Washington D.C.

Don't you just hate it when you're so excited about a trip and then it's all of a sudden over? I had so much fun researching places, getting reservations, planning times and locations and getting this whole thing together, and now...it's already over. Kind of depressing, but the memories are amazing.

As I wrote in a previous post, David and I just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. Now, this isn't a huge number, but since I'm still so YOUNG, it sometimes feels like a dream. For our honeymoon in June, 1998, we went to Salt Lake City for 3 days. We stayed in a very cool hotel called the Annivesary Inn. We went shopping, ate out, walked around SLC and just relaxed. It wasn't very far from home and we were students, so it wasn't very lavish or fancy. We haven't spent very many annivesaries together since then, as the Navy tends to take David away during the summer. So, I wanted to do something big this year for our 10th. It all worked out that my mom could come and stay with the kids, too, so off I went on the planning. Well, I looked into the Carribean, Jamaica, Florida, even Europe, but when it came down to it, we only had 4 days and we just didn't want to spend that kind of money. So, we decided since we both love history and we've been out of the USA for a while, we wanted to go to Washington, D.C. Neither of us had ever been there.



We drove, 8 hours, to DC on Monday. Our hotel was The Westin Grand in the Georgetown area. It was so beautiful! We walked around near George Washington University on Monday night, had a wonderful mexican dinner at a place called Cabanas and then went to the movies and saw "The Dark Knight". On Tuesday morning, we got up early and went to the D.C. temple, which is actually in Maryland. It's a beautiful temple and of all mornings in all places, we met a girl that we were in the marching band with at USU. Small world!

Tuesday afternoon, we walked down to the National Mall. This is where all the monuments and mueseums are. The first thing we saw was the Lincoln Memorial. This is a very reverent and emotional place, I thought. We read the Gettysburg Address engraved on the wall, and it really was inspiring. Then we walked to the Vietnam War Memorial. What an eye opener. It puts it into some sort of perspective on the lives lost when you see all those names engraved in the wall. Then we made our way to the WWII Memorial and then to the Washington Monument. By the time we got to the Washington Monument, I was in so much pain I couldn't walk another step. I had decided to wear the cute sandals....go ahead and laugh, David did, he always teases me that I choose cute over comfort. Well on this day, I was kicking myself because I had the worst blisters and I couldn't go another step. I begged the security guard at the monument for some bandaids and got all wrapped up so I could keep going. After that, we went to the Holocaust Museum. Wow, what an incredible place. It was 4floors of history about the Holocaust and the events leading up to it. What a sad time in history. I would recommend this museum to everyone. Very moving.







We got excited before we left because we learned that the DC Navy band was having a concert while we were there. So on Tuesday evening, we walked over to the capitol because I had written down that as the location of the concert. Well, we found out they weren't there but at the Naval Memorial about 20 minutes walk away. So, more walking, but we made it just in time for a very fun concert. David made some contact with some people in the band, so hopefully, they will remember him in two years when we try to get into that band! Details on that development for another post.

We walked almost the whole way back to our hotel late after the concert, but by this time, I was practically dragging my poor cute sandals feet, so we got a cab the rest of the way.

The next day we were so sore, but up and at it for another day. Needless to say, we got a cab to the National Mall this morning, as we were both pretty wiped from the day before. We went straight to the Museum of Natural History. We were there for about 4 hours, I'd say, and we still didn't see the whole thing. We did get to see the 3-D Imax movie on dinosaurs. I've never seen a 3-D before, it was so fun! The museum is huge, but very cool! Then we went across the street to the Air and Space Museum. That was so fun, we really enjoyed this place! I loved the WWII planes and exhibits the most, but the astronaut and space part was very cool, too.

Wednesday we walked ALL the way back to the hotel, I wore my sneakers on this day. We got back to the hotel and decided to go down the street to find something to eat, as the restraunt in the hotel was about $30 for an apple, crazy! We found a little hole in the wall mexican place called Don Lobos. While we were having dinner it started to pour rain. So, by the time we got back to the hotel, we were totally drenched!

Thursday, we started for home pretty early, I was starting to miss the kids! We got home around 4 pm, after another long 8 hour drive...I do have to say though, that 8 hours goes by a lot faster without any kids to entertain.

We had a great time, just the two of us, visiting Washington, D.C. I loved it! Stay tuned for the New York City trip details!