Washington, D.C.: Segway Tour!

Talk about fly by the seat of your pants, because this was so not on our list of things to do! So the first day we're walking around forever, I get blisters all over my feet from my cute new Toms Ryan got me for this trip, and we see people on Segways. After we made fun of them (I mean, who doesn't, right?), I thought, "Wait a minute. No walking, covering a lot of ground, tour guide, and a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity to be like a Mall Cop. Why wouldn't we do this!?" So we called and made reservations on the spot. We picked Monday evening from 6-9 and I couldn't recommend this time more! We got to see the sun setting over the monuments and it was gorgeous.

So we get to City Segway Tours, get in a group of about 7 of us, and we have to one-by-one show our tour guide we can do this. In front of the group. By ourselves. I was terrified. We had been riding bikes all day so I was really thrown off with how I was supposed to operate it. It's all with your center of gravity. If you lean forward, you go forward. If you lean back on your heels, you go backwards. It's crazy.

Ryan, like anything in his life, was a natural:

Here's a video when we first started. I tell Ryan here, "I am a bit terrified." I really was so nervous for at least the first 30 minutes!

We stopped at the main places we had already been to. The White House of course:

A lady seriously came up to Ryan and asked to get on his Segway! He said no of course, then she said, "Can I take a picture?" And he totally posed with a thumbs up and she stood next to him. Anybody that was not from America was snapping pictures and taking videos of us the whole time! It was hilarious.

Picket line (in the background of the pic) that just walked in front of the White House. Apparently this happens all the time:

FBI Building and our 23-year-old Tour Guide (who was great, by the way)

National Archives Building (on our list to do next time) with Navy Memorial in front:

Autostitch of Navy Memorial:

Also on our list to do next time: The Newseum:

 First Amendment above the Newseum:

Ryan and I made fun of each other the whole tour. We knew how dorky we looked!

Canadian Embassy. There was a line that separated Canada and the United States. Our fun tour guide encouraged us to go forward/backwards/forward/backwards across the line to cross the border. :) Of course I did it!

One of the museums we didn't get to--The Native American History Museum. It doesn't have corners (we found out on the tour) because there is a tribe that believes dark spirits live in corners. Interesting! Neat architecture:

The Capitol Building at sunset:

View of Washington Monument from Capitol Building:

Again with this amazing app:

This pic is for the Gavster. They were doing construction on the lawn of the National Mall for irrigation purposes I think. I thought of him every time we passed these huge trucks!

Heading to Washington Monument. Look how awesome we all look. :)

Do you see the guys running along the side of Ryan? I have never in my life seen so many people exercising in one city! People would do Yoga, pushups, sit-ups, you name it on the side of any road or walkway! And we zoomed along on our Segways. :) Very much like Wall-E! Seriously--the sign for the Segways said something like, "See the sites with less effort!" Ha!

The Smithsonian Castle:

Washington Monument at sunset (so tall I couldn't get it all)

WWII Memorial at sunset. It was truly breathtaking with the lights:

I am SO GLAD we took this tour solely for this. I did not know about the new MLK memorial! It is along the trail with the cherry trees, because they bloom around the anniversary of his death! How awesome is that!?

All our Segways lined up. This cracks me up:

 A quote of his was the basis for the memorial.

"Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope."

(So notice the above pic is the mountain)

And Martin Luther King, Jr. is on the back of the "stone of hope."

Across the Potomac is the Jefferson Memorial:

Korean War Memorial:

I tried to capture how truly eerie this was to see at night:

The monuments looked totally different at night. So glad we got to do this in the evening!

Lincoln Memorial:

Our tour guide said (and I don't know if I believe him) that Abe Lincoln's hands are in an "A" and "L" in sign language. Anybody know if this is on purpose? I mean I can see it, but is that just a coincidence??

Inside the memorial are his speeches. So sobering to stand and read all of The Gettysburg Address:

Washington Monument from Lincoln Memorial:

 

I'm standing where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I have a dream" speech:

Vietnam Veterans Memorial at night. 

We found out on the tour that the creator of this was a college student (21-years-old!) who submitted this for an architecture project!

If anyone has seen the show Arrested Development, you'll know that Gob often rides a Segway. Here is Ryan's attempt at acting like Gob:

We ended the successful day eating at Founding Farmers. My kind of restaurant in every way. Not only was it local, fresh food, but this is a picture of a cinnamon sugar coated bacon lollipop. You read that right. Bacon on a stick. And it may be one of the best things I have ever eaten in my LIFE!

Such a fun and exhausting day!!