Travel Fun: Washington DC and Richmond

When your birthday happens to fall in your husband's busiest travel time for work, you get used to spending your big day in strange places. This year, he had to be in Richmond, Virginia, on Valentine's Day, which means we made a side-trip to Washington, DC.

(Full Disclosure: I'm not really a Valentine's Day person. I think it's silly to shower your significant other in gifts for some random day of the year rather than days that have meaning to you or really, any day you feel like. That being said, I'm always happy for an excuse to have a fun dinner and eat copious amounts of chocolate. Plus, these Ghirardelli Valentine's caramels are worth it. Since my birthday is Feb. 13, I tend to view Valentine's Day as Day 2 of the Woodstock that is my birth celebration. Rock on.)

Anyway, we drove down Tuesday evening, giving us all day Wednesday in Washington, all day Thursday in Washington and Richmond, and then came back Friday (supposed to be Friday morning, but hello stop-and-go traffic all through Connecticut!). The wrench in our plans came when I woke up Wednesday with a terrible cold/flu: achey body, sore throat, stuffed nose, headache. I felt like crawling back into bed and not coming out again until Easter. But I would persevere, my God! Washington, DC! By keeping a pharmacy's worth of medicine, a bag of clementines, and a couple of boxes of Kleenex in my purse, I would have a good birthday yet.

We started off walking the length of Pennsylvania Ave. from our hotel in Georgetown. It was a gorgeous day, and with our ultimate goal of getting to the Library of Congress, it would take us by a lot of the best spots.

Like, say, the White House.

And the Capital building.

Finally, we got to the Library of Congress. It was the first time I had ever been there, which is weird considering my profession. It was as gorgeous, inside and out, as I would have hoped.

We went through a couple of the exhibits before hitting the gift shop (duh) and heading back to our other professional obsession: the Newseum.

 (That's the First Amendment decorating the building's facade.)

We were in love with the Newseum, being the news junkies that we were. Six floors of important news history, everything from original newspapers headlining major events to wreckage of the 9/11 attacks and the Berlin Wall. It was amazing, and took us quite awhile to get through. Thankfully, the tickets are good for two days, so we started Thursday by going back and finishing the job. 

On our way to Richmond, we stopped at my favorite memorial in the greater Washington, DC, area: Iwo Jima. When I first visited in the eighth grade, I don't know why I loved that statue so much, but I did and I still do. Maybe because it shows the good aspects of war - patriotism and brotherhood - and not just guns and violence. Maybe it's because of the sheer size of the thing and how impressive it is. Maybe it's the way it combines a real, live flag with a frozen-in-time statue. Either way, it was fantastic, as always.

We arrived in Richmond early - far too early for our dinner reservations at a local restaurant. So I did what any person today would do: busted out my phone and Googled "things to do in Richmond." There, I stumbled upon the Edgar Allan Poe Museum.

Located in the oldest house in Richmond, the museum is several buildings' worth of various Poe materials - first editions of works, letters he wrote, photos, clothing, etc. etc. It wasn't Earth-shattering, but it was interesting and a fine way to spend $5 and 60 minutes.

Afterward, we had our Valentine's dinner before we actually had to do some work and then embark on our (long) (Long) (LONG) journey north. It was an interesting way to spend my birthday extravaganza, in one of my favorite cities to visit. Plus, there was also this:

Thanks, Georgetown Cupcakes!