A weekend in D.C.

About a month ago Drew and I took a mini vacation to D.C. We had such a great time. Drew's roommate from college, Jeff and his wife Megan live in Virginia, opened up their home for us to come and visit. We had a great time getting to catch up and see D.C. and Virginia. We flew out of Dallas early Friday morning and got into D.C. around 1pm.

The first place we headed was Arlington National Cemetery. It was such a somber experience seeing all the men and women who have fallen for our freedom.

While at the cemetery we saw the tomb of the unknown soldier and we got to see the changing of the guard. Such an amazing tradition.

Robert E. Lee's house is on the property of the cemetery. It was interesting to learn the history of the home. During the Civil war, Lee left his home and the Union army took over his property and they turned it into a grave site. He moved back home after the war, but he couldn't stay there because it was a grave site. So from then on it has been property of the government and became a cemetery.

After leaving the cemetery we briefly headed over to Iwo Jima. It was freezing cold and there was an out door wedding being held as we saw the monument.

Saturday morning we headed out to D.C. to concur the National Mall. We started with the capitol and ended at the Vietnam Wall.

We took a tour of the capitol, the dome is so beautiful, what looks like carvings of people around the dome is actually a painting. It looked like a carving not a painting. While we were there I kept thinking that the Texas Capitol is 14 feet taller...I'm proud to be a Texan!

We got done with our capitol tour and high tailed it to the opposite side of the mall to the Washington Monument. We got done with our tour at 12:30 and had tickets to go up in the monument at 1. I had shin splints for the rest of the weekend.

So we hurried over to the monument only to wait in line for about half an hour before we could go up, but we enjoyed the rest.

The view of the National Mall from the top of the Washington Monument.

We walked passed the White House after leaving the monument on our way to lunch. We were starving after all that walking.

After lunch we headed back to the Washington Monument area and went to see all the war memorials. We saw the World War II memorial, and walked passed the reflecting pool (unfortunately it was in the process of being drained, so it didn't look that pretty).

We headed over to the Lincoln Memorial...

and then onto the Vietnam Wall.

We finished the day by heading to the D.C. Aggie Club to watch the Aggies Beat the hell outta Kansas...that was a neat experience. We did the War Hymn at half time and all the natives from D.C. were looking at us funny. But you know the saying, "From the outside looking in you can't understand it, and from the inside looking out you can't explain it."

Sunday we had a Virginia day and headed over to Mount Vernon. I can see why George Washington called it home, the property was absolutely beautiful.
Jeff, Megan, Me, and Drew...I think our only picture of the four of us together.

I enjoyed the beautiful fall scenery on the property.

We had such a great time and would definitely love to go back...maybe during the cherry blossom festivals!