We knew nothing. We wanted a Marriott. Side all my points are through Marriott from work. My wife found Crystal City and that it was connected by tunnels to the Metro. We had no idea if that would be super great, or dingy crap holes.

When we got there we looked up a local Chick-fil-A to get some Dr Pepper, as good Texans do. That led to some shop tunnels, but we quickly learned those weren’t the ones connected to the Metro. We decided to go exploring so we’d know what we were doing the next day. Found the right tunnels and walked to the Metro entrance and bought 3-day passes. I had downloaded the Metro app and knew that the Mall and Arlington could be reached on Blue line stops. For the zoo I knew we had to transfer at Metro Center to get on the red line.

So…we just figured it out as we went! We’re big planners so we tried to know as much as possible in advance. The different colored lines, plus the naming being the last stop the train is headed towards, made it seem pretty easy.