Another DC Success!

This past (long weekend) I took a trip to one of my favorite US cities: Washington DC. It's a city I could easily see myself living in so always look for an excuse to go and visit. My initial reason for this trip was to run the Cherry Blossom 10-miler. This had been a bucket list race for the past couple of years but I never knew when the lottery was so I never had a chance to enter. This year, I randomly found it days before it opened, entered, and got in. I was so pumped to run this race through the streets of DC and see the famous DC cherry blossoms in full bloom.

DC Day 2: Some much needed Soul

I wish day two in DC wasn't my last day here, but that's the deal with these quick weekend trips. You look forward to them, have such a fantastic time, and before you blink, it's time to get back to reality. But regardless, I was happy to have the time away from "real life" and get to go somewhere that I love. Yup, Washington DC is one of those cities that I could easily live in. Easily.

DC: Click, click

A little after I booked my London trip, I knew I wanted to go back to Washington DC. I went last June and had a totally amazing time running around the city (literally), site-seeing, eating, and catching up with old friends. There is something so awesome about that city that made me want to go back and have #RayRaysDCWeekendGetaway again. So right after London was taken care of, I booked a bus ticket ($1 each way FTW) on Megabus and my hotel (the same one I stayed in last year), and was already excited for what was ahead. Since I saw so much of the city last year, in terms of all the touristy stuff (which frankly, I sometimes can't get enough of), I knew I wanted to see some new stuff this time around on top of the usual go-to's.

DC Day 2: Giving me A HUGE travel bug

So Day two of #rayraysDCweekendgetaway is done. Boo. But yay to a fantastic weekend!! After many margaritas and Coronas last night, my stomach was not too happy with me this morning. At all. I woke up at 6 and decided that I would try and fall back asleep and rehydrate some more before going on my run. After the tornado warning last night (yes, that happened here), I was relieved to see the sun shining this morning. Unfortunately the high temps and humidity were both still around. Finally around 8:30, I got out of bed, drank some Vitamin Water and got ready for my run. This is much later than I would ever go for a run in this heat, but it was my last chance here so I had to do it. I wasn't sure how my legs would feel after putting in about 20 miles on them yesterday but they felt great! I was pleasantly surprised by this. I had five miles on the training plan for today so I started out heading up to the Capitol.  Going there, I realized how much closer I was than I thought. Apparently I took the very long way yesterday which made it seem super far when in reality it was literally like eight minutes away. From there I headed down Constitution Ave again past many of the Smithsonian museums and headed straight to the National Mall again. I had to see the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial one more time! I made my way there, took some pics, and then headed to the White House again, because I just had to. When in Rome, right?!?! I could smell the Tequila sweating out of me but felt great afterwards. During this run I also had that feeling of utter happiness and gratefulness for my love of running. It allows me to see so much more on my feet wherever I go. It's a pretty cool thing!! 

DC: Hot Temps and Hotter Security

This weekend I decided to treat myself to a mini, pre-#rayrayseurovacay2; I went on, shall we say #rayraysDCweekendgetaway. I just love making hashtags for these. #sorrynotsorry. But anyway, there was no specific reason I went except that I wanted to. With all the traveling I did last summer on #rayrayspacNWvacay I had racked up enough credit with hotels.com to earn a free nights stay in any hotel in the US up to $250 a night. Pretty sweet, right? Well, the offer expired July 17 and since I'll be in Europe then, I had to act on this before then if I wanted to use it. I thought about using it on a staycation in NYC but quickly decided against that. I figured it was only right to spend money to save money (as so many of us do) so I was going to use this and make a fun weekend of it. The only decision now was choosing between Boston and DC and find a weekend with no race or event. Well, this weekend was the only one, and DC it was. I've been watching a ridiculous amount of Scandal lately on Netflix so seeing all the beautiful the DC scenery made my decision super easy. Olivia Pope, I was coming for a visit.