On April 17, I ran away to Washington, D.C. I'd had the itch since I found out that my roommate Tali was engaged and planned to get married in D.C. I planned to be there! Then, she and her fiance decided to get married in Utah, but I still wanted to go to D.C. Since I was going to be her wedding photographer, I flew out to take her engagement photos. Let's be honest though...the engagements were really an excuse to get out of Dodge and re-group!
Heading out, I took a red-eye flight with a layover in Orlando. Brian and the kids were able to drop me off at the airport just before the kids had to go to bed, and I had a couple of hours at the airport to just read. It was amazing! Just before it was time to board for our 10 p.m. flight, I went into the bathroom to take out my contacts, wash my face, and get ready for bed. When I came out, I saw some familiar faces:
The Odoms are in our ward and are our good friends! Their daughter is our favorite babysitter, so I had to take a picture to send to our kiddos.
They were heading to Orlando for some fun, and I was happy to know that I had a group to make sure I woke up to get off the plane and over to my next flight. Here I am, all optimistic that I would be able to sleep on the flight:
Yeah, I didn't sleep well. I slept slightly better on the flight from Orlando to D.C., but I'm really not good at sleeping in a sitting position. I landed to a beautiful morning in D.C. Here you can see the Washington Monument out the window.
My mom works remotely in Idaho for a company based out of Silver Spring, MD. She regularly heads out to the D.C. area for work, and she planned a work trip at the same time as my trip so that we could hang out together. I stayed with her in her hotel. After getting my bag, I took a taxi to her hotel in Silver Spring. She took me up to our room, presented me with a sleeping mask and some ear plugs, gave me a key, told me about breakfast, and then headed across the street to go to work. I got breakfast and went to bed!
Meanwhile, back at home, I wanted to give updates to my kiddos, so I would send Brian a message, he'd print it, and put the message in their mailbox for me, along with some candy.
Brian was so awesome to work from home and handle two jobs(his and mine!) while I was gone.
After a nap, I went to tour my mom's D.C. office, which was temporary, but I got to meet a lot of her co-workers and her boss. I walked down the street to a mall and bought a swimming suit, since I forgot to bring one. We went out to dinner with her boss that night. It was a fairly boring day, but it was relaxing, which was really needed.
The next day, I was on my own again until my mom got off work. I tried to get some work done on my photography stuff. I watched some of my class videos. I wandered out for some Ethiopian food, which was pretty tasty.
After my mom got off work, we took the metro into D.C. Public transportation makes this country-raised girl nervous, so I waited until I had my veteran mom show me the ropes.
We met up with Tali at a mall, and she drove us out to the National Harbor. We ate a delicious dinner at a restaurant right on the Potomac.
They had this funny statue of a mostly buried man, so naturally I had to try to reenact it!
We all rode the Capital Wheel, which I was hoping would be like the London Eye where we'd be able to get a bird's eye view of the city and the monuments.
It wasn't. It was more like an enclosed ferris wheel. It was still fun though,
Even though it made my mom and I a little nervous.
At the shopping area near the harbor, there was this Peeps shop. I had to take a picture by this car for Brian. His roommates liked to blow up Peeps in their microwave.
We drove through Alexandria and stopped by T.C. Williams High.
Tali took us all the way back to Silver Spring, and I put my camera in her car so that she could bring it to our engagement shoot the next evening. This saved us from having to make a trip up to Silver Spring in the middle of our D.C. tour day.
The next day, Friday, we headed to the metro again and rode it into D.C. We had a tour set up to see the Capitol Building, so we headed to Rep. Mia Love's office.
Her aid took us through tunnels and security and all around the Capitol Building. It was amazing! If you ever have plans to go to D.C., be sure to set up a tour with your representative!
The architecture, the murals, the history!! It was amazing!
I think this is the original senate chambers, but I don't remember! It's been too long.
We had a pass to see the House Gallery. We weren't allowed to take cameras or any electronics with us. The security to get in there was pretty intense. The events of 9-11 changed a lot of things, including the tours in Washington, D.C.
Each state has 2 statues in the Capitol building. Utah has a statue of Brigham Young and Milo Farnsworth (I think). Here we are with Brigham Young.
And Idaho's statue of this guy. We'd never heard of him.
A few weeks before our trip, Michael told us about a president who had shots fired at him and then proceeded to attack his shooter with a cane. We'd never heard this story, so we asked Google about it. We learned that Andrew Jackson was the first sitting president to have an assassination attempt directed at him. In1835, Andrew Jackson was leaving through the East Portico of the Capitol Building after a funeral of a representative from South Carolina, a man aimed a pistol at Jackson, which then misfired. The man pulled out a second pistol, aimed it at the president, and this pistol too misfired. Jackson, the war veteran, attacked the man named Richard Lawrence with his cane. This is that portico where the first assassination attempt occurred:
And here's the statue of Andrew Jackson:
After our Capitol tour, we took 4 metro lines to cross a couple of streets (you live and learn) to catch our Duck Tour. Actually, I think we missed our original duck tour and switched to one a half hour later. We grabbed some lunch at Union Station, and then took our Duck Tour. It was a ton of fun!
Our Duck went into the Potomac and our tour guide/driver took us right to the bottom of the runway at the Reagan International Airport, and a plane took off right over our heads. It was pretty cool! We went past Arlington and saw most of the monuments and learned about more of the history of the nation's capital.
We visited the Air and Space Museum and wished that I had my kids with me. Michael would have loved to see all the planes there, including this Hindenburg model:
This guy stopped us and gave us these hats for free...asking for a donation to his cause. I didn't love his tactics, but my mom gave him a donation, and we were special agents for the rest of the night!
We walked over to the Jefferson Memorial and bought a really terrible dinner at one of the many concession stands they have around the mall. Tali and Eric met us there, and I took their engagement pictures.
My camera ran out of battery because I couldn't double check my battery situation the night before. I think Eric was really relieved!
When I was pregnant with Rachel, Brian and I came to D.C., and Tali played tourist with us. We took a picture together at this statue, so we had to reenact it.
Here's the picture from 2012:
Tali and Eric dropped us off at the Metro station, and we rode it back to Silver Spring. We ordered pizza and salad to be delivered to our room, and it took FOREVER to get there and it was cold by the time it arrived. Such a disappointment!
The next morning, we checked out of our hotel and took a taxi to the airport. We picked up a rental car there and drove down to Mt. Vernon. It was a beautiful day. Here we are outside Washington's tomb:
I loved touring the home. We got to see the key to the Bastille. It's at Mt. Vernon.
We also got to meet Martha and George on the Veranda.
And we saw another beautiful view of the Potomac.
All too soon, it was time to go home. We had arranged to fly back to Salt Lake together. We watched the same movies, syncing our screens so that they were playing at the exact same time.
We parted ways in Salt Lake, and Brian and the kids came to pick me up. It was good to get away, but also good to come home. Thanks, Mom and Brian for a great trip!
No comments:
Post a Comment