Trip to Washington D.C

After camp ended, I still had a week left in the US, so Dom, Sean, Kelsey and I decided to go to Washington D.C for a few days vacation before going up to NYC for two days before flying back to the UK. This was a very good idea, it definitely made going home easier as saying goodbye to everyone at camp was very difficult. We had a great time as well! Washington D.C has become one of my favorite cities now, although Boston still claims the number one spot.
The four of us had to stay a night at a hotel in Portland, Maine before flying down early the next morning to D.C. David Eric dropped us off at our hotel after camp closed up, and then we decided to walk into Portland from the hotel to meet up with Andrew for lunch. Why oh why did we decide to walk? We didn't think it would take that long, probably only 20minutes, but we ended up walking for an hour and 10 minutes before we made it to the harbour!! In the end we had a lovely lunch with Andrew at a very nice restaurant on the harbour and then got ice cream afterwards and walked around for a little bit before getting a taxi back to the hotel (good call, should have done that on the way there! haha) and as we were all so shattered from staying up for the majority of the last night on camp, we took a "cabin six nap" and then went for a swim in the hotel pool and relaxed in the jacuzzi. We had dinner in the hotel and then it was bedtime...we were all that tired still that we didn't bother checking the flight itinerary as Sean had said the flight was at 7am and we thought we remembered booking the 7am one so just went with it and set the alarm for 4:30am. DISASTER STRIKES. We wake up at 4:30am and as I'm getting ready in the bathroom Kelsey knocks on the door and says "Err, Sarah, just to let you know, we need to leave now, the flight is actually at 6am". I nearly died. I get easily stressed in airports as it is, so we legged it to the airport in record time, and then Sean and Kelsey checked in no problem and went on while Dom and I checked in, of course, my bag was overweight so I had to pay extra for it, then Dom's bag got weighed and it was overweight too (I had dumped half my stuff into his the night before) so with it now being 5:30am and no time to move things around, I just paid again for excess baggage. We then ran to security, there was a huge line and they wouldn't bunk us up as there were 10 other 6am flights apparently, so when we got through security we sprinted to the gate, got straight on the plane and after 5mins were heading down the runway...The word the others used to describe me during this whole drama was "seething". My blood pressure has never been so high, I'm sure.

Me and the front of the White House.

In the end we made it to D.C, yay! And took a taxi to the hotel which was so nice, we were given room 911 though, not to be superstitious... This soon became referred to as "Cabin 911". We then had the whole afternoon to start exploring D.C. We went for lunch at what looked like a lovely restaurant called "Art & Soul" or "Art & Funk" according to Sean, but its service was not exactly the best. We then went to the White House, which was cool! It is smaller than it looks on TV.

Me, Dom, Sean & Kelsey with the White House in the background.

Hey there, Kelsey!

Me at the Washington Monument.

Next, we walked to the huge obelisk called the Washington Monument which is in the middle of the National Mall. We had fun looking around and taking fun pictures at it.

Me & Kelsey at the Pearl Harbor Memorial.

Then we walked to the Lincoln Memorial. It was so hot and humid however, that we stopped along the way and relaxed by the huge water fountain which is in front of the reflective pool leading up to the Lincoln Memorial (which was also drained, unfortunately). Around it were stone columns with wreaths representing all the states and there was a Pearl Harbor memorial. It was really nice, and interesting. We then walked to the Lincoln Memorial, which was further away than it looks, we stopped at a street vendor and bought WATER ICE! Best invention ever. Water Ice is sort of like a cross between sorbet and sno-cones, it is so good that we got another one on the way back from the Lincoln Memorial and more later on in the trip! The Lincoln Memorial was interesting to see, and it was nice to sit on the steps and admire the view also.

Me on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, view in the background.

Dom, Kelsey & Sean at the Lincoln Memorial.

We made the big mistake of walking back to the hotel instead of taking the subway...It was a really long walk, once our water ices were finished the heat got unbearable and we got lost and walked far more than necessary...thank goodness Kelsey had google maps on her phone! When we made it back to the hotel, we basked in the air conditioning and headed straight to the bar for ice cold drinks and sat there absolutely shattered, haha. Somehow we ended up finding the energy to play shuffleboard...Sean & I won against Dom & Kelsey, thanks to my amazing skills haha...not! We headed out later that night for dinner at a nice restaurant near Chinatown.

