Washington D.C. Day 2

So many people were out to see these...

...and ended up in this traffic! So glad we made use of the Metro for commuting:)
We were originally planning on taking a walking tour, but even the Metro was quite crowded. We let 2 trains pass before we were able to get on the 3rd, and as a result we missed the tour group. It worked out in the end, we were able to go at our own pace, and hit most monuments.










After 3 hours of walking among the sites it was lunch time! My Mom had a wonderful chicken and cranberry salad from the Elephant and Castle in Philadelphia so she suggested we go there for lunch.

The purely vegetarian options were a bit limited, they had a veggie burger, and a few sides that I could have put together for a meal, but nothing was calling my name so I decided to go with fish: a salmon burger and sweet potato fries (something else I never grow tired of). This was an amazing sandwich, I ate every bite.
The cure for a stuffed belly=more walking ;)

The last time I was in D.C. I was 11, I think? I know we visited several museums but I don't recall coming across the Smithsonian garden which is behind the Smithsonian Castle, it was absolutely beautiful.

By the time we made it to the National Museum of American History it was nearly 4:30 pm and we thought we would only have an hour to quickly look around. To our surprise summer hours started April 1st so we had until 7:30.

Highlights included Michelle Obama's inaugural dress:

Julia Child's kitchen:
And Apollo Ohno's skates:
I adore Apollo!

For dinner we headed to Busboys and Poets. We were all rather tired and only my sister was really hungry for dinner so we ended up ordering food to take back to our hotel. Although we didn't stay long I highly recommend this restaurant. I love their mission, atmosphere, vibe, and menu (several vegetarian and vegan options and everything is fair trade)!
I ordered the Spinach and Wheat Berry Salad, so yummy:

Not exactly sure what my Easter Sunday has in store, debating if it is best to head back to NYC tomorrow evening or Monday morning. I think I'm leaning towards the latter, we shall see...

Nicole