa" you pay an additional $125 for the service of doing that.
So essentially $140 x 8 = $1120 for the visa
PLUS
$125 x 8 = $1000 for the service fee...
for a grand total of $2120 ahhhhhh
It made me sick thinking about handing over that much extra $ for the service fee.
So I used sky miles... invited cute Jadyn to come with me, booked a super cheap hotel room and flew to DC to do it myself.
It turned out that we had to pay the $25 rush fee/person to make sure the Visas were ready by the time we left DC.
(Which I am SOOOO glad that we did, because when we got there to pick them up, they were turning people away right and left because their Visas weren't ready yet!)
But we still saved $800... which was pretty much a wash in the end.
But Jadyn and I got a great trip out of it!!
She's adorable and so pleasant to be with.
I picked her up from school during her last class of the day on Tuesday Feb. 26th
The flight was great and we arrived at the Dulles airport around 11 PM, took our first LYFT ride and arrived at our "just fine, but nothing to write home about hotel."
The next morning we headed out early, we had planned on riding bikes to the Chinese Embassy but opted to call a LYFT, SOOO glad we did... I'll say more about that later.
We arrived @ 9:10 AM.
The Visa department opened at 9:30 and it already looked like this...
There were TERRIBLE reviews about how long it took to obtain the visa...
How you had to have EVERYTHING perfect etc. etc.
So I spent HOURS making sure each application was filled out precisely. I had copies of everything. There was a 5 page application involved for each person.
They needed to have copies and proof of flight information, proof of where you were staying each night, family information... pretty much your 5 generation family tree, etc. etc.
But that morning the drop-off part was super smooth for us.
We got in and had our number called before 9:50 AM.
Much better than I expected.
Our lady was nice and helpful and assured me that I had everything correct. phew
She assured me that they would be ready by Friday...
so by 10:10 we were off for the day to explore DC.
We grabbed our first "bikes" the kind that you can rent for 30 minutes at a time and then return. It was a great way to see the sites. And great a workout too. haha
Our first stop was the Lincoln Memorial.
I bought Jadyn her National Parks Passport at our first stop, she loved getting all of the stamps at each National Monument.
The Vietnam Memorial...
Korean War Memorial...
World War I & II Memorials...
The Washington Monument...
(It STILL is not open from a major renovation it has been undergoing for 2 years, it opens this spring.) :(
We found the White House.
Took a tour here...
(This is one of my favorites, it's so fascinating to see the process that goes into creating $$$!)
The Jefferson Monument
MLK Monument
FDR Memorial
We jam-packed a ton in this first day thanks to these bikes!
We spent a couple hours at the Holocaust Museum.
Jadyn had never heard anything about the Holocaust.
So that was an eye-opening experience for her.
We then rode our bikes across the Arlington Bridge and saw the Iwo Jima Monument.
It was 4:50 and we were right by the Arlington Cemetery so we dropped off our bikes at a station and went in.
We didn't enter through the front gates, we came through a side entrance.
The guards told us that they closed at 5 but we could stay in the cemetery for a while.
I asked which way we wanted to go to get to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier...
They kindly pointed the way and we walked, for almost a half-hour before being stopped by another guard who told us that we needed to leave the cemetery and that the last changing of the guard for the night had been 20 minutes ago at 5.
Hmmmm why didn't they tell us that at the other gate???
We were almost to the tomb... but we turned around and walked to the front gate (because the gate we had come in was now closed).
My phone was dead by this point or without question we would have called a LYFT.
Instead we had to walk about 2 miles, ALL THE WAY around for another 40 minutes back to the Iwo Jima. Where we checked our bikes out again and headed to dinner.
We were exhausted + starving since we hadn't stopped for lunch!
Oh and cold.
It was cold, in the 30's.
Like it could have been colder, but more cold than I want to vacation in.
Although I don't like DC in the summer either so....
We were excited to get back to our hotel and chill.
We had a super productive day and definitely hit our work out goal for the day. haha
30,000 steps which is about 12.5 miles + about 14 miles on the bike.
The next morning we hopped on the subway because I could NOT get back on those bikes that early in the morning. I was definitely feelin' it from the day before!
It amazes me how long the subway escalators are.
Jadyn kept making me walk up them when we rode and I counted 70 steps + whatever steps we missed with it moving...
It's a long escalator!
We had a yummy breakfast.
Then headed to the White House for our tour.
(but not before stopping at a Kinko's because I forgot to bring a printed copy of our tickets, thank heavens for phones/technology!)
We're both so glad we got to tour the White House.
(I think the White House was about the only thing Jadyn knew about DC before we came! haha But she'll be ready for US History next year!)
Sadly we had to hop back on our bikes to get to the other side of the Mall since we wanted to run quick to the Library of Congress before our tour of the Capital.
We had 30 minutes.
I had gone through the process of getting a library card when we came with Kenna a couple years ago. So I thought we could get in quick, but it's NOT quick getting in there! First security of course, then dropping off coats at the coat check, and the card had expired so I had to get a new one.
But we made it!
It's fun to be able to go into the main reading room.
Not that we read anything...
We were a tiny bit late for our Capital tour that we ran to.
But since we were the only 2 on the tour that we'd scheduled through Rob Bishop's Office... they waited. ;)
Our guide was great.
We even got to see a Congressional vote take place, it was on a gun control bill.
It was loud, chaotic and the gavel was hammered numerous times. haha
He said that was only the 2nd time in 2 months that he'd been able to take a tour in during a vote.
