DC

Aaron surprised me with a 3 day trip to Washington DC for our 10 year anniversary. It was belated by two months, so TOTALLY unexpected and a TOTAL blast. I can't believe how much fun we had. I fell hard in love with my husband all over again. He even orchestrated his Mom (the best mother-in-law ever known) to fly out here from Montana to watch the kids so we could go.

We had such a fantastic time and took 490 pictures that I haven't even known where to begin documenting it. So even though it's a month late, here's a whooole 'lotta fun in one little old blog post ;)



Day ONE

After my first red eye flight with no sleep (but two chick flicks rented), checking into our hotel for 1.5 hours of shut eye and no time for a shower (gross) we were up and running to the Fords Theater where President Lincoln was shot. The museum there was fascinating.


The gun that killed President Lincoln. It was so tiny and only held one bullet that night.


Lincoln's booth


Inside the theater





After our tour here, we headed across the street to see the room where Lincoln passed away 14 hours later.




Next was a trip to the National Archives. Fascinating.



Inside the National Archives are stored the original Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and The Bill of Rights. Here's Aaron inside that room. The lights are dimmed to preserve the documents. Armed guards were also there at every corner...and you couldn't stand in front of a document too long or they'd ask you to move on.





Next stop, The Washington Monument. It was SUCH a beautiful day. At the top we had total visibility.





We saw other people doing this, so we had to copy. We're such followers.





Okay, finally our tour begins and we head up to the top. Here's a collage of four shots out the window at the top. Can you spot the Mormon temple?




I think the highlight of our trip happened next. We took a free 1.5 mile walking tour of the National Mall. We had the most incredible retired school teacher named Tim who took us on this three hour tour and had us captivated and moved with all kinds of sites and stories. So much fun and so fascinating. I wanted to enroll in a history class after this tour. No joke. Never mind the fact my feet took a week to recover from this three day trip...it was so worth it. These sites and stories were amazing.

Some things we saw on our walking tour:








That night after the Metro broke down and we waited a total of 1.5 hours for it to start working again (to no avail) we crammed in a taxi with five other people to finally get dinner. We honestly hadn't eaten all day. Can you say exhausted and starving?

Our anniversary dinner at Morton's Steak House at 10pm that evening. Yum.



Day TWO

We started with a tour of the Capitol Building. Holy amazing.







Inside the Capitol I didn't realize I'd have an opportunity to take a picture with a Prophet!


Next door was the Library of Congress. I couldn't believe how incredible it was inside here.







After this we walked to the steps of The Supreme Court Building


Then headed to Union station for lunch



Next stop was The Air and Space Museum. Aaron is quite fascinated with planes, space shuttles and the like, so this was a treat for him.



We got to touch a Moon rock



We hopped on a trolley (thank heavens, my feet were killing) to the Jefferson Memorial





This day was cruising by and we only had limited time to tour the National Museum of American History & The National Museum of Natural History. The highlight of the museum for me was seeing the Hope Diamond



and the gorgeous necklaces and jewelry that were once worn by women of royalty. I loved reading the plaques and seeing the women either in picture or painting wearing the jewels that were actually in the cases. Totally cool.



After a long day we were really looking forward to dinner. We chose to eat at this well known (for the area, we were told) Indian Restaurant called Rasika. HOLY COW. I want to move to DC just so I can be close to this restaurant. I even asked the manager when they were going to open one up in CA. It was just that good. If it weren't such a fancy restaurant and the fact that I was already embarrased that I was in sneakers...I would have pulled out my camera to take a picture of our appetizer: crunchy spinach. TO.DIE.FOR. What an amazing meal!



We then walked to take a tour of the Kennedy Center. Aaron remembers coming here with his grandparents when he was kid.


I think we finally made it back to our hotel room around 11ish that night. Exhausted, but happy and having so much fun!



Day THREE


We hopped on the Old Town Trolley again and headed to The National Cathedral.




Honestly, this was breathtaking. We could not believe how incredible this building was to walk through. We had such a nice & knowledgeable tour guide who may have gotten tired of my questions but never let me know it. I learned so much. Like did you know that Martin Luther King Jr. gave his last sermon ever here on a Friday and then on a Tuesday the following week they held his funeral? Also Hellen Keller's ashes are inside a tomb here at the National Cathedral.



Inside


Stained glass





Up top looking down a hallway


The view from the top



The stunning grounds


Back on the trolley we toured Embassy Row, Georgetown and drove by the White House. Did you know that in order to tour the white house you have to book it 6 months in advance? Bummer, but now we know for next time. Yes, we are already planning our next trip back. Not sure when this will happen, but we already have a list of things we need to hit :)



Our last stop of the day was The Old Post Office


where we took one last view of DC from up high


How neat is this view of the rooftops of these apartment/condo buildings?



It was cool to see The National Cathedral off in the distance since we had just been there an hour before


And we were done. It was back to the hotel to pick up our bags



and one last ride on the Metro that was good to us most of the time




and that's THE END!

Now do you see why my feet needed a week to recover? I can't believe all we were able to do and how much fun we had cramming it all in together. We'd never done anything like this before and are both so grateful for the experience. My husband is the bomb for planning all of this (it took him weeks to plan our itinerary) and I was so grateful to go along for the ride. I love belonging to him and am grateful for the life we've created thus far together. Happy 10 years babe!

Thank you to my Mother in law, my folks and to Aaron for providing me this experience. I'll always remember it and if you couldn't tell, I had a really, really good time.