I want you to close your eyes and think about your bedroom as a child. What were your interests? Did your room showcase a portion of your personality or hobbies? Mine did. Fun fact about me: I’m a nerd (self-proclaimed). It’s fine. I’ve always loved history. Learning about the culture and what makes up a country, especially my own, was fascinating. For many years, my bedroom housed replicas of important United States documents such as the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Gettysburg Address and more. If you’ve read my Introduction to travel, you’ll know that I didn’t do much travelling myself until a few years ago. Following my cruise in 2018, a few short months later, I would finally get to go to the US capital of Washington D.C. with my beloved grandparents. Before we jump into my retelling of this trip, let me give you a few more details of why this was such a big deal to me. To begin, I’ve always wanted to visit the capital, to walk the footsteps of our founding fathers and to visit museums showcasing the history of our nation. Unfortunately, I could not attend the 8th grade field trip to D.C. with my junior high class and hadn’t gotten to go with anyone else. The closest I had gotten was the summer of 2011 with my grandparents. My nanny and pawpaw took me on a vacation to Gettysburg, PA for a summer getaway. We were in PA for only a few days, but those days were jamb packed with tours, museums and lots of exploring. The morning of one of our few days, they let me know we were going to visit Hershey, PA for a non-Civil War themed day…. I had another idea. I’m sure Hershey would have been fine, and I’ve heard from other family and friends visiting is a delight, but my heart was set on visiting another PA location two hours from Gettysburg and an hour from Hershey- Philadelphia. The city of brotherly love is of course brimming with history, but it’s filled with something almost as meaningful to me- movie props (Sort of, let me explain). Another tidbit about me is that National Treasure is my favorite movie and has been for many years. I can quote most of the movie, I own both National Treasure and National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets.; and I am not so patiently waiting for more intel on the third installment of the movies. If you haven’t seen the movies, I’m not going to spoil it, but the original film follows Benjamin Franklin Gates on an adventure of a lifetime trying to save the Declaration of Independence from his nemesis, Ian Howe. The movie was filmed in numerous locations, but Philadelphia was a key location and I was itching to not only fulfill my historical quest but to follow the steps of the actors in my favorite movie. A brisk 110-degree day wasn’t stopping us- we persevered through the heat in our Concorde that had no air conditioning, leather seats and balmy Pennsylvania air – until we finally arrived. We spent a warm summer day in Philly, touring museums, walking the streets and of course had a Philly cheese steak for lunch. We visited historical landmarks that are famous for their history but also for their starring roles as movie locations. It wasn’t until after the trip that I researched much more and found out about movie maps. A movie map is created by fans of a movie that shows filming locations and what was filmed there. If you’re also a fan of Nation Treasure, here is one of the maps I have found. It was a wonderful day, albeit very hot, but well worth it. We visited a few museums, the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and the Old Pine Street Church to name a few historical and memorable sites. I do plan on going back one day to visit- as you can spend days in Philly and not see everything- and now that I plan my trips out I’d love to go back with an Itinerary for both aspects in Philadelphia. The cold shower upon arriving back at the hotel was a wonderful way to get clean and to cool off.
Originally, what is now our DC trip, started as a post of a photo stating how I wished to go back. My grandparents commented they’d love to go with me and from there it began. With a flutter of my eyelashes at my pawpaw, asked if we could spend a day or so in DC, since it was only 2.5 hours from Philly. “Check with nan, she’s the one you’ll have to sweet talk” after discussing with them I found out none of us had ever been. From here it was transformed for Philly with DC to DC full speed ahead. A few weeks of planning tours, meal spots and reservations and we were all set. Labor Day weekend in DC 2018. I’d love to have you along as I retell to you the tale of our DC Diaries.
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