I had no idea...

There are certain experiences in life that you just can't pass up.

A trip out to the Nation's Capitol is one of them.

Cord was sent out to D.C. for training, so we decided to make a little vacation out of it.

Eva offered to watch our kids (Nice right?) so I could go out.

I talked Mom and Cindee into helping a bit as well. 

It is nice to have such great family to step in and help out.  I love them!

I slept over at Cindee's house on Wednesday night so she could take me 

to the airport nice and early.   (Cord was already out there.)

I was flying 'stand-by' and the numbers weren't looking very good.

So, I wasn't totally surprised to find out that the flight was full and I was stuck 

at the airport with no other good options for getting out of town.

EEK!  I called Cindee, she jumped on her computer and found a one-way ticket on 

another airline for me to purchase.  After we booked it, she came and picked me up, we ate some breakfast and then she took me back to the airport so I could jump on my new flight!

Yeah, for Cindee!

I was so excited to be on my way.

Cord had a nice little "Welcome to D.C. display" on the table when we got back to the hotel.

It was very thoughtful of him.  I think he was excited to have company!

 

Here is our hotel.  It was in a place called Alexandria.

This part of the city is called "Old Town."

It is absolutely beautiful.

Friday Cord had class during the day so I was on my own.

I didn't waste any time!

The view out of our hotel window was of this amazing old cemetary.

I wanted to check it out. 

It had been raining during the night, but the skies cleared and it was a beautiful day.

Perfect for wandering through a graveyard.

 

 

 

This is the view from the cemetary looking back to our hotel.

A lot of the graves were from the 1800's. 

I got the chills the moment I stepped onto the sacred ground.

It was at this time that I knew--

I had no idea how magical this historical place could be.

I had been excited about our trip, but I didn't realize just how special of a place it truly was.

I was in for a very patriotic weekend.

 

After wandering around for an hour or so along the graves,

I headed over to a place called "King Street."

It was just a block from our hotel.

It is a few miles long and it reminded me of a mix between 25th Street and Park City.

There were countless fun shops and restaurants.

It was extremely well taken care of.

No garbage, clean streets, maintained gardens.  It is a beautiful spot.

 

My friend Kim lives only a few miles away from Alexandria, and we were able to meet for lunch.

Lucky right?  We found a nice little seafood resturant on King Street down by the river.

We ate and chatted for a few hours.  It was so fun to see her!

It was a bit windy by the water...

That evening, Cord and I went exploring.

It was quite romantic walking through the tree-lit streets with my hubby.

After checking out countless restaurants, we decided on this little brick oven style Italian place.

We patted ourselves on the back for our excellent selection.

The food was amazing.

We ordered a pizza and they accidentally brought us the wrong one.

So, we ended up with two delicious pies.

Lucky! 

 

We stayed up late watching a movie and chatting.

Living the good life...

Saturday was our big downtown D.C. day!

We hit the ground running and didn't stop until it was dark.

We both had on our 'step counters.'

We walked over 30,000 steps and 13.14 miles!

I was worn out!

What we were able to see was worth every step though.

We had a little mix-up at the metro station--

(Cord got on the train and I didn't! I watched him drive down the track without me!)

We did get back together soon, and were able to make it into the city without any more complications...  :)

We got off the metro at the National Archives.

There were some people walking into this little door on the side of the building.

We decided to see what they were up to.

And...we happend upon the Declaration of Independence!

The good thing about visiting in January, is that there aren't any lines.

We walked right up to view all of the founding documents.

Talk about breathtaking.  

Real life signatures.  Actual pen marks.  Words on the page that changed history.  

Wow.  What a way to start the day!

Next, we examined quite a bit of artwork in the National Art Museum.

Cord took care of the wildlife in the Museum of Natural History.

We saw all kind of cool animals, dinosaurs, butterflies, and of course jewelry and precious stones. 

Like this little beauty: The Hope Diamond

The Capitol Building was magnificent! 

We got to sneak in with a tour group and had a guided tour of the place.

It was so amazing to stand in the place where men fought to abolish slavery and create equal rights for women.  The people in the history books are real.  They were in that building.  

And I got to be there too.

