Washington, DC, part 1
Old Town Alexandria
We spent the third week of April in Washington, DC. We missed most of the cherry blossoms, but enjoyed the other benefits of spring - the nice temperatures, lots of baby geese, and several other plants that were in bloom.
While we were in the DC area, we stayed at Cherry Hill Park. The best part of this RV park was that it was right on the city bus stop! It was so nice to be able to take the bus to the Metro (train) station and then ride the train into the DC Metro area. Not having to drive or find parking made the trip more enjoyable. This campground also has several cabin, tent, and glamping options for people that don’t have an RV.
My first stop was in Old Town Alexandria.
Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, is a historic district along the Potomac River. It’s full of shops, restaurants, historic points of interest, and has a water front area. I took the Metro to the King Street Station and then walked all around the Old Town area. I explored Carlyle House and gardens, found the Spite House, explored part of the water front area, and just enjoyed walking around and looking at everything. The houses here reminded me so much of Savannah with their similar architectural elements and decorating styles.
The Carlyle House was built in the 1750s, and like many homes of it’s era, underwent so many transformations once the family no longer lived there - from a hotel to a hospital to an apartment building to a museum during WW1. The amount of restoration that this house went through was amazing! I also thought that it was impressive that the gardens behind the house used to back up to the Potomac. Between the 1750s and now, almost two blocks of land was added between the gardens and the river.
The Hollensbury Spite House (the small blue house in the photo) was named that because it was supposedly build out of spite so that people couldn’t use the alleyway that used to be here. The owner was supposedly tired of the noise and the wagon wheels hitting his house, so he blocked off the alleyway by building a house.
King Street is the main street through town and is home to the majority of the businesses in Old Alexandria. I was so excited to see a Jeni’s ice cream shop! I had no idea that those existed, as I had only seen their ice cream in the grocery store.
While the area by the Potomac was busy with pedestrians and construction, it also had great views of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
I loved walking through the neighborhoods between King and Queen Streets. It felt very much like my walks around Savannah with the cobblestone sidewalks, the stairs to the front door, the flags, and all of the trees. The Canadian flag stood out amongst all of the USA flags. :)
The rest of the posts in the DC series -