To Virginia and beyond!

Hello internets! Its been a while! 

Allow me to slowly update my life for you here.

Back in May I went on a mini road trip with my husband and sister. My parents had a hotel in Virginia Beach for the week and wanted us to come down with them for a few days. We took this opportunity to go do some touristy things we've been wanting to do. 

The trip went as follows....

Wednesday

So we woke up bright and early around 4 am and started the first part of our trip Washington DC!

Now I will admit, I was very very cranky. My husband had went to bed early the night before so he would be fresh for driving, and I stayed up far to late trying to get all the last minute things together for the trip. When I finally went to bed I didn't sleep and when we left I was nauseous, so the first part of the drive did not make me feel amazing. Around mid-late morning we got to Alexandria,VA where there is a T-stop that heads into DC, we figured this would be easier and cheaper than trying to find parking in the city.

We finally figured out how to get tickets for the train and whatnot and we were on our way in. The stop we took popped us right near the Washington Monument area, which was totally cool.We wandered around and tried to avoid the crazy street people trying to sell us various tours of things, and decided on where to get breakfast. 

Here is where I introduce you to Lincolns Waffles.

 One of the strangest little places I've ever eaten, with some of the weirdest menu items I have ever seen, but i'll tell you this much, the waffles were pretty dang great. Whats really neat about this place is its across the street from Fords Theater, we didn't go in but still cool to see!

From there we started our Smithsonian adventures.We did not research our trip very well and had no idea which one we wanted to go to, my husband didn't even know there was more than one, but at this point it had started to rain so we darted from museum to museum pretending to know what we wanted to look at. I was soaked and getting progressively grumpier, so we took a break and stopped at Elephant and Castle. 

If you recall from my post about our trip to Toronto this particular pub is my new favorite place ever, and much like its Canadian counterpart this place did not disappoint. We dried off and warmed up with a few beers and poutine, always a favorite. When we left we made our way to our last Smithsonian (American History) stop and it turned out to be our favorite of all the ones we had been to yet, it was however closing so we didn't get to spend as much time there as we would have liked to. This is when the real trial began, where we were was very close (so we thought) to the Washington Monument, and we wanted to make our way over to the Lincoln Memorial. It was one of the longest walks ever! From SAH to the WM was a bit of a hike, from there we went to WWII Memorial, and lastly we made our way to the LM. I've never seen any of these things in person before, they were amazing! But definitely bring your walking shoes!

We walked for what felt like forever to the next T station we could find and made our way back to our car and headed for VA Beach. 

We got to my parents hotel around 9pm to a very hyper mom who was beyond excited to show us what was going on right outside.

MONSTER TRUCKS

Thats right, I said monster trucks.

Our hotel is right on Atlantic Ave which all the rooms face the beach, and the section of beach right outside our hotel was being roped off and set up for monster truck shows that weekend. It was AWESOME.

 Thursday

We got to have a lazy day at the beach, relaxing and reading and sleeping, all my favorite things. A local restaurant had a amazing happy hour deal with the most delicious wings I have ever had in my life. If you are ever in VA Beach go to Mahi Mai's. You will not be disappointed.

 After stuffing our faces we took a walk around the strip a bit, stopping at Ben and Jerry's for some ice cream and shakes. Spent the night watching the draft and playing cards together.

Friday

We spent the morning on the beach and got kicked off by the tractors finishing set up for the truck show that night. My husband and I rented bikes and rode up and down the strip, I showed him all my favorite spots along the way. The stage where I saw the Gracelanders (female elvis impersonators) when i was little, the statue of Neptune, different hotels i've stayed at over the years, it was lovely.

In the evening we set ourselves up on the balcony of our room with snacks and drinks and waited for the show to begin. 

To sit in the stands for the show went about $20 a pop, we got a free and better view from our room. The show was awesome! There were 4 wheeler races, amateur monster truck drag races, wheelie contests, monster truck drag races, the car eating robot dinosaur, and the free style competition. Not to mention there was fair food right outside our hotel. Corn dogs anyone?

Saturday

Saturday was the day we checked out of our hotel and my parents headed home. My sister, husband and I tried to spend one last morning on the beach but it was far to windy to enjoy. So we headed back to our hotel where we had a pass to still get in and use the showers, where we watched some of the afternoon monster truck show (which was just as awesome as the night before) until we got kicked out. We went to Mahi Mahs again for some sushi and wings before we headed out to Richmond where we had another hotel waiting. There was ridiculous amounts of traffic for no apparent reason so it took us forever to get there. We stayed the night in a stinky hotel room and headed out in the morning for Waffle House!

Sunday 

No southern road trip is complete without the Waffle House experience. It was delicious. From there we drove into Philadelphia. Our main goal was to see the Rocky Statue and get some cheese steaks. Went to Pats and Ginos and got cheese-steaks, both were amazing, but i'm a fan of Pats just a little bit more. 

From there we went to the famous rocky steps and jogged up them, which was quite the feat after stuffing our faces with cheese-steaks.

After we accomplished our goals and even did a little most sight seeing trying to go to the Liberty Bell which was closed for the day.

While we were in the area we went to Macs Tavern.

If you are at all familiar with the show "Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia" this bar is owned by 2 of the actors of the show Rob McElhenney and his wife Kaitlin Olson, better known as Mac and Dee. Personally, I liked the place. It was a Sunday evening, and there was a sketchy local guy causing all kinds of issues, and the staff wasn't very attentive. In my opinion if you are a fan of the show it was like being at paddys, 

All in all i enjoyed philly, and cant wait to go back and spend some more time there.

Then began the long trek home, traffic everywhere for no reason whatsoever. We finally made it home late that night.

It was a wonderful little trip that I would do again in a heartbeat.