Washington DC Trip

For those that know me well know I have a bit of an obsession with history. I LOVE IT! I minored in it in college and that fueled my passion. I also have huge crushes on George Washington and Abe Lincoln. When I die, they are two of the first people I want to meet! With this said, what better place to go on vacation then Washington DC?! I have wanted to go there for a very long time and this year I finally made it happen.
I went with my sister Sarah and friend Sara. We were able to stay with my cousin and his family which was great. It was fun getting to see them. We got around the city with a rental car and bikes rented from Capitol Bikeshare. For anyone going to DC, I would highly recommend these bikes! They saved our feet and were so much faster. There are several docks around the National Mall and surrounding area. You can hop on and off whenever you want, they were wonderful.

And they look cool too :)

I won't bore you with too many details (well, maybe a little) so here is what we did:

Day 1:

Our flight was at 7:40 in the morning and with the time change we arrived around 3. There wasn't time to do much that day. Plus, it was lightly raining which we hoped would stop. We got some fast food in a sketchy part of Maryland and started our trip off right with a session at the Washington DC temple. The temple was beautiful!

 After the temple we happened to pass the Washington Cathedral so we stopped by and looked at it. Unfortunately it was closed so we couldn't look inside but it was still cool. 

We then headed over to my cousins house, ate, and had a good time visiting and catching up with him and his family.

Day 2: We started off the day by visiting all of the monuments on the National Mall. 

FDR

 Martin Luther King Jr.

 WWII

 Lincoln

 Korean

 Vietnam

 Washington (scaffolding is because of the earthquake a couple of years ago)

 Jefferson

The Lincoln monument was of course my favorite! We also stopped by the White House, rode around on the bikes, and visited a few of the Smithsonians - American History and Natural History. My favorite exhibit was the Star Spangled Banner in the American History. It has the actual flag from the War of 1812 that inspired our National Anthem. I may have cried even :)

 We ate at Good Stuff Eatery and ended the day in the hot tub to rest our tired legs and feet.

Day 3: The day started out a little rough. I may or may not have had trouble backing out of the driveway and hurt the rental car and my cousins lawn :) It continued to get depressing as we spent almost 2 hours in the Holocaust Museum. It was very cool though and definitely makes you think about life. Things quickly picked up as we had a tour of the Capitol.

Next was the gorgeous Library of Congress, National Archives, Air and Space Museum, and dinner at Nando's Peri-Peri. 

By the end of the day our feet were even more tired so it was another night in the hot tub.

Day 4: We got to spend the first official day of summer in DC, doesn't get much better. We first went to Ford's theater (one of my highlights) and the house where Lincoln died. 

 We then spent 3 1/2 hours at Arlington Cemetery which was amazing. 

Next we met up with Sara's friend who lives in Arlington and got too see the Rockies play the Nationals! They lost but at least I got to see my Rocks play this year.

Day 5: This day was probably my favorite because we got to see Mount Vernon. Like I said, I love George Washington so seeing his estate was fabulous. 

After that, we headed into Alexandria to catch up with a friend then went into Old Town for dinner and ice cream. Our waiter gave us his phone number and my ice cream fell off of my cone onto the sidewalk (just like you see happen to little kids). It didn't stop me from eating it though! We headed back to the National Mall to take a nighttime ride to see our favorite monuments at night then called it a day.

 Day 6: We woke up to rain which means we timed everything perfectly. We arrived in the rain and left in the rain but the weather was nice in between. We couldn't have asked for anything better. We were absolutely exhausted by Sunday so we slept in and took our sweet time getting ready and packing up. We found a YSA sacrament meeting then headed to the airport. There, they found damage on the rental car that we didn't notice before but hopefully insurance will cover it. Our then 5 hour flight turned into nearly 9 when we were delayed for 4 hours on the ground for mechanical issues then bad weather. Note to self: Never take United out of Dulles again! We are talking sitting on the plane for 4 hours before ever taking off. Luckily they let us out for about 20 minutes to get food. We arrived back in Salt Lake at 12:40 am. We were supposed to be there at 8:40 :( We were tired but had an absolutely amazing time! It was a perfect trip and I would definitely go back.

As with any trip, not everything goes smoothly. This is what makes a trip memorable though and creates an adventure. Here are my not-so-good moments that I will always remember:

1. I realized while we were in the airport getting ready to leave on day 1 that I wasn't wearing a bra!

2. The incident with the rental car and the lawn

3. Getting an infamous "Miller Stomach Ache" in the middle of the National Mall when EVERYTHING was closed and barely making it to a restroom on time.

4. Rushing to get to the Capitol in time for our tour even though we ended up being perfectly on time.

5. Being disappointed with the size of the White House and the scaffolding on the Washington Monument.

6. The stupid plane on the way home.

Other than that, perfect trip!

Catch Up

School got out June 6 and since then life has been 10x more busy! I had one great day of rest and relaxation and have been going non stop ever since. Finally, things have calmed down and I'm looking forward to sleeping in, watching lots of movies, reading books, starting some tv shows, and exercising whenever I want. I have been looking forward to this for a long time and am glad I picked a profession that allows me to do so!
For those interested, I will play a little catch up and fill you in on the happenings of my life before blogging about my DC trip. The Friday after school got out was a wonderful day of rest which I hope I will have many more of coming up. The week right after work was very busy. I am starting to work on a health endorsement and had a health class for 5 hours Mon-Thurs. Overall the class was very helpful and will be a good resource for the future. It did however, have a lot of homework. Now I know why I am putting off grad school. It was so hard getting myself motivated to do it! Plus, my sister and I were moving the upcoming weekend so I had to balance tons of packing and cleaning with homework. We got to start moving in to the new place on the 16th so we began the moving process. Notice I said STARTED. We had that weekend to move some things over and then we went on vacation for 6 days. Although amazing, vacation can be very tiring and this trip was definitely that! When we came back, it was back to moving. Since Sarah had to work, I did lots of moving and cleaning by myself which was very difficult and tiring. Thankfully my parents came up for a week to help with that process. We did all the heavy moving and cleaning over 2 days. The rest of the week was spent unpacking and finally getting settled. We also had two apartments for 10 days which means paying two rents and never knowing where my stuff was. Add a couple of dentist appointments and lack of sleep in there and it all added up to a very stressful time. I was wondering if I'd ever get a break. I probably wasn't in the best of moods while my parents were here but I was extremely grateful for all of their help and support.
Now things have finally settled down. I am completely moved in and organized in the new apartment and it feels nice to be done. Bring on the REAL summer vacation!