Washington DC - Part 1

Jimmy and I took a trip to DC to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary.  My parents were kind enough to keep Parker while we were gone, so it was just the two of us.  We flew out on Thursday morning and crammed in as much as possible for 3 1/2 days.  Unfortunately, it rained almost the whole time, but we tried to make the best of it.

We went to Arlington National Cemetery shortly after checking in to our hotel because it was near by.  Thursday and Friday evening were the two stretches of nice weather.

 JFK grave and eternal flame

 My family spent a day in DC in 1994 on our way home from my uncle's wedding in North Carolina.  We dug out pictures before leaving and tried to re-create them with Jimmy taking the place of my brother.  It was fun looking for the places pictures were taken.

We arrived at the tomb of the unknown soldier just as the changing of the guards are beginning

For dinner we went to a fun burger place called Good Stuff Eatery.  It is owned by Spike Mendelsohn from Top Chef.  The burgers were amazing and they had a huge dip bar for your fries.  The mango mayo was my favorite.

Our final stop on Thursday was the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial

 If you look closely, you can see the different stone color from where they had to rebuild the exterior

 A full description of the memorial can be found here.  I got a bit emotional when I saw the bench for Dana Falkenberg.  She was just 3 years old and was on the plane with her parents and older sister.  There were 5 children in total that died at the Pentagon.

 We woke up early Friday morning to hit the National Mall.  It was drizzly, but not too chilly.

View west towards the Washington Monument

View east towards the Capitol

We had the WWII Monument all to ourselves

From the top step of the Lincoln Monument

Lincoln Monument 

Another throwback at the Vietnam memorial.  Lee Napier was a man my great uncle knew, so my dad had us point to his name.  I kind of look like a boy in that top picture!

There is a huge sculpture of Einstein in front of the National Academy of Sciences, it was a must see for me!  We also ran into a group of high schoolers from MN here!  They were kind enough to take our picture.

Whew, picture overload, but, there is more to come.  Stay tuned for part 2!