A Weekend Away in DC

So this past weekend was a REALLY long but incredibly enjoyable weekend! Justin and I went to Washington DC with our friends Bonnie and Andrew from Houston. We all flew in on Thursday and drove to a hotel in some no name town in Maryland. The first thing we did on our trip was knock out the state highpoints for Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia.



This is a picture of us from Pennsylvania's highest point, Mt. Davis



This is at Backbone Mountain, Maryland's highest point



And finally, we made it to the highest point in West Virginia, Spruce Knob

After driving into DC, we dropped our bags at our hotel, which Justin picked out that was two blocks from the White House (not to mention that we didn't pay a dime for it! Gotta love it when your husband works all over the country and racks up on Hilton points). We changed clothes really quickly and then started walking around to see the monuments.



This is Justin and I in front of the White House



I love this picture of us :) We're in front of the Jefferson Memorial



Justin being his goofy self in front of the Jefferson Memorial

We literally walked all over DC that night. All of us were in so much pain the next day from being on our feet for so long, but naturally we were ready to do it all over again the next day! So we got the next morning and headed to the National Archives so that I could see the Declaration of Independence along with the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights and Magna Carta. I highly suggest for visitor's of DC to go to the National Archives building. Apparently it is not as frequently visited as some other places in DC, but there is SO much history there!



Here she is, the Declaration herself! I am so embarrassed to say this, but I seriously got slightly emotional when I saw it. And Bonnie said she got emotional too. Don't get me wrong, I by no means shed any tears or anything, it was just so amazing to be standing only inches away from a document of such importance. AND....this document, along with the US Constitution was signed by not one, but TWO Morris'. Mr. Rob Morris signed directly to the right of John Hancock and Mr. Lewis Morris signed towards the bottom. I wonder if we're related ;) Justin kept referring to Lewis as "Uncle Lewis" all weekend. It was funny!



After leaving the National Archives, we headed to the Washington Monument for our 11AM tour at the top. It definitely had some spectacular views and the tour guides were awesome at giving the history behind the building. I learned a lot for sure!



After leaving the Washington Monument, we grabbed some lunch at the brand new Visitor Center at the Capitol building. The had several different lunch options so we didn't have to all eat the same thing which was nice. Of course that didn't matter because Bonnie and Andrew and I all ate chicken fingers and fries (I know you are all surprised) and Justin was the only one that ventured out and got some barbeque. When we got done eating lunch we went upstairs for our 1PM tour of the Capitol Building. That tour was probably my favorite. I learned so much about the building and its occupants! After our tour, we took the underground tunnel to the Library of Congress.



This is Justin and I at the Library of Congress. This building was by FAR my favorite! I cannot begin to explain the beauty of the ceilings and walls and paintings all over the place. It is seriously the most gorgeous inside of a building I have ever seen!

After spending the majority of the morning and afternoon making more stops around DC, we had to head back to the hotel to get ready for Dana and Ed's wedding (which was the whole reason we went to DC in the first place). I unfortunately never got a picture of the bride on her big day :( Dana and Ed are currently on their honeymoon in Maui, Hawaii, which is also where Justin and I went for 8 of our 10 days honeymoon.



Bonnie and I at the reception



This is Justin and I at their wedding reception. It was incredibly gorgeous and the food was excellent!

After leaving the reception we headed to a sports pub in Arlington, VA to meet up with my friend Jeff Murray, who lives in DC. He's a huge Auburn fan and Justin wanted to try to get in the last quarter of the Auburn/Tennessee game, so we headed to Crystal City Sports Bar, which apparently is the DC Auburn Alumni bar, to finish watching what was left of the game.



He's like a kid in a candy store! The next morning we hit up a couple of the different Smithsonian Museums. The Air and Space museum was Justin's favorite since he loves planes and plans to be a pilot one day.

It was an awesome weekend with great friends and we can't wait for our next trip with Bonnie and Andrew which will also have our other great friends Sam and Shelly Morris and Trevor and Tiffany Lobdell too! We're headed to Cozumel, Mexico on a cruise on October 22nd! To see more of our DC pictures click here. Also, on an unrelated note, our wedding announcement was put in the Over the Mountain Journal this month! Click here to see that.