4 Days in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Day 1: Drive to Washington D.C.
It’s Keon’s birthday! And we spent it… on the road. We did our “usual” morning routine of working out and hitting up Costco to fill up gas before getting on the road. The drive was going to take about five hours so I offered to start this time. Less than ten minutes into the drive, just as I was merging onto the freeway, I got pulled over by the Durham police and got my first speeding ticket. Talk to any Californian and they’d say I wasn’t going fast. In fact I did feel like I was going with the flow of traffic, but I guess Durham is a city that actually enforces a 60mph speed limit. Fortunately, I drove away with a fine and did not have to return to Durham to appear in court.
Keon took over driving a few hours later, just in time for me to receive a call from Chase Travel informing me that the Boston hotel we booked couldn’t honor our reservation because they were closing. They kindly offered to relocate us to one of two other hotel options in the same area as the one we originally booked: another 3-star hotel or a 5-star hotel. We obviously chose the 5-star hotel. Suddenly we were extremely excited. After all the sketchy stays we’ve had recently, this was really a relief and felt like the hotel gods were finally on our side. We won’t be in Boston for another two weeks, but boy are we looking forward to it!
We got to D.C. in time for dinner and I snagged a last minute reservation at a restaurant called Compass Rose for us to celebrate Keon’s birthday. The restaurant was located in D.C.’s U Street Corridor which seems like an up-and-coming, lively neighborhood filled with restaurants, bars, and shops. The menu concept is a “tour of the world” tasting menu. You’d think that it would be hard to execute since that is so many different flavors, but—I kid you not—everything on this menu was delicious. From the asparagus and kebabs to the ceviche and khachapuri, each dish was flavorful and well-portioned. The tasting menu was also around $60 per person, which is unbelievable for the amount of food you get. It was a great way to start our time in D.C. and we’d recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting.
Day 2: White House and Monuments
We haven’t had a regular sleeping schedule. We go to sleep anywhere between 11pm-3am and wake up between 7-11am. Today we woke up closer to 11am and I attribute it to our basement Airbnb not having a single ounce of natural light in the bedroom.
We took the Metro to the White House and were there for a solid 2 minutes before officers came to close down the street and kick everyone out of the park. We assumed someone must be leaving or returning to the building, but it’s fine because it only took a second to see it and snap a picture.
We spent the next few hours walking around the National Mall, passing by the many monuments and memorials that are there. It was really hot and we were a bit tired so we picked up Lime scooters and went the rest of the way with those. I was also reminded how expensive these scooters were. This was a unique circumstance because there was so much ground to cover within the same area that it wouldn’t have made sense to call an Uber or take public transportation. But it ended up being close to $40 per scooter and we probably wouldn’t do it again.
We grabbed lunch at Ethiopic and it was Keon’s first time trying Ethiopian food. He loved it! We walked to Union Market after to grab some ice cream. It was a fun vibe with music, food stalls, and a lot of people gathering for drinks. This would be a fun place to go with a group of people.
We checked out Cancun Cantina at night for some line dancing. It was a fun vibe but they didn’t play a lot of songs that we knew dances to. It was honestly more fun (though somewhat disturbing) observing these two older dudes hit on college girls all night.
Day 3: Eden Center and Other D.C. Neighborhoods
We have been craving Asian food a ton and had to stop by Eden Center in Virginia when we heard it was this area’s Little Saigon. It reminded us of a much smaller Grand Century in San Jose—so maybe it’s more like a Lion Plaza? Seeing Vietnamese people and eating Vietnamese food reminded us of home and we were really happy to not be eating American food after so much of it recently!
We continued the day with our “AC tours” and drove through Georgetown, Foggy Bottom, Dupont Circle, and Adams Morgan to see what the areas were like. All of them except for Foggy Bottom seemed really lively! Georgetown was cute and had a lot of new shops and what looked like many tourists. Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan seemed more low-key and local, which is what we personally prefer. We’d certainly hang out in those neighborhoods the next time we are in D.C. Again, it’s just kind of hard to truly hang out everywhere unless you are shopping, eating, and drinking all day, which just isn’t sustainable for people who will be traveling for the next year and change.
Day 4: Philadelphia
Philly was a city we wished we spent a little more time in. When we first drove into the city, we stopped at the Philadelphia Art Museum to see the Rocky statue and famous steps. There was a line of the statue so we saw it from afar, but Keon did run up the steps like he wanted to.
We rested for a little bit at our hotel before going to do a few more touristy things. We first walked by the Liberty Bell. There was a line to go inside the building to see it up close, which we didn’t want to do. But as we walked away, we passed by a few windows that had the Liberty Bell on the other side so we peeked in, and we were just as close!
We continued walking until we reached South St. Parts of it reminded us of Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco because of the types of shops located on the street and the small eateries and bars it has. It spans a few blocks so we walked along before deciding to go a few blocks over to eat dinner at Famous 4th Street Delicatessen. We didn’t want to stuff ourselves so ordered one cheesesteak to share… but it ended up being massive and we couldn’t finish it. It was really tasty, though.
Our night ended with another failed line dancing attempt at a gay bar in Gayborhood. Love the name of the area and the people were so friendly. But unlike other places where we knew the songs but not the dances, we didn’t even know most of the songs played here. None of these failed line dance nights are because of the bars themselves. We probably should just know more songs and dances.
We’re super excited for the next trip because we are now headed to New York!