New England Trip: Day 1 -Washington DC, Maryland and Pennsylvania! - Part 3 - Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

My son requested that we visit the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum; so, I had to fulfill his request. He's been here many times with us when he was a lot younger and with school trips but he cannot have enough of it! I enjoy injecting education in our trips so this was any easy one to do. 

 I was worried that we would stand in long lines to get in the museum but the lines were moving very fast. At this time it was a little hot but that did not bother us because we were in the last leg of our Washington DC trip. 

We toured the museum as fast as we could as our day was still long. 

New England Trip: Day 1 -Washington DC, Maryland and Pennsylvania! - Foodies

Having toured M.L.K. Jr. Memorial and Howard, it was time to stop for lunch. Our goal for the trip was to eat at restaurants that are not in North Carolina, are not chain restaurants, organic where we could find one and above all are located in the waterfront. My daughter was tasked with finding restaurants, though I had a hand in finding some before our trip cause her tastes are questionable sometimes!

Did I mention that the weather was perfect? Yes it was gorgeous at this time of the day so dining had to be waterfront.

We found parking in K Street without any issues. We walked around the corner into the waterfront. The place was beautiful and so relaxed. We had planned to eat at Sequoia but ended up eating at Tony and Joe's because we could not bare a two hour wait at Sequoia's.

There were people who came to lunch on their yachts; talk about living the dream!

After we toured Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space we drove to Maryland where we had dinner.
We at McCormick and Schmicks Atmosphere was great but the food was not as great. Maybe this was a reminder that we had sworn not to eat at any chain restaurants, let along one's we frequent. We normally go to the one in Raleigh and there food in Raleigh, though not near the ocean, seems better.

This reminds me, when we were about to sit down, one of the servers spilled  a tray filled with drinks on a customer. That should have been a sign.

Washington DC - Day 1 - Howard University

Howard University surprised me in so many ways. It was first college we visited. Though the trip was focused on Ivy league colleges, we thought including few other colleges would broaden our view. 

Since this tour of colleges was for my son's undergraduate and my daughter's post-graduate school, it was important that we have a feel of each campus: where it is located, the aesthetics and whether the area feels safe, does it have a campus quad (nothing screams college like a quad)!

Howard is located right in the heart of Washington D.C. Unlike most city colleges, it actually has a campus; that's its biggest appeal! Campus is beautiful and feels safe. It actually has a quad!

  It is considered a historically black college (HBCU) and is ranked number two in HBCU rankings. 

Another thing that impressed me about Howard is it's record on civil rights! As someone who originally hails from South Africa, I was impressed by the civil rights leadership they produced and how they continue to honor civil rights from around the world, including South Africa's struggle against apartheid. Thabo Mbeki, former president of South Africa, is honored at Howard University with a plaque as you get in the main building. 

My daughter and my son

We had an opportunity to tour the library (my daughter's obsession as you will see in subsequent posts). At the library we met a passionate young man who is studying medicine. He told us about how much he loves Howard and how much he feels is preparing him for his career. 

Library at Howard

 We walked around the campus and found engineering building to check it out.

Engineering Building in Howard.

We had planned to visit Georgetown as well where we planned to eat lunch but accessing the college was not allowed as the gates were closed.   Thank you for reading :)!

New England Trip: Day 1 -Washington DC, Maryland and Pennsylvania!

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial 

In one day we drove through three mid-Atlantic states and the District of Columbia. We zoomed through Virginia, toured Washington DC, had wonderful dinner in Baltimore, Maryland and slept in Cherry Hill, New Jersey to prepare for our tour of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Washington DC was first stop of our trip. We had a wonderful start to our trip. We woke up as planned at 2:00 a.m. and left the house at 3:20 a.m. Because we did not go to bed early the night before, we ended up being too tired to drive all the way to D.C. as planned. We stopped at Virginia Welcome Center and slept for an hour! We arrived in Washington DC around 9:30 a.m.

As soon as we arrived in Washington DC, we hit the National Mall running. Our goal was to visit Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial because it is one of the few memorials we had not seen in Washington D.C. and one of the newest.

First things first, we had to find parking. Finding parking near the memorial was a bit of a challenge as a result it was quite a walk from the parking lot to MLK Jr. Memorial. It ended up being a beautiful walk though, as the whole path goes through Jefferson Memorial and is near a lake. The weather was perfect also as it rained the night before; so it made for a great walk. It was the start of our trip, so it did not matter to us, our spirits were high!

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial itself is small but very powerful. We toured it in about thirty minutes. There is the famous statue of him which is nicely crafted and there are quotes of him that are written on the walls behind the statue. Standing there and reading those quotes was very calming and it reminded you what a great man he was and still is.

 He was a brilliant man who spoke the truth. I view a statement to be truthful if it can stand the test of time. Most of what he said in the quoted messages was, is and forever will be true. Below are some pictures that we took. Scroll down and read a section on our next stop Howard University.

For more quotes: