From Silver Spring to Crystal City

Had enough DC pics yet?  No???  Well good news; I still have lots more!  haha

These are from one place I ate called BURGERFI.  I had the best veggie burger on the face of the earth.  Plus the decor rocked.







Here we have Nicole, once again enjoying public transit.  Yeah, not the most flattering pic but, you have to understand... as the week wore on, I wore DOWN.  Really.

 

Then finally, the training part of the week ended.  I felt like a kid at the beginning of summer break!  I stayed one extra night on my own dime, just to relax and enjoy more of my trip.  After class ended on Friday, I commuted my little butt back over to Alexandria in an area called Crystal City.  LOVED it there.

On the way from the Metro station to my hotel, I passed some sweet art... and someone's house... I wonder how long they let this person alone before making them relocate their tent?  If you have to stay in a tent, this would be a pretty decent location, in my opinion.



 

Then I got to my room.  




More of Crystal City:
    Such pretty parks, and such nice weather!




  Hats off to the person who said, "You know what?  I'm going to design a park with skinny blue boards poking out of the ground at random angles and people are going to LIKE IT!!"  Not sure I would have been brave enough to pull that one off... but it works!  Looking at this makes me smile every time.



 Of COURSE Nicole found a Starbucks.  Actually I found 2, but one of them closed crazy early.  Baahhh.  No worries; I went to the OTHER one.  So there.  LOL

Also got to see (from a distance so as not to seem TOO weird) a couple of sand volleyball games.  Nice!






Seriously, I was there less than 24 hours but I walked all OVER that area.  Just taking it all in!  I even found an underground mall - how sweet is that.  You could basically make your way from point to point throughout Crystal City in their underground tunnel system.  Very clean and nice.  I just didn't go far from my initial "You Are Here" sign.  I didn't feel like getting lost.  By myself.  Under-freakin-ground.  Naaah.  But at least I got to experience it!

More Crystal City:

  This is the Holiday Inn where I stayed for my last night of the trip.

  And the view from my room.  Nothing extravagant, but it was my very own space for a whole almost-day and a half.  Call me happy.

  I thought this was going to be a restaurant; turned out to be kind of like a convenience store with a counter and barstools, and a few tables.  Very greasy-spoon-ish.  But I had set out intentionally to find CLARK STREET GRILL.  I was a little nervous as this was my first time venturing out in this new area.  So, when I found it, I sure enough did eat my late lunch there!  hahaha





The next day, my flight was set to leave in the early afternoon.  So I went back to Starbucks...



(Which had a FIREPLACE!!!  Sweet!)


And, from there, I made a quick Uber-adventure back across the river to explore Georgetown.

But, for that, you will have to wait for my next post.

Take care, friends!
Nicole