What to Do and How to Travel in Washington, D.C. | East Coast Wedding Photographer

Jason(the hubs) and I took a quick trip to the East Coast last week for the Katelyn James Workshop in Virginia! At first, I was going to go by myself, but we decided to turn it into an adventure for two :) We headed to D.C. on Wednesday morning-ish (we are NOT early birds haha) and immediately started doing the tourist things. We saw the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial,  The White House, and everything in between. I walked over 19,000 steps on the first day, alone! We wised up the next day and rented bikes. For E I G H T  H O U R S! It was exhausting, fun, and eye-opening. There are SO many huge buildings in D.C. that I never even thought about before. There’s a LOT of stuff I never gave any thought before we visited! So here are my tips for traveling/surviving here:

1. Do NOT attempt to drive in this crazy city that has no parking (seriously, no parking anywhere)
2. Capital Bikeshare will be your saving grace (unless, of course, you use the Metro)
3. If you want steak for dinner, you better not wear your yoga pants (or shorts, or anything “casual”). Also be prepared to spend over $100.
4. Do not ride your bike all the way to Arlington Cemetery. Take a Taxi or Uber! Trust me.
5. Utilize the earplugs that your hotel offers. Trying to sleep through non-stop sirens is not easy!
   We didn’t get there in time for the famous cherry blossoms, but the tulips were still looking pretty good! There are statues. EVERYWHERE. And they’re really weird.  There were some interesting things in front of the White House.
   Obligatory Whitehouse selfie. Pro photography tip: If there are tons of people in your shot, just aim up! See how they all disappeared in this photo? Sometimes I have to do this kind of magic on wedding days, too. Haha! The buildings in D.C. are so ornate and GORGEOUS! 
   No, this is not a baby announcement LOL.  I wish I had a photo of us taking this photo. The Washington Monument is REALLY tall, so we had to lean over, almost parallel to the ground, and Jason was holding his jacket up to shade us!  All of the marble had me in love! I wish I could photograph my couples here!  I spotted this beautiful bush and made Jason take my picture ;) Every building seemed to have beautiful unique lanterns.
   Day 2:  THIS was our saving grace! We rode these things everywhere! The best part about them? They’re cheap! Pro tourist tip: some bike lanes are in the middle of the street! It’s a lot faster than riding on the sidewalk. This was one of my favorite restaurants. Their chicken sandwich was out-of-this-world amazing. The Mac and cheese was pretty good too ;) The International Spy Museum was a favorite of mine I also have a new respect for pigeons. 
   I want to reiterate: Do not ride a Capital Share Bike to the Arlington cemetery! There’s nowhere to park it! We learned the hard way, so we had to take photos from the outside.  The Smithsonian was my all-time favorite. I just kept imagining how gorgeous an engagement session would be here!  By the time we got to the capital we were so exhausted we couldn’t muster the energy to go in. haha.