We bought tickets to Philadelphia for a friend's wedding last summer. But when a family emergency came up, we postponed the airline tickets as far back as we could, which ended up being February of 2018. Now we have this week-long trip to Philly in February. Neither of us had been to Washington, D.C. and one can easily spend a week there going to all the museums! So we planned to take the train to Washington, D.C. and spending the week there. It may be cold but it'll be a good time to avoid spring and summer the crowds. Plus, if we're indoors all day at museums, it doesn't matter what the weather is doing!
 |
| Foreigners! |
We drove up to Mat's family's house to drop Barley off at Grandma's for the week. Ma gave us a ride to the Sacramento Airport where we caught our evening flight to LAX. A short layover until we boarded our overnight flight to Philly. We noticed all the young men boarding the plane in Eagles ware. Then we remembered the Philadelphia Eagles won the super bowl three days ago. We flew on Spirit Airlines; it was rough for an overnight, cross-country flight. Mat had no room for his legs, the seats had no extra padding, and they charge for everything, including water. But we dozed for most of the flight.
 |
| White House |
We landed at 6AM local time. Even at that hour, the airport was filled with people in Eagles gear. We accidentally exited the terminal and reached the public transportation platform. It was dark out and we were hoping to take the train in daylight so we waited an hour but couldn't get back past security to where the restaurants were so we sat in the hallway, killing time.
 |
| Washington Monument |
We caught the 7:15AM train from the airport to the downtown Philly Central Station. The train was packed to the brim - no standing room - with Eagles fans. What the hell? At 7:00AM? That's when we found out today is the Superbowl Victory Parade and celebration! We arrived at the main train station just before 8:00AM and the train station was packed with fans chanting and hanging out inside the warm building until it was time to venture out into the cold for the parade start at 11:00AM. We grabbed some breakfast but the cafes of the train station were overwhelmed with all the revelers. We contemplated hanging out in Philly for a few hours to witness the celebration. But we quickly realized if it's this crazy now at 8:00AM it's only going to get worse as the day wore on! So we caught the 8:30am Amtrak to Washington DC.
 |
| Eagles fans fill Philly's central station at 8:00AM |
It was a gorgeous clear day, but the clear skies were accompanied by a cold wind. The temps were 30°F, made even colder by the wind chill. Inside the train, it was toasty warm with soft, winter-filtered sunlight coming through the windows. We were hoping to see some of the countryside while riding the train but the warmth, big comfy seats, and gentle rocking put us right to sleep. We slept the entire ride to D.C. When the train stopped we woke and exited the train, entering a gorgeous train station. My breath was taken by a glimpse through the glass front double-doors: the pristine white dome of the capitol building shining in the sunlight!
 |
| Train station in Washington D.C. |
It was 10:30am when we arrived so we had 2.5 hours to kill before we could check into our AirBnB across town. We walked to the capitol building and down the capitol mall to enjoy the area in the cold sunshine and get our bearings. We reached the Washington monument before cutting north to find our AirBnB, walking past the White House on our way. I thought the White House was further away from the Mall and surrounded by old neighborhoods. Reality is the White House can be seen from the Washington Monument and it is surrounded by taller buildings. We swung into Whole Foods to pick up some lunch and groceries before reaching our AirBnB on 22nd and O streets. Exhausted from our day of travel, we took a short nap before cooking dinner and watching National Treasure before bed.
 |
| Home sweet home: the red building is our AirBnB |
No comments:
Post a Comment