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Great American Road Trip 2011 – Irene and MLK go to Washington

Great American Road Trip 2011 – Irene and MLK go to Washington

Last Updated on February 22, 2021

What a day in the nation’s capital! We started off with bikes from Capital Bike Share and visited an interesting diner in Northeast DC called Capital City Diner. It sounded like a great local gem – the diner was bought on eBay and shipped over on a truck from New York. Unfortunately, the restaurant really needs a makeover from the Food Network’s Robert Divine.

Capital City Diner outsideAfter that adventure, it was back on the bikes and over to the Capitol Building for a free tour. The architecture of the building is really incredible and worth taking the free 45 minutes to discover it!

Capitol Building Washington DC

We took a whirlwind tour of the memorials, a couple of museums, peeked at the original Declaration of Independence at the National Archives, but the best part of the afternoon was visiting the brand new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. The memorial has undergone a soft launch this week, although the official dedication has been postponed thanks to Hurricane Irene. Seeing the crowds of proud people taking pictures around the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial made the weight of the momentous occasion hit home. Plenty of visitors take pictures of the other memorials, but it felt like everyone was taking pictures with the MLK Memorial.

Martin Luther King Memorial DC

Tomorrow is still very much up in the air thanks to Hurricane Irene. We hope that we are able to leave DC and travel south tomorrow!

Don Faust

Tuesday 30th of August 2011

Hope you got to see enough of the museums while there. I love the Museum of American History - it reopened a couple of years ago after a face lift.

Nice shot of the capitol across the lake.

Dani

Thursday 1st of September 2011

We could spend hours in museums, and the ones in D.C. really take a lot of time to be explored in-depth ;-) The road trip goes too fast, we need much more time in each place!! :)

Amanda Kendle

Saturday 27th of August 2011

A diner bought on eBay - love it! I've only had a quick day in Washington DC and my husband had hurt his foot so we hobbled around to just a couple of main sights - would love to go back.

Hope the hurricane doesn't interrupt your travel plans too much - stay safe!

Dani

Sunday 28th of August 2011

Amanda - thanks! We escaped Irene by going far East into the Blue Ridge Mountains. No sign of a hurricane over here!! The idea with the diner sounded great, but the diner just needs a complete make-over (we'd love to do that actually ;-) ..)