It was pretty special.

 

 

We got to go to take a quick side trip to Hawaii,

or so it seemed, as we toured the Atrium.

 

 

We saw the Washington Monument.

It is such an icon for the city.

You can just look to it as a point of reference.  I think that is part of it's beauty.

It is like a mountain, a single fixture grouding the nation and pointing heavenward.

We walked over to the Lincoln Memorial.

It was a popular place!  What a man he was.

 

On our way over to the White House, we discovered this:

Those are all names of people who died in the Vietnam War.

There were far too many names on that wall.  Far too many.

 Pretty powerful.

We had to do a bit of navigation to find the White House.

It is 'right there' but still kind of hidden!

They say that 1600 Pennsylvania Ave is the most well known address in America.

We didn't see the Pres, but we did see some tough guys walking around with machine guns.

It was starting to get dark and I was getting a bit chilly, so we called it a day.

What a day it was!

(We visiting quite a few other museums and such as well, but I can't put ALL the pictures on my blog.  Believe me, I tried...he he he)

We ate left over pizza for dinner.  :)

Sunday we started off at Arlington National Cemetery. 

This is another touching and powerful piece of ground.

Headstone after headstone makes you realize how many soldigers die serving our country.

I kept telling Cord, "Picture if these markers were people standing on this grass." 

Visualizing real people makes it so much more personal, and powerful.

 

We spent some time at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

They say this tomb is guarded 24 hours a day 365 days a year.

We were there for the 'changing of the guard' ceremony.

It was very patriotic!

 

Around the corner is this giant amphitheater. 

They really don't mess around when they build things in D.C.

Everything is so big and elaborate.  So much detail...

The ceilings are always beautiful.  Maybe that is their way of remembering to look up.

 

Speaking about looking up, the silloutte of Thomas Jefferson is behind me in this picture.

(We headed over to his memorial after our time at the cemetery.)

Mr. Jefferson was a man who spoke of God, believed in God, and gave credit to God for the greatness of this country.

Sometimes I wonder why there is so much talk about taking religon out of the government--

considering it was based on religion.  Crazy!

 

 This little toy car was our transportation for the trip.

When Cord picked me up from the airport, I laughed for about ten minutes 

about how tiny it was.  

I felt like I was in a little micro machine. 

When they say 'compact' they mean 'compact!'

 

We picked up my friend Kim and headed out to George Washington's estate, Mt. Vernon.

 

We got to tour the house and watch some videos about the man.

He really was something.  Very humble and brave.

Here is his tomb.  It was crazy to think he was right there. 

The first president of the United States!

It was a beautiful spot, right along the Potomac River.

Cord and I drove into the city that night and had a nice dinner.

It was fun to get in a little bit of the night life feel of the place.

I was highly impressed with D.C. overall. 
I was sad to see the day end and to say goodbye to Cord!  

Boo to goodbyes!

I ended up having a 12 hour layover on my flight home on Monday.

Another great thing about flying standby eh?  :)

So, I decided to make the most of it and ventured into New York City all by myself!

EEK!

This was my first time in New York.  Luckily I sat by a little 'angel' on the flight in,

and she offered to help me maneuver into town on the train and subway.

I would have been a bit of a mess without her!

I walked through Central Park.

 

Strolled along Fifth Avenue and did a bit of window shopping.

I stopped by Rockefeller Center...

 

Walked through Time Square and along Broadway.

I ate lunch at a resturant here at Time Square.

It was one of the only times I have said, "Table for one please."

It worked out just great.  

I got to warm up and play on my ipad while my feet got a break from walking!

I ended my little journey at Grand Central Station.

It was quite the place!  I met the nicest Information Specialist guy who

helped me figure out how to get back to the airport.

He got out of his booth to walk me across the street to the shuttle station.

I think I was being watched over from above!

It was such an adventurous way to spend my time between flights.

I feel so lucky to have discovered so many new places this past week.

What fun!

Really, I had no idea how amazing this little trip was going to be.

I loved every minute.

(Except for the minute when there was a spooky homeless guy standing right next to me at the stop light in NYC. That was kind of creepy.  We were alone, and he was way too close for comfort! EEK!)