Me at Arlington Cemetery.

The next day after breakfast at Starbucks (this became our routine) we visited the Pentagon and its 9/11 Memorial. The Pentagon is huge and the Memorial at it is very nicely done, I do like to visit 9/11 memorials but they always make you stop and think and are sombre. After that Kelsey and I spent the rest of the day together on our own while the boys went off and did their own thing, so we went to Arlington Cemetery which is huge and it contains all the graves of past soldiers who have fought at war for America. It was very peaceful to walk around, and we were astounded by the number of graves there are, they go on and on. We saw a memorial to JFK and also visited the Tomb of the Unknown Solider which is just outside of this huge sort of temple building which is made from white stone and was very impressive. We watched the changing of the Guard also. 

Me & Kelsey in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

After that we were going to go look around Georgetown but when we got off at the subway stop we got caught in torrential rain so we went to a lovely restaurant for a late lunch. It ended up clearing up again later on and the four of us went for dinner at a restaurant on the river at Washington Harbour near Georgetown. We decided to take a taxi on the way back to the hotel instead of the subway and the driver showed us all the main monuments which were illuminated for no extra charge, great times! 

Just like elephants...

The following day we went to the Zoo...thank goodness it was free entry because it would not have been worth paying for! I was very surprised that Washington DC didn't have a fantastic zoo. We saw a orang-outang, some hogs and some fish... And a lot of sculptures of animals.  Nonetheless we had a good time anyway walking around, joking about. 

Sean left that afternoon to go up to New York so Dom, Kelsey and I spent one of the best afternoons ever wandering around D.C. We bought sandwiches for lunch and sat on the grass at Capitol Hill having lunch and then took a look around the grounds of it before heading over across the road to see the Supreme Court and a few other buildings of note as well. 

At Capitol Hill.

At the Supreme Court.

We went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum which was actually pretty cool and not boring. We got to touch a piece of the moon! It was black and looked and felt like plastic, weird. After the museum we started walking back to the hotel but stopped at a big water fountain that looks onto the Capitol and we sat on its banks relaxing and admiring the view; it was definitely one of my favorite things that we did on the trip and probably the most simple! 

Touching a piece of the moon!

Kelsey and I admiring Capitol Hill.

The three of us spent a really last evening together out at an Italian restaurant and afterwards we got some amazing frozen yogurt! I think we all were converted to the wonders of frozen yogurt after that. 

Me & Maddie at Times Square.

All three of us had to be up really early the next day to leave. Kelsey left first to go back to LA and we were so sad to see her go! Then Dom and I left around 7am on the Greyhound bus to go up to New York City. We all missed the Washington D.C earthquake by literally hours, very lucky!! After a 4 hour bus ride we made it to NYC and checked in at the hotel before heading downtown to the financial district to have a look around the Wall Street area and to go shopping. That evening we headed to Times Square where we met up with Katie and Meaghan who were also visiting New York and we all went for dinner at the Olive Garden at Times Square. I had the best surprise ever - Maddie came to meet us!!! She lives just outside of NYC in New Jersey and she had been in the city that day to see a relative and decided to come for dinner with us. I didn't think I would get to see her again for ages once camp had finished so I was so happy! After dinner we hung out on the red steps at Times Square for a while. The next day Dom left very early in the morning to fly back to the UK so I went to Katie and Meaghan's hotel to stay with them. Maddie had stayed the night in NY so the four of us spent the day together and visited Chinatown and ate a very nice lunch in Little Italy. We then went back  uptown and spent the afternoon shopping before Maddie left to go back to New Jersey. 

Maddie, Me & Meaghan shopping.

Me, Katie & Meaghan had dinner that night at Planet Hollywood and then the next morning they went on a Statue of Liberty sightseeing cruise whilst I only had until 3pm free until I had to get my cab to the airport to fly back home. I was already all packed so I wandered down to Union Square and looked around some of the shops before spending ages perusing Barnes & Noble and sitting in the Starbucks there having lunch whilst reading the September issue of American Vogue...so good. Then eventually it was time for me to leave. I took a cab to JFK airport and had a pretty uneventful flight to London Heathrow (excess baggage was of course paid yet again, typical me) and then a connecting flight to Belfast. It was so hard to believe that my summer had come to an end and that my 2 and a half months in America was over; it was undoubtedly two and a half of the best months I've ever had.