Not The D.C. I Saw Three Years Ago

In March while I was on vacay I took the opportunity to get down to the DMV area for a few days. This was my second time in D.C. I was in D.C. almost two years previously for the final immersion of my online M.S. in Communications.

Capitol Building

Granted I was there back in September 2018 from Thursday to Sunday, but downtown D.C. felt like a cleaner smaller version on NYC. D.C. was as bustling as NYC to me granted its the political capital and a much more tourist oriented city than New York. While at night D.C. does not feel like the walking city that New York does, what really stood out for me while I was out being a tourist was that while standing on Pennsylvania Avenue facing the fence to the front to the White House you had to move. You can stand on the side of the road where the White House is but as soon as then President Trump was returning to the House the police moved everyone over to the Lafayette Square park side of the road. It didn't make sense to me but it made total sense.

The Washington Monument

Moving forward to March 2021 and D.C. looked like a ghost town. Not even a ghost town in comparison to NYC (where Broadway and various other tourists attractions were also closed). I took the opportunity this time around without the schedule of a work trip to do an actual driving tour of D.C. The was the Half-Day Grand Tour of D.C. which was set to begin at 10:30 a.m. on Friday 19th. This tour cost $53.42 and was to be approximately 3-4 hours. I arrived late to meeting spot for the beginning of the tour which was in a Suburban and was myself and 5 other guests. The tour guide waited on me and we were on our way. What a drive around the DMV area that tour was. We were able to do all these stops and just pull up to park on the side because there was no traffic none. While it felt a bit eerie that no one was really around it felt free and open as if we had a police escort the way we able to drive around with such ease.

Fence on the sidewalk outside the Capitol Building

I know the tour length of 3-4 hours are based on non pandemic regular times, because we did all these stops and probably made it back in under 3 hours. I know Covid caused all the museums and other indoor attractions to remained closed to the public up to this point during March 2021. However it felt extra isolated with the fences that were placed on the sidewalks of the Capital Building and other Federal buildings and the stronger military presence that was there. Even with these Federal buildings not open to the public you would have been able to get much closer to the building rather than being restricted to the sidewalk, but you know January 6th happened.

Nonetheless I got to see more of D.C. this second time around without the crowd. You can see more of my tour around D.C. on the video page here or directly on my YouTube page . I was fortunate to be in D.C. again the first weekend of May and it at least looked more alive than it did in March. There were lines of Food trucks, families could be seen out enjoying the park areas, but since I was doing the driving around this time around I didn't get the opportunities to take pictures and videos as I did previously. I have no doubt I'll be back in D.C. later in the year and hopefully I can see a more vibrant and lively D.C.