Washington, D.C. 2019 {Day One}

On March 1st, I went to Washington, D.C. with my friend Lisa. Lisa had a big birthday in March, and we decided to go on a weekend trip to celebrate. I'm always telling her to travel somewhere she has never been, so she listed out several ideas and we settled on D.C.

I planned the trip, and while this was my 5th trip to D.C., it was her first, so there was a need to hit all the highlights, but also do a couple of things I wanted to do along the way. Originally we thought we were going to arrive about 10:50 a.m., but that got pushed until early afternoon due to me having originally booked us on the 7:50 p.m. flight instead of a 7:50 am. (oops... at least I figured it out well in advance and could change it). Add a little delay to the flight, and then VIP air traffic that caused a delay in landing, and we were super pressed for time. We quickly got our bags, grabbed a taxi, and took them to our hotel in Georgetown. We didn't even check in. We dropped our bags with the bellhop, jumped back in a taxi and booked it to the Supreme Court building.

Friday was the only day during our trip when the Supreme Court building was open, so this was a must see on Friday afternoon. The last tour into the courtroom was at 3:30 and the building closed at 4:30. We arrived at 3:25, just in the nick of time.

We didn't stay for the whole courtroom presentation. I think it was the exact same tour guide I had a few years ago, but she had changed her format. She even acknowledged the change at the beginning. She said she used to give a lecture about the court and the courtroom, but studies show people don't retain information that way, so she has gone to an all question format. Well that means that your info is only going to be as good as the questions, and our group's questions were not great. So we slipped out to tour the rest of the courthouse.

Chief Justice John Marshall

Justice Thurgood Marshall

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor

Justice John Paul Stevens

We were in luck because they had the most interesting exhibit going on called "In Re Lady Lawyers". It was AMAZING! Perfect for two Lady Lawyers!

It was centered around women and the Supreme Court. I learned so much about women who had practiced at the Supreme Court well before women even had the right to vote. The Supreme Court kept a list of the lawyers allowed to practice in the envelope below...

Belva Lockwood petitioned Congress to become the first Lady Lawyer to be allowed to practice before the Supreme Court in 1879!

There were other items throughout the exhibit. This shirt was from just after Sandra Day O'Connor took the bench...

One of Justice Ginsburg's collars...

Justice O'Connor's pink suit...

Once we were ~~kicked out of the building at close~~ finished at the Court, we grabbed a pic and headed back to the hotel.

After checking into the hotel (more on that at the end), we walked down to Luke's Lobster in Georgetown for dinner. Luke's is always one of my favorite places to have a lobster roll, and they didn't disappoint.

We then hit up Georgetown Cupcake (one of my favorite places on earth, though I didn't get a pic), and then grabbed some yummies at Ladurée. We also did a little shopping, where I purchased a new suitcase as I had discovered at the airport that mine had a totally shredded wheel (and this was only it's 3rd trip! Cobblestone streets in Europe are not kind to the luggage). It rained and rained on us, but it's always fun to be out and about in Georgetown.

We stayed at the Park Hyatt Washington D.C. hotel, which is located in Georgetown. We ended up doing a blind booking, and we knew it would either be the Park Hyatt, Four Seasons, or Fairmont. I was really hoping for the Four Seasons, but you get what you get. It was more expensive than where I normally stay, though only about 2 blocks away. I think it was nice enough, though worth the money? I'm not sure. Next time I go, I will just book at The Melrose. I love it, it's a little cheaper, every bit as nice, and the location is about equal.