D.C. Destinations: Expedition 6: The Northwest Navigations

Journey 6 in the books! Our latest metro journey was great, and this time sent us to several destinations in Northwest D.C.. This blog is your narrative of another fun day in the nation's capital. Let's start from chapter 1...

Chapter 1: A Monumental Monument
Up EARLY once more, Trent, Cortland and I met up as usual at Largo and rode down to Smithsonian station. This time, we were assigned (with a partner) to each choose a POI in Northwest D.C., and our first chosen POI was the Washington Monument.

Approaching the Monument from the station!

Built in 1888 in commemoration of our first President, George Washington, the construction began in 1848, but lack of funds and the escalation of the Civil War slowed its construction until 1879. We were able to get free tickets to go inside and ride to the top, so once the whole group arrived, we headed inside. We rode the elevator (agreeing that the elevator shaft was scary) to the top of the 555 foot monument and peeked out the windows for a while. Honestly, I had no idea the Monument had an inside, but it was an awesome experience to be up there and see the Washington D.C. landscape.

Chapter 2: A "Spacious" Museum

After hanging in the Monument for a while, and listening to some fascinating information from the guide, we rode back down to the ground and began a short trek across the National Mall to our second chosen POI, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

The squad outside the Air & Space

This was by far my favorite spot of the day; I've always loved seeing exhibits with fighter planes and the concept of space has always caught my interest. I think my personal favorite exhibit was the displays of the aircraft from World War 2.

A model aircraft carrier.

There are actually two museums (one is in Virginia), but the D.C. location opened in August of 1946 as the National Air Museum, but as the space race heightened, it was renamed to the National Air and Space Museum. The place is really amazing, and we explored around for quite a while in the exhibits, gift shop, and even their flight simulators.

Models of the types of fighter aircraft you'd find on a carrier

Afterwards, we slowly made our way out (the gift shop was very distracting :D), and were on our way to Fuddruckers for lunch...

Chapter 3: Ben's Bountiful Bowls
The destination I chose with my partner David was Ben's Chili Bowl. We didn't stay long, but Ben's has history that goes waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back.

I honestly have no idea...

It was founded in 1958 on 1213 U St when (not surprisingly) Ben Ali and his wife spent $5,000 to renovate the building, but it was actually built in 1910 as a silent movie theater. Later, it became a pool house as it was modified by one of D.C.'s first black detectives. It was actually founded right next to Lincoln Theatre (which was built in 1922). Ben's, however, went through rough times when racial tensions exploded in the 50's and 60's, but the popular restaurant survived in what was America's largest African American community. I'd only "Ben" there once before (see what I did there?), but the food was good, and I've always wanted to go back. My grandfather and his brother grew up in the area, and the restaurant became their childhood favorite.
After we wrapped up at U St, it was time to head to our final POI of the day...

The outside of Ben's on U St.

Chapter 4: Our Final Frozen Foray
Last up on our excursion was an outdoor ice skating rink near the National Gallery of Art. It seemed pretty popular; there was a HUGE field trip group there. I have absolutely no clue how to ice skate, but some group members decided to skate, so we decided to all hang there for about half an hour. Eventually we began splitting up to head home, so Cortland, David, Trent and I trekked back to the metro to head home.

Epilogue
It was a relatively short journey, so, sorry for the short-ish blog. It was still an awesome day, and I really enjoyed the Air and Space Museum and the Monument tour. I can't wait for the next journey next year, but now I'm just hyped for Christmas. MERRY CHRISTMAS, and until next time!