The Nations Capital is full of uniquely interesting things to do and about 80% of them are free! {minus the food}

After a “quick” 10 hour drive to DC only spending $150 in gas, and using the airport  Economy lot paying only $17 per day instead of $35 per day in the city was another great life decision. You take the metro into the city, yes it weirdly has carpet in it that may have some mysterious stains, but hey it get’s you from point A to B and is cheaper than a flight

Top Affordable Things To Do

The Smithsonian Museums are the best bang for your buck with an exceptional amount of historical information and interactive exhibits for all ages. They are free year round so do expect lines to wait in, lots of small children running around, and of course asian tourists taking pictures of every single item in the museum.

The National Museum of Natural History

The National Museum of National History had every single type of animal known to man it in. But they also had an awesome section of gemstones and jewels, where I felt the need to keep pointing to the diamond ones to my boyfriend of 5 years to make him uncomfortable.

The National Air and Space Museum

The National Air and Space Museum is perfect for those of us who are nerds at heart and probably recently saw the new Star Wars movie Rogue One. History buffs would also love the exhibits on WWI and WW2 because the impacted every family in some way.

National Museum of American History

Of course The National Museum of American History ended up being a great reflection of how American’s eat a lot of food and how we awesomely excel at technology. {go us} They also had an amazing exhibit on the First Ladies of the United States and of course that was my favorite part because *girl power*. 💁

We did many of the “typical” touristy things like all the monuments, aka all of Washington DC because the National Park Service owns 99% of it, but they were way more ginormous than I thought and very beautiful. I go to see where a lot of my tax dollars are going so that’s good right?

National Christmas Tree with View of Washington Monument

Reflecting Pool between National World War Two Memorial and Lincoln Memorial

Vietnam Memorial at the National Mall

Washington Monument just outside the Vietnam Memorial

Walking around Washington, DC if you are into walking like we are was the best part. There are so many important buildings that run our country on the way to the capital building that sort of make you take a step back and reflect on how this city has shaped the United States.

Capital Building Being Prepped for the Inauguration

DC Sporting Events

So being the avid sports fans we are, we actually planned this trip around 2 sporting events that were happening on New Years Day! Our game plan originally was to go to the Washington Redskins Game at 1pm and the Washington Capital’s Game at 7:30pm, but the all important NFL messed up our plans by changing the Redskins game to 4:30.  The Washington Redskins tickets ending up being around $85 because we bought them so early! But BE AWARE if you sit in the 200’s section like we did and over row 15 you get your view blocked by the upper levels and can’t even see the jumbotron. Even though it was a loss for the Redskins, the fans, the atmosphere, and the easiness of finding our Uber location afterwards was very easy!

FedX Field when Redskins Run out

The Washington Capital’s Verizon Center was also super easy to get to as well. There are multiple DC Metro stations to it! Great game and great atmosphere for a quality win! Tickets we paid about $70 for when we bought them early and ended up they were #1 in the NHL at the time!

Verizon Center