Washington D.C. Barnes & Noble Visit

My family visited Washington D.C. for the first time this past weekend. It was a great weekend seeing all the sites everyone always talks about in person. However, for the purposes of this post, I have to focus on one specific stop: Barnes & Noble. On every vacation, especially in a new city, I visit the local B&N because they are all so different looking inside and out. Plus, what better souvenir than a book?!

With some time to kill before our next stop on Sunday afternoon, I told my husband I found a pic of a cool B&N I wanted to visit in the city. You can tell my husband is used to my weird book requests because he thought nothing of it and off we went. I must've clicked the wrong link on the webpage though, because the GPS took us to one outside the city, closer to our hotel, that was pretty plain and normal looking...nothing against it, but it looked exactly like what I've got at home in Ohio. So I rechecked the Internet page and found the proper link. Without a word or hesitation, my hubby turned around and headed back toward the city.

And it was worth it. I have pictures to prove it.

How great is this sign? (Yes, I made my whole family cross the street just to take this pic and then cross back. None of them thought it weird - I've conditioned them well.)

Unlike where I live, cities like to stack their stores. Everything goes up - has a second story - instead of spreading out on a massive first floor. So how cool is this?! Do you have an escalator in your local B&N? (That's my husband and son coming down...okay with being forced into my madness.)

It was one of the pop culture weeks at B&Ns nationwide and my kids found hola hoops just sitting around and figured they'd give it a spin...or in my son's case, a photobomb.

I passed on the hola hoop in favor of Jamie Fraser. It's like he was just standing there waiting for me, so I had to take advantage of the photo op! I mean, for the love of books, Outlander was sitting in my car at that moment. Impeccable timing Jamie, really. He was more than happy to pose with me. 

And what did I purchase? A bookmark with some of my life's priorities simply spelled out. And, the next book I needed in the Outlander series, of course! I own books 1-3, so book 4 it is. The family each found a book too! Book souvenirs all around - gotta love a family who reads together.

Do you have a common place you always try to visit when you travel?