Wonderful Weekend in DC

This past weekend I ventured to DC to site see with my friend Jessica!

I left on Friday morning and drove the 8 hrs all by myself! I was pretty proud considering I normally have narcolepsy when I drive. It was perfect weather with no snow or rain…and I got to cross 3 states off my US Map of places I have visited. Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland.

The first day I spent that night at the Ake’s home and hung out with them. Jaime and I went shopping at Home Goods and I scored on some cute white plates for my plate wall. I will have another post on that. Here is precious little Emerson who is perfect and growing soo big... I don't even remember him this small anymore

Saturday I picked up Jessica and her mom from the airport… well after a lot of confusion. I arrived at the Baltimore airport to pick Jessica up. I was on the phone with her asking her what baggage claim she was at. She kept telling me that she was at baggage claim 4. I was at baggage claim 4 and not a soul was around. Finally she asked me what airport I was at… that’s when I thought to myself OH CRAP! Turns out she was at the DC airport which was 60 miles away.

So I head to the next airport, which took me 55 min to get to, and pick up Jessica. Her Mom missed her flight and would be coming in a few hours later. So we just drive around to find something to eat and finally gave up when there was only 20 min left until her Moms plan landed.

We get mom, we get Jess and we head to the hotel… get checked in and eat dinner then go to bed.

Sunday: we wake up early and buy tickets for a 2 day pass on the trolley which takes us all around DC.

First stop, White House! Did you know the president doesn't live in the White House? Well according to the tour guide, he doesn't. Where does he live then?

Next stop, National Archives and home of the original Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

It was pretty cool seeing documents from 1787 that are so important to the United States

Next we went to Arlington Cemetery. This place was amazing to me. There are white headstones for miles and miles. 624 miles to be exact.

Arlington Cemetery is a military cemetery that was established during the American Civil War in 1864.

Over 290,000 Veterans and military casualties from every one of the nation's wars are interred in the cemetery, from the American Revolution through the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pre-Civil War dead were reinterred after 1900.

Kennedy grave site

The switching of the guards at the Tombs of the Unknown Soldiers

For dinner, we took a short drive to Riva, MD which sits on part of the Chesapeake Bay. We sat on a deck overlooking the ocean and had the best clam chowder and crab cakes!

That night, we toured the monument at night. They were even better at night time.

Here is the Lincoln Memorial

Here is the Washington Monument. If you look closely, you can see it is 2 different colors. That is because when they started building it in 1848 they only got about 1/3 of the way done before the funds ran out. After almost 30 years the monument was finally completed but at that time, they couldn't find the same stone that was used for the first half. So now we have a multi colored Washington Monument

Monday we started our day out on the trolley again and went to the Washington National Cathedral. It took over 83 years to build and is the 2nd largest cathedral in the US.

Woodrow Wilson and his wife, Edith, are buried there as well as Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan.

We stopped and shopped in Georgetown and ate lunch

The headed over to Fords Theater, where President Lincoln was assassinated.

On April 14, 1865 Mr. Lincoln was shot in the back of the head in that red balcony box

After being shot, the fatally wounded President was carried across the street to the Peterson house, where he died the next morning in this bedroom.

We took a tour of our nations capital and learned of lot of history about the building. It was built in 1793 and the dome on top of the capital is made of solid steal and then painted to resemble stone. The capital was partially burned by the British in the War of 1812 but was rebuilt.

The person on top of the dome is lady Freedom. She stands at 19.5 ft tall. She is the tallest statue in DC and out of respect for Freedom, no human statue can be taller then her.

We topped the day off with a quick trip to the Museum of National History, or also known as the bones and stones museum.

We saw bones of dinosaurs and all different kinds of animals and even some bones of people too.

Another reason for going there was to see one of the biggest diamonds in the world, the Hope Diamond, at just 45.5 carats. It's a honker!!

We tried to see as mush as we could in the 2 days we had and from sun up to sun down we were on the run, and I mean that literally... Our feet hurt so bad and im positive we walked at least 5 miles a day!

The whole trip was great and I had a blast hanging out with friends. I don't do that mush here in Ohio... Next year Jessica and I plan to go back again around the same time so we can finish off our list of things to see.