washington dc day 1

Emmanuel and I went to Washington DC over the Labor Day holiday. We left Thursday night red-eye and arrived in DC early Friday a.m. Neither of us had been there and we didn't have any expectations nor plans. We stayed in the downtown area and the hotel allowed us to check in when we showed up at 9:45 am. We were quite close to the White House.

We got tickets to visit the Washington Monument in the afternoon where we met this really nice man, Cal (whom I will forever call 'the lady with the red umbrella') who spent the entire afternoon walking and showing us around. We walked the western part of the National Mall starting from the Washington Monument. We visited the WWII Memorial, Reflecting Pool, Lincoln Memorial, Korean Memorial and FDR Memorial. (That was a lot of walking in hot, humid weather.) Cal said he wanted to show us his favorite DC landmark. We drove across the Potomac River and saw The Awakening sculpture. What an amazing sculpture - quite shocking and scary close-up! Thanks Cal for the lovely afternoon.

lady with the red umbrella

the awakening

We had dinner at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian churrascaria. I thought it would be fun since Emmanuel has never been to a churrascaria. It was somewhat spendy but the food was good and we both had a good time.