The trip to Washington, DC was wonderful. It was a much-needed vacation in the midst of a lot of stress and craziness. The last time I had a true *vacation* was probably when I visited Heather last year.
Jess and I arrived Thursday, on time. We met Greg for dinner, which was fun. Always good to see Greg. We ate at a brewery near the Capitol, then walked down the mall a bit and met my parents at the Capitol Steps for the Navy band. 'Twas fun.
Friday was the sight seeing day. The fam and I went to the Building Museum, where we saw exhibits on concrete, the Disney Concert Hall in LA (can't wait to see that in preson!), and more. The building itself was breathtaking, with columns that were probably 70 or 80 feet high! Beautiful. Afterwards, we headed to the Spy Museum, which itself was very cool. It went through the history of spying, showing techniques, equipment, and famous spies and their stories. Very neat. Definitely to be recommended if anyone is headed out that way. Then we grabbed lunch, took a little rest at the fountain in the Sculpture Garden, saw the World War II Memorial (very cool), and walked. A lot.
Friday night, we grabbed a quick dinner of snacks in the hotel, and then tried to make our way to Georgetown for "drinks after the rehearsal dinner" for the wedding. Man, the traffic is... unlike anything I have seen! We also wanted to drive by the memorials at night, but after crossing the bridge to Arlington Cemetary four times (everything seemed to dump us out on that bridge!), managing to drive past the Jefferson and WWII memorials, and getting stuck in yet more traffic, we gave up and tried to make our way BACK to Georgetown. Gosh. Traffic... it sucks. But! We met up with the wedding crew, which was nice. Had some drinks, chatted a bit, and then headed home about midnight. We missed our road (nothing, nothing is marked), and Dad decided to just try this new way. Well, after crossing the river, the road took a sudden turn back southward, and with NO side streets or places at all to turn around, took us right back to Georgetown! And all the traffic! AHHHHHH!!! We finally did manage to find the hotel.... after hours and hours and HOURS in the car.
Saturday was a slow morning. We got up, had breakfast, and got ready for the wedding. We the schedule said to catch the bus at 1:15; however, our info was wrong, and we were actually supposed to catch it at 2. But... 2:00 came and went... no bus. 2:15, 2:25... there were probably 25 or 30 people waiting for the bus. Phone calls were made. The bus would be there. 2:30. The church is a half hour away, and the wedding starts at 3. 2:40, we gave up and drove. Fast. Everyone was scrambling for rides, but they held the ceremony and we made it! WHEW!
The wedding was beautiful. Gorgeous. Completely wonderful. They wrote their own vows, and that had us all in tears. Everything was perfect. The buses DID show up to take the crew to the country club for the reception... too bad we had our car there at that point! The club, too, was gorgeous. My mom kept telling me to keep notes on how to throw the perfect wedding. Everything was perfectly orchestrated, for the entire weekend! Nearly everyone was from out of town, and it was choreographed perfectly from event to event. They had a mother-daughter dance in addition to the usual ones, and that was really sweet. And afterwards, they put sparklers in the lawn to make a pathway out to the limo, and it was so pretty in the dark with the sparklers! Very cool.
Sunday morning was the brunch, also very nice. After the brunch, Dad and Jess dropped Mom and me off at our next hotel, and headed off to Baltimore to fly home. Mom and I were staying at the Radisson Barcelo in Dupont Circle. Location was fabulous (close to any sort of public transport you could want, right on Embassy Row, near Georgetown AND the center of DC), but the hotel was not. We had an enormous room, which was quite nice, but we didn't want to walk on the carpet without shoes on. We were next door to a smoking room, so could smell smoke. The bathroom was very clean, but the carpet... gross. And the restaurant had the worst, most expensive breakfast buffet known to man. Don't stay there.
Anyway. After we checked in, we took a stroll down Embassy Row and looked at all the embassies(? Is that how you spell that?). We also took a tour of Pres. Wilson's home, which was surprisingly extremely cool! In the evening, we went to the Kennedy Center to see The Producers. Excellent show. It is an equal opportunity offender. No group is sacred. No matter who you are, you WILL be made fun of in some form. But it was very good! It would be neat to see with Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane. Laughed a lot. Yay! Plus, the Kennedy Center is very cool in and of itself. Saw a free concert beforehand, by some summer youth groups, and they were amazing.
Monday was another ay of sight seeing. We started off the day at the Holocaust Museum. That was the single most powerful thing I have seen or done in as long as I can remember. My god. I was so close to tears at least a dozen times. Intense, powerful, moving... it is a MUST SEE if you are going to DC. It was so well done, it was amazing. I can't say enough about it!
After the Holocaust Museum, we went to the National Gallery of Art. I do love art museums! We saw the only Da Vinci in North America. My favorite exhibit, as always, is the Impressionists. Love them. They have such a neat history, too, the Impressionists. They also had some neat sculptures, some Rembrandts... Very cool place. Afterwards, we took another little rest at the Sculpture Garden fountain (best. fountain. ever), and then did some shopping at Union Station while we waited for Greg to get off work.
We tried to go to a Moroccan place for dinner, but they didn't take credit. Who doesn't take credit! Needless to say, we did not have $26 per person in cash. Would have been very cool. We went to an Irish pub instead, which was quite neat. Greg's roommate met up with us, and it was a nice dinner. Good times.
Then, back to the hotel. Tired!
Today, Tuesday, Mom and I went to the National Cathedral. Also breathtaking. We took a behind-the-scenes tour, which was so neat! They took us up into the towers, pointed out some of the intricate windows, showed us the attic space (surprisingly, very cool). We got to go out on the roof for a breathtaking view of Washington, got to see the massive stained glass windows at eye level. So, so cool.
And then we came home. We got in early, and that was that. A wonderful trip. The weather was gorgeous the entire time, which was wonderful! Perfect timing. Perfect. Yay! Great time spent with the Fam (even though two of them had to leave early) before I move.
And now, I pack...