Proud to be an American

In the beginning of May, we were lucky enough to get the chance to visit Washington DC for the first time. Adam had the opportunity to go to a work conference there and I got to tag along!

We were there for a long weekend and our itinerary included: seeing the monuments on the National Mall, visiting the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, touring Arlington National Cemetery, taking in a Washington Nationals baseball game, shopping in Georgetown and eating lots of great meals at good restaurants.

Of all the monuments on the National Mall, our favorite was the Lincoln Memorial. To us it was the most impressive. We also had a fun time browsing some interesting pieces of American history at the Smithsonian like: Benjamin Franklin's walking stick, Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves and Kermit the Frog. They also had a whole exhibit on the dresses and jewelry of the first ladies and the White House china patterns that each picked out. I could have spent hours in there!

We also saw Thomas Jefferson’s bible and learned about how he painstakingly cut and paste together excerpts from the Gospels of the New Testament in Greek, Latin, French, and English. His aim was to tell a chronological version of Jesus’ life and he did not include parts of the bible that to him were “contrary to reason.” It was a fascinating piece of history I never knew existed.

Touring Arlington National Cemetery was a pretty humbling experience. It makes me proud that our country goes to such great lengths to honor those who have served in the military. It is a huge property and incredible to see the rows and rows of little white tombstones. The top hill of the cemetery overlooks all of Washington DC.

The cemetery has a pretty fascinating history in itself – the land was owned and lived on by George Washington’s grandson. After his death his daughter lived there with her husband, Robert E. Lee, until the property was overtaken by Union soldiers. During and after the Civil War it was a settlement for freed slaves.

My favorite moments of the trip were spent with our dear friends, Stacy and Zach. They just moved from Philadelphia to DC, so we had fun checking out their new digs and neighborhood. They had us over for a little fiesta for Cinco de Mayo and we also shared some great dinners. Stacy was my partner in crime shopping in Georgetown and sampling different cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake. We got eight (yes, eight!) different kinds of cupcakes to try because they all looked so good! Don’t worry, we didn’t eat them all in one sitting. We miss Stacy and Zach so much and really cherished our time together in DC. My only regret from the trip was that I didn’t take any pictures with people in them! I’m hoping to get a few from Stacy. 

We were in DC for about five days which was the longest both Adam and I had been away from Wynn and although we missed him so much, we really enjoyed the little getaway for just the two of us! We almost forgot what it was like to sleep in, eat meals where you actually have the time to savor the food and have uninterrupted conversations. Wynn stayed with my parents and was so well cared for! He had a fun time with them going to Gopher baseball games. A post on that will follow!