Washington D.C through my Sketchbook
Trip reflections.
Washington D.C was amazing! There was so much to see, so many museums and monuments. We did A LOT of walking. The main highlights from this trip would be:
The National Gallery of Art. We went here twice. It was definitely my favorite museum.
Riding bikes along the National Mall, from the Lincoln Memorial to the U.S Capitol, exhausting but definitely worth it!
Visiting a stationery store that I admire - Appointed! I like using their workbooks, as my very rough sketchbook.
Seeing the Lincoln Memorial. It was really cool, and I enjoyed sitting on the steps with Jordan, and just relaxing after our 2-mile walk/bike ride to get there.
Visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture. This museum was so cool! Very modern, and I loved seeing the sports and culture displays.
We arrived to our hotel on October 18th, around dinner time. So we immediately went searching for some local cuisine. Right by our hotel were these super cute townhomes. I liked how a lot of the homes were so traditional and unique, very different from the cookie cutter neighborhoods I’m used to back home. Restaurant recommendation #1: Floriana, an Italian restaurant. We LOVED this spot. We ended up going there twice, since it was so close to our hotel.
The first place we went to was the Smithsonian Air and Space museum. It was really cool! They had a planetarium that showed a short film about space. I accidentally fell asleep during the film lol, rooms like that always make me so sleepy. There was this one display that I decided to sketch - it showed some of the uniforms that flight attendants were forced to wear, in hopes of attracting more business men (sigh). After the museum, we got some lunch: Restaurant recommendation #2: 2 Sisters Deli. I LOVED this spot. I got the chicken salad sub, SO GOOD!
After lunch, we went to the National Gallery of Art. This was my favorite museum from this trip. We spent hours here (lol poor Jordan)! I really loved seeing all the marble and bronze statues and ended up filling my sketchbook with them. Since the statues are all one neutral color, it was fun imagining what they could look like. Filling in the rest, and adding details and colors however I wanted. My favorite part of the museum, was seeing all the Impressionist Artworks. There were so many Van Goghs, and Monets. We sat in a room full of them, and just admired them. I wanted to sketch them in person, but wasn’t feeling brave enough. One day, I’ll try it!
The next day, we went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. My favorite part of this museum was the Butterfly Pavilion! We had to pay to get in, but it was so worth it! Inside the museum, is this small set up filled with hundreds of colorful butterflies and plants. It was so cool! Jordan and I both had a butterfly land on our heads at one point, definitely worth it!
After the Smithsonian, we started making our way towards the Lincoln Memorial. Once we got to the Washington Monument, we picked up some bikes (there were so many public bikes and scooters that you could pay to use) and continued on our journey. I loved this part so much, riding bikes with Jordan in the city, it was amazing! Once we got to the Lincoln Memorial, I pulled out my watercolors and attempted to paint the Washington Monument. We decided to ride bikes to the capitol as well, and we just made it in time for the sunset. It was all very perfect. For dinner that night, we ate at Restaurant recommendation #3: The Park at 14th. Very good, 10/10 recommend! And that’s all that I sketched for this trip! I have one more page planned out, an illustration of us riding bikes, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. Hopefully soon, and I’ll add it in. That’s all, thanks for reading:)
