i went to the district of columbia : day two

day #2 docket:

breakfast at eastern market

mount vernon

(walk on random path + castle pics)

old town alexandria 

(chik-fil-a)

unique - a ginormous thrift store

asian karaoke 

we had quite the list of things we wanted to do this day and ended up doing even more (the things in parenthesis were not in the original plan) which was a bonus. eastern market was great great great! i wish we would have walked around the neighborhood it was in because i loved all of those homes. we got to drive through a lot of it looking for a parking spot though, so i got to see a fair amount. oh the brightsides of the east coast! 

i rarely pull the nice cam out anymore so when i do it is like i fall in love with photography all over again! i remember things like depth of field and what a sharp picture looks like and how you can take nice pictures without putting it through a filter. if only that thing wasn't so heavy to lug around i would take it everywhere! i've just gotten so lazy. 

so anyway. while we were waiting in the longest line ever to get breakfast i was so fascinated by this:

a blown up blow fish! if you notice there are sick sick not blown up ones right next to it. i couldn't stop staring at it and laughing and wondering how it was possibly real. i should have just bought it so it could continue making my day, every day. i mean really, those teeth!

friends sara and katie were such a treat to be with all day. i met sara in college and then katie met both of us through efy. really just the salt of the earth, those two.

(and please say you knew this picture was really taken for the man in the background)

the colors!

i should have bought that book and stolen that bike. first two regrets of the day!

so many good flowers. so many good yards. i came home with way too many pictures of both. 

next up was mount vernon. we thought we wanted to go but once we got there we saw one million junior high kids (the first of many sightings, as you will soon see) swarming the place and decided maaaaaybe we didn't want to do that after all. 

but i really liked the parts i saw! and they had such great flowers that matched my pants so that was definitely worth the drive. 

as we were driving back i kept seeing things i loved so sara would pull over and let me love them for a minute. one of those things was that castle fortress something or other behind me. give me that!

i also saw this semi hidden path that intrigued me a whole lot so we turned around and walked it for a bit. it had the best bridge (just right a few feet from the freeway!) and felt so chronicles of narnia to me. we also listened to disney pandora which made the whole experience ever so pleasant. 

we then headed to old town victoria to walk around and see the dreaminess which it is. i LOVED this place. i think it might have even been my favorite? there were definitely some really close seconds but i just loved how all the houses were connected yet each had their own personality. 

i know. I KNOW. so good looking.

and i don't know why i loved this whole boutique set up but i did. just loved it. 

and just when i thought it couldn't get better we went down a small alley and found ourselves at a pier with real good boats and colors and street performers! 

and the cherry on top of this delicious old town cake would be when you look down and realize that not only is everything around you the best but you are also walking on cobblestone streets. i die. 

after that great experience we decided to go hit up chik-fil-a since this girl never gets to go (they hate chik-fil-a in boston apparently). sadly it did not taste how it did in utah and it was gross which might explain why there will not be a picture in this post accompanying this story. 

after that sara took me to a thrift store called "unique" which was basically the most ginormous thrift store i've ever been in. it was a thrifter's heaven i tell you what! we only had an hour so i had to skim everything real quick but even with a short amount of time i walked away with a few gems so it still felt successful.  

  

then we closed the night with a bang by renting out a karaoke room in the back of some korean restaurant and sang our little hearts out! for some reason karaoke always stresses me out so i wasn't too keen on the idea of doing this but it was absolute MAGIC. ten girls just singing their hearts out to every song in such a cramped space changed all my feelings about karaoke and i now want to do it every night of my life. i seriously cannot remember the last time i enjoyed myself that much. 

and just when i thought there was absolutely no way the day could get better, i noticed these two asian older gals just singing their hearts out to battle hymn of the republic and other songs just like it hahaha.

it just validated my feelings that asians really are the best! and this day was the best. the end.