Wednesday, June 6, 2012

A Visit with Ashley in DC

Tuesday evening Ashley and I took the train from NYC to DC. 
 It was time for me to see where Ashley will be spending her summer.
The next day we headed straight to the Holocaust Museum 
and spent some looking at the displays and the exhibits.
It was such a beautiful day, such gorgeous weather that we started our DC bike tour 
right in the middle of the afternoon, after we finished at the Holocaust Museum.
We grabbed some bikes from Capitol BikeShare, right there in the mall area.
They have racks filled with bikes at lots of different locations all around the mall
and many other places in the city.
You can check a bike out and then check it back in at any of the locations.
This is definitely the way to get around town and see the monuments and museums.
Donning our red, white and blue patriotic attire, we were ready 
so we jumped on our bikes and started our tour in our nation's capitol.
A beautiful view of the Washington Monument.
Such a great start to one of the best bike tours ever!
Ashley and I in front of the World War II Memorial.
There were so many beautiful flower bouquets that had been placed there on Memorial day.
The bouquets made the District of Columbia War Memorial look so gorgeous!
Ashley was a good sport and posed for lots of pictures!
This had to be one of my favorite memorials...  
and Ashley's too.
Famous quotes from Martin Luther King were engraven on the wall at the MLK Memorial.
This was definitely our favorite quote!
The reflection of the Washington Monument looked gorgeous
 so we stopped and took a moment to enjoy the beautiful view.
 Right then Ashley's good friend, Courtney, joined us on our biking adventure.
We peddled on to the next stop, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.
Courtney was a willing participant, posing with Ashley in this photo shoot.
Thanks, Court, for being such a good sport!
You are invited to join us on any and every Holt family bike tour:)!
The view of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial as we crossed the bridge.
Aren't these two girls the cutest?!  And the reflection of the monuments was breathtaking!
The view from the outside of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial,
 looking out at the Washington Monument.
On our way back, we stopped at the MLK Memorial for a photo with Courtney and Ash.
Posing with our bikes in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
And we had to take a "best friends & bikes" photo too!
I honestly have never noticed this before, but I love it and had to get a photo.
Maybe I've been too busy when I've visited the memorial with all the kids, hurrying to get inside the memorial
 that I probably just walked past the top of the stairs where it is located.
Ashley and I with the statue of Lincoln behind us.
We peddled on through the streets of DC, and headed to the White House.
Along the way, we passed the First Division Monument, 
which is located in the President's park next to the White House.
It's a beautiful building that I never really noticed before, 
but Courtney pointed it out and I'm glad that she did.  It's really gorgeous!
In front of the White House!
We made it to all of the monuments and memorials on our list except for the Capitol.
But we were starting to get hungry and were afraid that our cupcake place, 
Baked and Wired in Georgetown might close soon.
So we rode our bike through town and headed for M Street, which was our last stop.  
They had a bike rack there, just half a block from Baked and Wired
 so we ended our bike ride there and turned in our bikes.
It was a perfect day of sightseeing with my bike riding buddies!
 Time for cupcakes from Baked and Wired!  
I first visited this bakery back when I accompanied Brooke on her recruit trip.
We tried the cupcakes at Georgetown cupcakes but decided that these were hands down the best in DC!
I told Ashley about this place and this is what she thought of Baked and Wired!
Our friends at Baked and Wired gave us a recommendation for Ristorante Piccolo and we were happy to get right in.
It is such a cute little restaurant and the service was incredible!
The bruschetta pomodori was yummy!
We ordered the Salmon covered with crabmeat alla piccolo and...
the papparadelle ai funghi and just shared with each other.
Everything tasted delicious!
It was a fun way to end such a fun day in DC!
Ashley and I spent the next morning shopping in the Dupont Circle area, near where Ashley works.  
Before we knew it, it was time for me to head to Union Station to catch my train.
My visit was much too short!  
Ashley and I decided that I must come back this summer to visit.
Next time I think I'll bring Dad!

1 comment:

Kimber said...

Love your patriotic attire!! What a fun trip!!