The Rods in DC, Day 2
We woke up well-rested on Easter morning. The first activity of the day was Easter brunch, once again at the hotel steakhouse. We left the hotel and walked to the Marriott, down the street, which was the pick-up location for our Big Bus tour. I'm not a fan of bus tours, but Mom wanted to try it, so I went along with it. I, personally, am not a fan of them. I prefer wandering around a city and walking the streets with locals. The Marriott is one of the stops on the Yellow Loop. We took this Loop until Union Station, the last stop. We then transferred to the Green Loop, to heard towards Georgetown. We took a river cruise along the Potomac for 45 minutes. The cruise was included in our 48-hour bus package, as was admission to Madame Tussaud's DC Museum (more on that later). We passed underneath some of the most well-known Potomac bridges. We passed by a number of well-known monuments, as well, including:
the Lincoln Memorial, surrounded by two sets of bronze statues on either side;
the Washington Monument (still closed for renovations at the time - it opened this past week after our trip;
the Jefferson Memorial; and
the infamous Watergate (which was considered a modern building at the time of its construction during the 1970's).
After the cruise, we took a little walk around the streets of Georgetown. We passed by the original Georgetown Cupcake, of "D.C. Cupcakes" fame on TLC. It would've been cool to try something from there, but no one was up to waiting in a line a block and a half up the street. Instead, we made a trip into Niketown Georgetown. The layout of this store was different than the Boston location, but still open and airy. The first two floors of the store had women's wear. The third had men's and children's. This was due to the approaching DC Women's Marathon the following Sunday, on April 27th. Nike was a sponsor of the event. A majority of the merchandise on the first floor was branded with the Marathon's logo. A TV also displayed the marathon route and the other sponsors. We wanted to hang out in a cafe or coffee shop for a little bit, but didn't find any. We then headed back to the Harbor to catch the bus back to the hotel room. On the way we found some coffee, at a bike shop's cafe -- CycleLife Cafe. My sisters & I shared a delicious peanut butter-banana smoothie - a good alternative if you're not in the mood for coffee. It was also across the street from our bus stop, which was convenient. Once we arrived at the hotel, we freshened up to visit some friends in Virginia. We ended up getting back to the hotel after midnight. It was nice to see some familiar faces and catch up.