This was a hotel I was really looking forward to staying in. It was a little pricey compared to some of the others that Sam had found, and I had to convince Sam that it was worth the extra spend.
And oh lordy, it was!
At time of writing, it is justifiably rated 2nd of the 148 DC hotels on TripAdvisor. We managed to bag one of the best rooms in the hotel - a hexagon-themed room at the very apex of the hotel. Being a self-styled "micro-hotel" the rooms were small but very functional and superbly finished. You'll see the room in the video. Some people might feel a little exposed being surrounded by so much glass, but laying on the bed and seeing the outside in almost every direction was really fun.
We knew parking would be a problem in DC, but front desk managed to sort us out with a parking spot in an attended multi-story car park just a couple of minutes walk from the hotel, which was ideal.
After dumping our stuff in the room, we decided we'd stay in the hotel this evening and start exploring properly tomorrow. The bar, equally cosy, was packed, but we managed to squeeze in at the bar for a few beers and a homemade pizza. This is just what we needed after the arduous journey in.
The next day we awoke to glorious sunshine. Aware that we only had one full day to explore the nation's capital, we set off on foot towards the National Mall. Sorry, Sam, not a shopping mall - rather a long, thin landscaped park that contains many of the iconic locations of Washington DC.
There were a lot of people out and about. Many of these were formed of large groups - either school kids or Asian tourists. This made it somewhat tricky to navigate the Mall, and our planned route around the sights had to make several detours to get to our next stop before the kids or tourists descended.
Our first stop (via a coffee shop to avoid Sam's quickly approach caffeine deprivation meltdown) was the Lincoln Memorial, followed by the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Three Servicemen Statue, the Vietnam Women's Memorial the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a circuit of the Reflecting Pool, the DC War Memorial and the World War II Memorial. We didn't have time to head over to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, so had to admire it from afar.
I had been to DC with work before, and I was looking forward to taking Sam up to the top of the Washington Monument as I has really enjoyed that before. We arrived at the Monument and much to my horror it was all fenced off with signs saying it was "Closed Indefinitely for Repairs". I was gutted! Apparently the Monument has been plagued with issues ever since a 5.8 magnitude earthquake in 2011.
Sam vented her frustration in a strange manner: visiting one of the public restrooms and accidentally dropping our only map of the Mall down the toilet. Things were not going well.
After discarding our soggy map, we used our phone to guide us to our next stop, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. We have been pretty picky when it comes to visiting museums on this trip, but this museum was very impressive indeed. It was free too! There didn't seem to be much continuity in the various exhibits - it felt like a whole load of separately-curated exhibits thrown into one building - but this place was well worth the visit all the same.
We then headed away from the Mall and towards the White House. We had already checked on Trump's schedule and he was due to leave the White House around the time we were there. As we approached, many of the roads were cordoned off and big crowds had gathered, so we knew we hadn't missed him.
I'm not really sure why I was so keen to see him board his chopper and leave, but as the Marine One lifted off and flew directly over us, I made sure I gave the 45th President of the United States a cheery wave and a friendly salutation*.
Once he had gone, the roads were opened up and we were free to get a bit of a closer look at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. By now our feet were aching and our mouths were dry so we headed to DC's oldest bar and restaurant, Old Ebbitt Grill. After enjoying a couple of beers and some chicken wings - of course - we continued our exploring.
Time was against us, so we jumped in an Uber towards our last two stops of the day. We wandered around the impressive Union Station for a bit before making our way to the US Capitol. We had seen a number of State Capitols on this trip, so we couldn't visit DC without ticking off the most important of them all.
This end of the Mall is a good 50-minute walk back to the hotel, and there was no way our feet would have let us do this, so it was back in an Uber. After a quick freshen up, we headed to the rooftop bar at the hotel which was very cool indeed. After a couple of beers in the evening twilight, we were both ready for food.
Acting on the recommendation of our driver earlier, we headed to 14th & U. This area had a lot of violent history during the aftermath of MLK's assassination, but was now a bustling area of culture and nightlife. We had both been craving sushi for a while, and despite it maybe being a bit of a strange choice for DC, we headed to Toku Japanese and Asian Cuisine.
The sushi was good, reasonably priced, and sitting at the sushi bar was quite chilled. After our fill of fish, sake and Saporro, we headed onto the bustling, noisy streets.
Earlier in the trip, we had a good mix of camping in the great outdoors and then hitting the cities. After a couple of nights in one, we'd be longing for the other. This was the case in both directions: camping to city, and city to camping. As we've headed to the North East - partly due to the weather and partly due to the lack of large, federally-protected wildernesses - our camping/city spilt has leaned heavily towards the latter. Seeing these great towns and cities has been superb, but we have started to feel a bit jaded by them. Rather than making a fire and kicking back with a tinny listening to the wildlife and wondering whether a bear would finally have us for dinner, we found ourselves spending more and more time in the company of more human wildlife which was somehow less appealing.
Tonight was a case in point. After one drink in a bustling bar, we got the first available Uber and skipped past the hotel bar and straight to our room. Trying to do DC in one day is not something I'd recommend, but we gave it a good shot. Of course there was a lot of stuff we missed. We will be back at some stage (when the Washington Monument is open again) and for more than one full day this time. And when we do, I'll be canvassing Sam for a stay at Hotel Hive :)
* maybe
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