Our second day in Washington D.C. was filled with sightseeing and exploration. …
By Bryn & Sadie
Our second day in Washington D.C. was filled with sightseeing and exploration. We started our day off early with bagels for breakfast and a walking tour around the neighborhood. During the tour, we visited historic places such as Logan Circle and talked about how the geography and demographics of the city have evolved over time in response to the Civil Rights movement and financial developments, including the 2008 recession. Here we saw many beautiful homes that were built in the early 1900s, including John Logan’s home (red with white trim in photos above) on the circle itself. Logan is an interesting figure in US History as he changed party affiliations, became an important Union general during the Civil War, and served in both chambers of Congress.
Finally, we finished out our walk with a trip to Starbucks, of course! We may have stayed up a little late having fun in our rooms, so a little sugar and caffeine helped us rebound for another day of walking and exploring the city together. When we got back to the Steinbruck Center, we developed an efficient system to work together to bring all of our bags from the third floor to the bus, and we had fun in the process.
Our last stop in D.C. was a trip to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. We split up into groups and explored the many types of animals that live there. Our group started off with an impromptu trip to Auntie Anne’s and began walking around with our delicious pretzels in hand. One of the highlights for everyone was seeing the elephants. We were amazed with the size (and smell) of them standing big and tall. Next, we began our journey down to the capybaras, just to find out the exhibit is closed until August. Instead, we went to see the other small rodents, such as guinea pigs, naked mole rats, and meerkats. Next, we went to the primate house to see chimpanzees and orangutans. We learned that each orangutan has a completely different personality, just like us! We even got to see the rainforest where the birds were roaming around us. To end it all, we went to the gift shop and got matching bracelets. We had an amazing time hanging out with our friends and seeing all the cute animals!
By the time we got back to the bus we were all exhausted from the amount of walking we did over the course of our stay, but we were glad we got our steps in. The bus ride home felt like the longest ride ever since we had stayed up late the night before, but at least we had our friends near to entertain us. Our trip to D.C. was one that we will never forget!