We got up Saturday morning (not as early as we wanted) and headed for the metro. We were your classic tourists asking people questions all day and checking out our map.We fit right in haha. The first building we saw when we got off the metro was this building with awesome lights and awesome gates. So we obviously had to take a picture.
DC is beautiful but one thing that Garrett and I LOVED was all of the buildings and architecture. They are all so impressive and beautiful! Everywhere you look you see a new building that is equally as impressive.
We decided that our first stop would be to check out the monuments and things outside which worked out perfectly because it wasn't too crazy hot yet. We made our way up to the White House First. The White House is just one of those thing you have to see. We thought the back was very impressive! It was so crazy busy like you would expect. It was crazy to see all of the security they had and everything on top.
And then we made our way to the back! You can barely see the whole back of it because trees line the yard.
A little mexican lady took the picture of us below and we were quite impressed. When it is just the 2 of us we rely on the selfie stick, asking random people to take their picture so they will take ours and pray they don't run away with my nice camera, or just take pictures of each other. We did all of these multiple times.
Then we headed over to the Washington Monument. 1 word: HUGE. Oh, and Tall. I loved that you could always see it from wherever you were at.
One thing that was a bummer was that the maps LIE to you. They make it seem like everything is so close together. Well they aren't. I think we got our exercise in for a good few months. My legs were feeling it, that is for sure. But I can't complain too much because the whole weekend I was there it was the most perfect/beautiful weather! It felt so good to feel some heat.
World War II Memorial
After we went to the Korean and Vietnam Veteran's Memorial's and they were all super busy so I didn't take too many pictures. But walking around them and seeing all of the names and numbers of people you have died for this country was so so humbling. At the Korean Memorial it says on the the wall, "Freedom is not free" and oh is that so true. I am so thankful for the country that we live in and the freedom that we enjoy. We are so blessed.
*We did take a picture by this for Micah though. We are always so excited to
see anything that says Sweden*
Next up, the Lincoln Monument. It is MASSIVE! This was probably my favorite one although we didn't even get to go up and see Abe. As you will be able to see in the pictures there were tons, and I mean tons of bikers just sitting on the steps (for no reason) which made it very difficult to go up the steps. So we figured we would go back after checking out a few other things and they never left. So that will definitely be our first stop next time.
After we checked out most of the things outside that we wanted to, we were exhausted and ready to eat. We got some lunch and sat down for a while which felt good! After eating lunch we were going to check out a few museums. Our first stop was the National Museum of American History! The outside of most of these museums are so deceiving. They are HUGE! You could literally spend a whole day in each of them, but who has time for that! This museum was really cool and interesting and walked us through time which was cool!
After this one we ran over to the Holocaust Museum before it closed and we were very disappointed. I was so excited for it and then it was a let down. You apparently have to have tickets for pretty much all of the exhibits, which you can't get ahead of time. Kind of dumb. So we only got to see 2 exhibits and they were alright!
*Smithsonian Institution*
For the last museum of the day we went to the National Museum of Natural History. As soon as you walk in you see a huge elephant as seen below and we knew it was going to be good. Garrett was in heaven and had to check everything out!
This is the museum that Night at the Museum would be filmed in. It just has a ton of stuffed animals (not the soft ones). It was really quite interesting but by that point it was almost 6 and my knee was killing me so we didn't spend too much time in there. We headed for the metro thinking it would be quick and easy and we would be back in no time. We thought wrong. It took us TWO AND A HALF HOURS to get back to our hotel. We could have walked there in 45 minutes. We probably would have if I wasn't in pain. The metro would come and be SO full that we couldn't even step on. Thankfully we met some nice people along the way. So once we finally got back we cleaned up and headed to Red Lobster for my birthday dinner!
*Horrible quality but all we care about is the food*
We got there around 10 thinking we'd walk in and take a seat but we had like a 20 minute wait. The wait was worth it though. The food was delicious and exactly what we needed. Once we got back to the hotel I was showing Garrett the pictures from the day and after about the 3rd one he was passed out. You could say we were tired.
Sunday morning we got up and headed to Fairfax to go to church! We went to a family ward that Garrett has been attending and it was really good! Felt so good to be in church with him again. We meet some super sweet people who were so kind. I love that no matter where you are, the church is the same.
After church we headed to the Zoo. We love that many of the touristy things to do in DC are free! It was the perfect day (super hot) and we loved walking around. We didn't want to take the metro again after our experience the night before so we drove. But then we didn't want to pay $22 to use the parking garage so we parked about a mile away for free. We got about 100 feet away from the car and I made us go back so I could put my tennis shoes on.
*I am all about comfort*
The zoo is huge! The two favorites that we saw were:
It was the perfect day walking around holding hands, enjoying the weather, and just being together! Since it was so warm out a lot of the animals were sleeping or laying down so we didn't see as many as we would have liked but it was still so fun! After we were done we raced back to Fairfax because Garrett's friends were making us dinner for my birthday! They served stir-fry and rice with some lemonade! It was all so good! Then for dessert they made me a cake and we had ice cream! They bought candles and sang to me! So nice of them! It was so fun to spend time with them. They are quite the hilarious group. I was seriously laughing for like 2 hours straight. So thank you Ben, Tanner, Zach, and Connor for my birthday dinner!
Then I got to meet Garrett's roommates and then we had DQ ice cream cake with them! It was fun to finally put face with names and see where he is! On Monday before I left we slept in, checked out and then went and walked around the mall for awhile! We grabbed lunch and headed to the airport not knowing how long it would take us because of traffic and we got there super fast! So we hung out together until it was absolutely time for me to got through security. It never gets easier leaving this sweet boy of mine but I am so proud of him and how well he is doing. I am grateful to have him on my team to go through life with.
I always thought home was a place until I met him and realized it's a person... See you in 28.