Perfect timing.
(We had to check our phones in so no pictures there. haha)
Lunch @ The Good Eatery
Then we were off for our tour of the Pentagon.
Eh... I'm not sure what I thought it was going to be, but that wasn't it.
Interesting to see, and there was a guide and everything, it just wasn't that informative.
I don't need to do that tour again.
By foot we walked to Arlington from the Pentagon.
This time we were going to enter at the other side gate according to Google Maps.
Except, that is apparently only an entrance for military.
No idea why...
So I begged.
Maybe I was a tich bit grumpy for a second.
We were going to miss the 5 PM changing on the guard AGAIN if we had to walk around to the front.
The nice guy let us in.
Another LONG walk to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, but we made it!
We were happy to get dinner and head back to the hotel after another day of walking/biking that was pretty comparable to the day before in distance.
Friday we woke up and had tickets for Ford Theater.
In hind-site we should have gone straight to the Embassy to get our Visas, scrapped the $3 Theatre tickets and got tickets later in the day... but we didn't.
The day started out great.
A tour of Ford's Theatre.
Breakfast at Lincoln's Waffle.
This is a funny story.
I had told Jadyn that we were going to a "hole in the wall" restaurant but that the food was pretty good.
I assumed she understood that phrase haha.
When we were walking out she said, "Wait, I didn't see the hole in the wall, where is it?"
Bahahaha that was a great moment.
We thought about riding bikes to the Embassy... hind-sight, we should have.
Instead we hopped on the Subway, when we got out and I looked at the map we were NO where near the Embassy. But it was only a few miles so we had good attitudes and grabbed a bike.
It was our coldest day, and yes that is snow on the seat.
It was only a few miles.
Uphill.
Like not small hills.
Like 14th north hills... the part after the foothill wash from 12th - 14th east hills.
They went on and on and on.
We walked a lot of the way.
Well I walked and Jadyn made me feel better by walking her bike too.
The thing that is weird is that we had biked from the Embassy to the Lincoln Memorial and I don't think it was downhill so I have NO idea what we did wrong.! That's why I say we should have just taken a bike from Ford's Theatre.
All I know is that it took FOREVER and it was freezing...
except that we were sweating and freezing at the same time.
Not the most enjoyable bike ride I've ever been on.
FINALLY we made it to the Embassy about 1.5 hours after leaving Ford's Theatre.
By then the Visa department was PACKED.
We had almost 80 numbers ahead of us in the pickup line.
Of course there were 13 windows.
5 were open.
And only 1 of those was the pick-up line. :(
We sat...
and sat...
and sat some more.
Almost 3 hours later we finally had them!
It could have been worse, they could have turned us away like they did half of the people in line in front of us and just said, "sorry, come back Monday."
Since our flight was Saturday AM.
That would have made a bad day... REALLY bad!!
I called a LYFT because yikes we had had enough of those bikes.
We headed to the Natural History Smithsonian
We looked around for a bit and then Jadyn decided she would rather see live animals.
The problem was this.
The National Zoo closed their gates to the last visitors at 4 PM but you could stay til 5.
I hadn't ever been to this zoo + we really wanted a sneak peek of the pandas before our China trip. ;)
So we hopped on the subway... except that I got us on the wrong line, so we had to back track a bit to get where we needed to be.
Ironically we got off at that same stupid station that we had gone to a few hours earlier that we biked to the Embassy from.
Then we ran/walked... uphill to the Zoo.
We ran through the gates @ 3:59 (BTW those gates were still open when we left 30 minutes later?)
But they did close all of the indoor viewing areas @ 4.
And since it was 36 degrees there was a sign that "SOME" animals would not be visible because of weather conditions.
So this was how we saw the pandas...
PS you can
click here to see the same panda cam from the comfort of your own home... haha
We walked around for 30 minutes and we saw...
1 elephant,
3 deer
and 2 bison.
We were told we could walk another 10 minutes to see a lion... but we decided to call it a day.
We had a nice dinner.
Grabbed a quart of Baskin and Robbin ice cream to eat at our hotel room...
And headed back to the hotel on the subway.
We had to transfer @ Metro Station.
As soon as we got off we knew something was wrong.
It was rush hour, and approximately 1/2 of DC was waiting for our line.
Soon an announcement was made that there was a fire in the tunnel and all service on that line had been stopped.
So, we... along with everyone else started searching for a LYFT or UBER ride...
Supply vs. demand and the cost skyrocketed to about $45 for 3 miles.
I wasn't paying it.
It was raining,
dark
and cold.
We thought about riding the bikes for about 2 seconds.
Then decided instead to walk around in some department stores, til' the streets cleared out.
We then boldly went into a "Pret a Manger" restaurant and dished up our much deserved ice cream.
hahahahaha
By then the subway had opened up again.
We were BOTH very happy to make it back to our hotel.
Cold, wet and exhausted.
The next morning we woke up @ 4 am and headed to the airport.
A flight to Seattle... with a 20 minute layover there... meant we BARELY made that plane.
But we did, and Jadyn made it back for her Dance Showcase just in time.
We had such a fun time together.
I feel like we fit more in that I thought we would be able to.
Of course we could have filled up three more days with stuff, but for the three days we were there, I think we did great.
And obviously we accomplished our purpose for this trip... we have our Chinese Visas!
The best part for me was getting to spend time with my sweet Jady just the two of us.
I hope this is something that she remembers forever!!
What a fun surprise to come home to!!
Thanks to all my helpers at home who kept everything running smoothly without me.
