On September 7, 2013 (my birthday), we took a bus trip to Washington, D.C. It was an early day, as the bus left at 6:00 AM. The bus drove to Maryland where we stopped for a breakfast buffet at a place called Cozy's which was a cool restaurant with an inn that was next door to it. Inside the restaurant there was a small museum dedicated to Camp David. The area surrounding the place was beautifal and made for some great photographs. After breakfast we boarded the bus again and made our way to Washington, D.C.
Upon arriving in Washington, we had a tour guide board the bus and we drove by the Capital Building, the Washington Monument, and the Jefferson Memorial. Our first stop was at the World War II memorial which was amazing. It also made for some great photo opportunities of the Washinton Monument which is currently being refurbished due to the damage it took during the earthquake.
The second stop was the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial which was quite large. It was filled with different statues, quotes, and it even had a small gift shop. We then walked to the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial. The statue of Dr. King showed amazing detail.
Next we went to the Korean War Memorial which had amazing detail as well. Then we headed to the Lincoln Memorial where I was able to take some great photographs of the Washington Memorial. We did walk to the top of the memorial to see Lincoln's statue and the engravings of his speeches.
We then walked to the Vietnam War memorial including the wall. It was quite emotional looking at all of the names of those who died during this war.
Our last stop was to outside the White House. There currently aren't tours of the White House but we were able to stand outside the fence and take pictures. There were police cars outside and the interesting thing was these police cars were labeled "Secret Service". I always think of secret service as the guys in black shades, never considered the police officers as part of the service as well.
The trip ended with dinner at Carmine's which is an Italian restaurant where items are served family style. I have dined in their New York city location before but not this one. We then boarded the bus and headed back home. With all of the travel we didn't get home until after 10 PM but it wasn't too late for birthday cake!
