Recently Blake and I were able to travel to Washington D.C. basically free of cost. The National APTA (Physical Therapy) Conference was just south of D.C. in Maryland so my company basically paid for half of our trip. We were able to go a few days early and stay in Washington D.C. to see all the historical sights. Blake being a history buff was very excited about this and had never been before...at least not at an age where he can remember :) Blake had a free southwest flight to use before July so all in all it was a perfect week long vacation. Not so lucky for us was the record high temps and humidity, but none the less here are some pictures to high-light our vacation!
The first day we spend the morning and some of the afternoon wondering around to see all the monuments. The first pic of course is the Lincoln Memorial...major bummer was they are renovating the reflection pool so pictures in the opposite direction were not so pretty. The second picture is from the new WWII memorial...very cool!
We also had the pleasure of having several tours arranged for us by Gabrielle Giffords staff. We took tours of the Capital, Library of Congress, Pentagon, and White House. We don't have any pictures from the Pentagon tour as we were not allowed to take any pictures, so we did not bring our cameras. We also don't have any pictures of the White House because on this tour we could not even bring a purse or camera...only our wallets, car keys, and cell phones although we were not allowed to take our cell phones out of our pockets. Below are pictures of the Library of Congress and Captial.
Our hotel in the D.C. are was in the Dupont Circle area, which is not far from Georgetown University Area. We went to this area one night after dinner. That is where the following picture in from. The area is also home to the Swedish Embassy, which we saw and did not go in or anything as they were having a private party.
We enjoyed several good eateries while in D.C. Including Ben's Chili Bowl where we met up with one of my friends from High School. We also packed in a trip to Arlington National Cemetery and The Air and Space Museum. Thank goodness for a great metro system!
Half-way through our trip we moved our vacation down to National Harbor, Maryland. A Small community that basically caters to conventions. It is full of hotels, shopping, and dining. We stayed at The Westin across the street from The Gaylord, where the conference was. Very convenient! Below are some pics from that area.
Finally, while down in Maryland we were able to venture over to Manassas, VA where Blake was born and lived until he was two years old! Below is a picture of his first home. We also drove over to the battleground of Bull Run, we didn't stay long as there was a threatening storm and we had about an hour drive back to the hotel!
Let the planning begin for our next big trip :)
So being in Washington D.C. I have been thinking I will need to blog a little bit about the trip etc. but I have yet to blog about my Birthday Weekend Extravaganza. So we are a little belated as it was May 22. But if I get this posted then after we return from D.C. I can blog a little about our trip and all the exciting things we experienced. So we started the birthday weekend with a trip to the Reid Park Zoo. Neither of us had been since college and I love zoos and animals, especially monkeys. So as you can imagine we spent about 20 minutes at least watching the monkeys...they were swinging EVERYWHERE...they were super entertaining! It was hard to get a picture honestly due to how active they were, very surprising! We did get some nice pictures with the Giraffe....
I then enjoyed an absolutely gorgeous afternoon relaxing on my new raft (courtesy of my wonderful husband....great gift!) The pool is so refreshing and I look forward to many, many more summer days in and by the pool!
My wonderful parents gave us an outdoor accent table to go with our lounge chairs, a perfect addition to our backyard! Thanks mom and dad!!
In addition, my in-laws gave me a new outdoor umbrella....perfect for our bricked patio area...it provides an extra amount of much needed shade from the western setting sun!! Thanks Bart and Patty!!
Finally, to top of the birthday weekend we had family dinner with my in-laws at a fabulous Italian Restaurant near our house called Piazza Gavi's! I definitely recommend this restaurant for dinner, but they also have an unbelievable breakfast for not very high prices!! Take notice of the flowers Rachael bought me...not ice cream, but flowers :)
Thanks everyone for helping me celebrate another great year! I look forward to what is to come! And I promise I will post Washington D.C. quicker than this massive delay!
