My wife and I took a trip to Washington D.C. since we both have never visited before. We started our drive early morning May 1st with our dog Stiegl. You can say we had a packed vehicle. We drove straight through Georgia, South Carolina, and then stopped at South of the Border. 
This magical place sits right between North and South Carolina. Although run down for our time, this Americanized Mexican themed pit stop is a must see for tourists. We stopped and walked around their huge gift shop and I’m almost certain she picked up everything we walked past to show me or to play with. We continued our trip only after purchasing a shot glass. It was becoming very late in the evening and we’d been driving for over 12 hours. We decided to stop about 30 minutes shy of the Virginia border so we could get a nice dinner and some much-needed beauty rest. May 2nd was going to be half a day of driving until we arrived at our destination. One of the coolest experiences was crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. We learned this was a 23-mile-long bridge with tunnels built between the two ends. If you have the opportunity to cross it, we would recommend shelling out the $13 each way for the beautiful views. Plus, if you have your pup the nice people taking your money will give them a doggy biscuit. We arrived to Washington D.C where our first stop would be to drop off Stiegl at a puppy day care, which we liked to call a “puppy Air bnb”. A lovely lady watched him and a few other pups for the day while we adventured out and around the city. Our first stop when arriving was the Arlington National Cemetery. This was number one on my list due to the fact that I am a veteran and Raven supports me very well.
This became a very emotional time for me walking through the sacred grounds under all of the blooming cherry blossoms and among so many of our country’s heroes; America’s heroes. We were able to make it to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and paid our respects as the Sentinels conducted the Changing of the Guard ceremony. May 3rd, we got up to do some of Ravens adventures so we traveled downtown to the Renwick gallery where they had all of the Burning Man festival memorabilia set up. We did not get any photos inside because they did not allow it. Next door to the gallery, the French President was having a lunch with President Trump so we were able to see them exiting and flying away in Marine One. Our next destination was the Washington Monument.
We have only ever seen it on T.V. and movies, so seeing it up in person was spectacular. Right across the pond was Lincoln staring right at us. The Lincoln Monument was beautiful and gave us a workout climbing up his steps. This was the final stop of our trip and we
loved every minute of it. We were able to catch the sunset from the top of the monument, perfect ending.
Beau 