Gold and Beautiful

I spent a significant amount of time in 2023 living in Washington D.C. While a lot of the year was spent on managing a steep learning curve at work, traveling to conferences and shuttling between Atlanta and DC, I managed to explore DC a little. I had visited DC a few times before, but living here gave me an opportunity to explore it in more depth. I absolutely loved taking the Metro everywhere. It reminded me of living in Mumbai and I felt comfortable and absolutely safe. I took the Metro at all odd hours, even taking the last one at midnight a few times and never felt unsafe. There are several advantages to using the Metro in DC. It connects different neighborhoods in DC very well. The few times that I took an Uber/Lyft, I was stuck in traffic for long enough to regret my decision. On the weekends the charge is a flat $2 each way, no matter how far or close you are traveling. So, it seemed like a no-brainer to use the Metro.  Safety tip:  When traveling by myself, I generall...

Although I am not as big a fan of D.C. as I am of San Francisco, both my trips to D.C. have been interesting. Not to mention the amazing Ethiopian food available there. Last time when we went in Fall we participated in the Insanity Rally organized by Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. This time the family reunion made it special. The heat was a torture though. A good decision we made was to book the hop-on hop-off tour. The bad decision was sightseeing in the day time. The hop-on hop-off tour is only available from 9am - 6pm, so there weren't many options. Unless you want to do a 3 hr night tour. I would have liked the night tour if it was also a hop-on hop-off tour. But the idea of a time restricted tour did not appeal to us. If you can, I highly recommend touring the city at late evening and night. Leave the daytime for museums, which are plenty and free. Even though the city is full of free museums and monuments, the private museums are also worth a look. Day 1: National ...