After leaving the hospitable Amish people in Pennsylvania, we came straight to Washington D.C. where people were a lot less friendly and the roads where much more crowded. We spent a good hour in the morning looking for a parking place that wasn't 40$ and finally parked almost 4 miles away from the capital. It wasn't the best first impression of a city, but after we'd made the long trek into the city and got some coffee, we were ready to see our country's capital.
We actually loved Washington D.C. The best part is that pretty much everything is free, a local explained that this is thanks to tax-payers money. We attempted to see everything in one day and failed. So we saved the Smithsonian for the second day and spent the first one just seeing the sights. We started with the Library of Congress which is completely beautiful! I didn't even know building like this existed in America; I thought they were all in Europe. From there we saw the Supreme Court and got to sit in the courtroom and listen to a lecture about how the judicial system works. 
I had not even realized how much I've forgotten since U.S. Government freshmen year of college! Although to be fair, I had a Palestinian professor teaching me about the U.S. government... He wasn't the best candidate for that class. After that we saw the capital, which was exactly what it looks like in the postcards. Not too much to say about it... 
One of my favorite stops though was the National Botanical Gardens! It was literally a jungle inside of a building, complete with mist and relaxing music. They also had a huge selection of rare, endangered plants and some pretty crazy looking flowers. The only thing that would've made it better was monkeys swinging in the trees. 
From there we walked over to the National Archives and saw the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They were pretty cool, but the guard's story of some guy attempting to steal it was the highlight. We then went to see the White House. Now in the pictures they always just show trees around the White House so I'd assumed it was more in the countryside or something. But it's literally right in the middle of the city with buildings all around it and soccer fields full of athletes right in front of it. I was really hoping the President or First Lady would pop their head out a window or something, but it didn't happen. We did see later some Air Force helicopters landing at the White House though, so maybe we almost saw him! 
After that we walked down the National Mall, which I'm embarrassed to admit that I thought was actually a shopping mall. But now I know! The big field of grass leading from the Capitol to the Washington Monument reminded us so much of the Champs-Élysées leading to the Arc de Triumph in Paris. It was a delightful walk with little refreshment stands and tables where people where relaxing with a book and cup of coffee, or engaging in a game of chess. Kids where running around feeding birds and riding on the carousel and people were playing frisbee in the grass. 
If I lived here, I would come to the National Mall every day to read, run, have picnics or just to hang out with friends. We walked past the Washington Monument, the Veteran's Memorial to the Lincoln Memorial.
The next day we were smarter and took the metro into the City and spent the whole day at the different Smithsonian museums. We hadn't even realized that there are actually 19 different Smithsonian museums in D.C. so we decided to hit the Museums of Natural History, American History and Air and Space. We spent the most time at the Natural History Museum, because it's huge. Most of it was dedicated to explaining evolution, which wasn't that interesting, but they did have a huge collection of stuffed animals which were pretty interesting. My favorites were the tree kangaroos and the flying squirrels! 
My favorite part of the museum was their exhibit on gems. Everything was beautiful and sparkling and they also had a little section of jewelry. 
It was hard not to just stare, looking at these huge emeralds and yellow diamonds that random royals had worn at some point. The Hope Diamond was also on display, and once we fought through the crowd hovering around it, we got to see it for a couple of seconds. As far as museums go, I loved that there was a lot of hands on things there and that you were allowed to touch things. I mean seeing a sign like this that says "Please Touch" is so rare in museums. 
The Museum of American History conjured up some patriotism with huge exhibits of Americans at war and the original Star Spangled Banner. 
After that we checked out the Air and Space Museum which had way too many airplanes hanging from the ceiling and rocket shuttles you could go in. My favorite exhibitions were of the Wright Brothers and of the different Apollo missions to the moon. Which started a conversation between Alex and I about why after so many missions to the moon in a short period of time, did we suddenly stop and never go back to the moon since 1973. What really is up there?
By the time the museum closed, we were so exhausted we had to stop for a little break in the National Mall again and then we caught the metro back up to where we were parked. Why is it that metro tunnels all look so cool? Honestly, I've never been in one that didn't photograph well.
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