Have You Ever Played Tourist in Your Own City? Part 1: Reflections From A Walk in D.C.

With the start of a new month, I've decided it's time to get back to writing about what I originally intended for this blog; where my travels have taken me, what took me to those places, and what those new experiences taught me.

As we are preparing for the world to slowly reopen again it seemed fitting to reminisce about my time acting as a tourist in my own city and what made me set out on that journey. It all started one sunny, warm Sunday afternoon in mid-September in 2014. Having spent the end of the summer months traveling, I realized I knew a few cities in the world better than I knew the one in my own backyard, Washington D.C. Sure, I'd gone on the field trips to D.C. to visit the National Art Gallery in school as a child and had been to the National Air and Space Museum more times than I could count. I'd spent the 4th of July on the National Mall many times. I'd visited the White House at Christmas and viewed the Capitol but I couldn't remember the last time I actually walked around like a tourist would without a set plan or reason for being in the city. So that Sunday, I headed to the new metro station in my suburban town and headed into D.C. to play tourist. Did I have a plan as to where I'd start? Nope. I had a brand-new iPhone with a fancy camera, and it was a gorgeous day so I set out to see where my feet would take me, much like I would when I arrived in any unfamiliar city.

I hopped off the metro at the Smithsonian stop on the National Mall and found myself making my way towards the Washington Monument. Believe it or not, in the nearly 40 years I'd lived near D.C., I'd never been up to the top of the monument! Not for lack of trying, there were so many times it was closed to repairs or renovations and in recent years, you needed to pre-book a ticket. Since this was a spur of the moment trip, I didn't have an advance ticket, but it was such a beautiful day I wanted to take advantage and just walk. Just to note, it's been nearly six years since that day and I STILL haven't made it to the top of Washington Monument. Perhaps a post quarantine goal?

I consulted Google Maps and decided I'd go on walk around the various memorials and monuments along the National Mall and made my way to the World War II Memorial. Once I arrived, I couldn't recall ever seeing this memorial before, shameful, I know. I was transfixed. Wow. It was beautiful and to this day probably remains one of my favorite monuments in the city. I spent a lot of time taking in the fountains and views of stone pillars with iron wreaths for each state in the U.S.

I then made my way past the reflecting pools, in my mind channeling the scene from the movie, Forrest Gump where Forrest runs through the reflecting pools when he sees Jenny at the Lincoln Memorial. I got my essential shots standing on the steps and looking back across the reflecting pools to the Washington Monument at the other end. After some time hanging out on the steps amongst the other tourists, I realized it was oddly comforting being totally anonymous in a city you call home when no one around you knows it actually is your hometown.

After spending some time with Mr. Lincoln, I made my way to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, taking time to read some of the many names carved on the stone walls. Seeing the flags and the occasional single flower placed along the wall was sobering. From there I walked over to the Korean War Memorial taking in the bronze sculptures of the soldiers emerging through the bushes.

After leaving the main drag of the National Mall, I headed over to the Martin Luther King Memorial, the newest memorial along my walk that day, built in 2011. As I gazed across the Tidal Basin towards the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, I decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and walk around the Tidal Basin to get to the memorial. I'd never done that before so imagine my surprise as I got about halfway through my walk to find the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial around a bend. Yep, I had no idea it existed. And thought I'd just have a quiet wander along the water. After taking time to wander around this expansive memorial, I crossed the bridge to carry on to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, snagging this shot from the bridge along the way.

Once I made it to the Jefferson Memorial, I realized I'd nearly come full circle as I saw the Washington Monument in the distance. I'm not sure how many miles I walked that day, but I realized that even the tiny part of D.C. I covered was just a small corner of a larger city I had barely explored in my adult life. I saw the city with new eyes, and it was energizing. As I rode home on the metro, I vowed to make many more trips into the city as a tourist in the months to come as I neared my 40th the following February.

And that was how 2015, which was the start of a new decade for me became the year I vowed to fill with new experiences. I vowed to explore Washington, D.C. as a tourist would. Because how often do we take time to play tourist in our own cities? Do we just assume those places will always be there? That we'll take time from our fast-paced lives to just go see the things we drive past on the way to and from work every single day? Or do we get stuck in the same routines of eating at our favorite restaurants and visiting our favorite places, often dreaming and planning trips away from home to just get away from it all to see something new. I had fallen into that rut, and while I had no intentions of slowing down my travel that year, after all, I did travel seven times in 2015, I vowed spend more of the time I was home seeing what I could find that was "new" to me in my own city.

Now as I sit here and reflect how 2020, a new decade for all of us has started, I’ll admit I had some similar thoughts that I did five years ago. I looked forward to this being a big year. After all “this is 2020” (go ahead, channel your best Barbara Walters impression, I know you want to). The year started off great- those first 10 weeks or so were normal. I got in a trip to Morocco for a yoga retreat in a beautiful place with equally amazing people. I returned stateside a mere week before life as I knew it would be upended for months. I had an incredible spring planned with tickets to events and activities spread all through April, May and June. For the first time in two years I wouldn’t be traveling for the entire month of May and looked forward to enjoying the many events that happen locally in the spring. I looked forward to getting back into activities and events in my own city; back to that tourist in my own city mentality. But we all know that didn’t go as planned. Will I learn from it? Of course. Because I think we learn something from everything.

So, while we’re still dreaming of far flung vacations that WILL happen in the future, I challenge you to start thinking about what you can explore in your city once life starts to return to our “new” normal. Will you go back to places and things you’d missed? Sure, I know I will. We all love the familiar as it brings comfort. But, will you think about that one (or two) places that you’ve always said you were going to go see in your own backyard and actually go and do it? 2020 may not have gone as we’d planned initially, but there’s still plenty of time to make new memories and go be a tourist in your own city.

"Sometimes beauty is right in front of us and we don’t even pay attention to it." - Unknown