Washington, D.C.

We took a little vacation out to our nation's capital, which resulted in a bit of a break from the old blog. So there will be plenty of posts this week to catch up =)

Last year we took a fun trip to West Palm Beach, FL, and because we had terrible luck with our flight getting out of StL (as in the flight crew decided not to show up so we missed our connection and were stuck in ATL for 11 hours) we got a pair of free round trip flights to try to make up for it. At the time we thought it was a pretty good deal, but after booking our trip and not paying for the flights, we were all the more pleased with how things worked out.

We have terrible luck in airports the ATL airport. In the last two year we have gone on three trips, that all had connections there, and all but one of the flights have gotten messed up or delayed. There was the fiasco discussed above. Over Memorial Day we went to see our friends the Vieux's out in Charleston and when we landed in ATL, our flight was canceled. No explanation just said canceled. We finally made it there, but still. So when our flight left on time from StL, we were excited but leery of what would occur once we got there.  Everything appeared fine and we were on the runway (waiting, which even when your flight in on time, you seem to do a lot of there) and the captain came on and told us there were severe thunderstorms so we wouldn't be taking off for a bit. Which turned into us going back to the gate, and actually getting off the plane. Yep, they unboarded the plane. Not a good sign. We finally got to D.C. about 3 1/2 hours late to learn from my cousin (who lives about three miles from the airport) that it hadn't rained at all. Regardless, we made it and that's what counts!

Our trip was fantastic. It was so neat to see D.C. and spend time with the Mr. away from work and reality. We went out to visit my cousin and his new wife and really did have such a blast. I don't think I have ever been so touristy in my entire life, but what else are you going to do in D.C. I suppose. We averaged walking about eight miles a day, so we were nice and worn out by the end of the trip and took a four day weekend to rest and recuperate before heading back to work today.

And now for a nice little photo gallery of our trip, enjoy!

 day one: White House

 day two: Air and Space (my Dad was on the project that built this one!)

 view of the courtyard at the National Portrait Gallery

day three: WWII Memorial, 4,048 stars each representing 100 American casualties

 Lincoln Memorial

U.S. Capitol

day four: The Hope Diamond

 Mary Lincoln's dress

Arlington National Cemetery

Tomb of the Unknown Soilders

I couldn't get over the size of everything. I knew things like the Capitol would be huge, but I wasn't expecting the museums to be so big that spending four hours in them felt like we had barely scratched the surface. 

Such a fun trip (another big thanks to Will and Jasenka)! I hope we can go back again and explore some more!

keep it simple.