Day 14: DC

After quickly eating breakfast in our hotel room via our cooler we busted a move to a building nearby the US Capitol Building. We found ourselves running just to make good time on our tour but found our way to Representative Matt Gaetz's office. We had to email his office in order to set up the tour for the Capitol well ahead of time so we knew it wasn't just something we could reschedule if we needed to. Upon making our way to his office, we noticed he was next to Nancy Pelosi's office and we were excited for that. Representative Gaetz's intern took us on a wonderful and educational tour of the Capitol and it was amazing to see such a glorious building in person.

After that we stopped by Subway for lunch and then headed to the FBI Headquarters in order for our tour. That was also a tour we had to have our Representative set up well ahead of time. As someone who is obsessed with all things FBI, I was floored to be there and to learn everything I could. Retired FBI agents take you around and show you how they solve cases ...everything to secret listening devices to evidence from real cases (BTK Killer and the Boston Marathon bombers). It just made me wish I would have pursued a career at the FBI out of college.

We opted for dinner at Shake Shack since it was right by the hotel because we had to be to our Monuments by Moonlight bus tour by 7:30pm. That tour was exciting, the bus driver took us to many monuments and gave us information on the history of DC. He stopped by the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, MLK monument, FDR monument, and the US Marine Corp War Memorial (Iwo Jima) - very cool to see these things in the dark with the spotlight on them. He was also impressed that I knew the only US President who was born on the 4th of July. Calvin Coolidge 4 life!

Day 13: DC

A truly magical day! I felt like Forrest Gump. We started the morning by having breakfast in our hotel room via our cooler we brought. We headed to the White House for a tour! How exciting! We had to request the tour from our State Representative Matt Gaetz well ahead of time and they only let us know a couple weeks before the day when the tour would be. After 4 or 5 security checkpoints we were let inside the White House. Can you believe that? Two little rats from Des Moines, Iowa were let into the White House! Crazy. It was so cool to see some of the pretty rooms (Green, Blue, and Red), along with the East Room and the portraits in the hallway - even JFK's iconic portrait. The secret service were really nice and answered all our questions - they were experts on the room they were standing in. They knew about the art and the history of the room. I checked that off my life bucket list!

We then headed to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. That turned out to be more than amazing. We love aerospace and all things aviation so it was very cool to see the original Wright Brother's 1903 Wright Flyer and then in the same building see the suit that Neil Armstrong wore when he walked on the moon only 66 years later. This museum was under renovation until 2025 so we will definitely come back here when it's all finished to see all areas.

We headed out to the gay bar and actually ran into some people we met. How random! We enjoyed the drag show at Pitchers DC. It was a special day in the nation's capital.

Day 12: DC

For our first full day in DC we ventured to Ford Theatre for a tour of where Lincoln was assassinated. We were surprised to know that they had to reconstruct the entire theatre area because after Lincoln's death they reconfigured the building into an office building. In 1893 one of the pillars holding up the floors collapsed and 22 people died. Here the whole time I thought it was just a preserved theatre in time, but it wasn't renovated back to the historic theatre until 1968. We got to cross the street and see the Petersen House where Lincoln eventually died.

After that history lesson we headed to the National Archives Museum and we got to see the Magna Carta, and the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the United States, and Bill of Rights. We even got back in line to see it twice because the line was so long it felt like we barely got to look at it.

We left there and had lunch at the Rice Bar. It was really good and our first time trying Bibimbap. We then made our way to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This museum was truly heartbreaking - I have no real words on how best to describe it to you besides haunting.

We took an Uber to Founding Farmers for dinner and it was really good. It was $95 for two of us to have dinner. DC is quite expensive! Afterwards we came back to the Riggs and went to bed.