DC Day #1

Happy Birthday Jen!

Last year for Jen's birthday Emmy and I planned a surprise trip to Charleston. This year, for her 26th birthday, Jen decided that she wanted to celebrate it by going to Washington DC for the Cherry Blossom Festival. She had 5 days off of work at the beginning of this week, so we decided to have an early birthday celebration! At first, Jen ONLY wanted to go to see the Cherry Blossoms and wasn't really into going to any of the Smithsonians. Well folks, this past weekend turned Jen into a semi-history buff. She went into 4 Smithsonians!

We woke up at 5:30 Saturday morning and were on our way to DC! We arrived in Arlington, VA around 11:00 and met Collin [Justin's best friend] at his apartment. Justin and Collin walked us to the metro station, helped us get our passes and told us how to get into the city. We had fun riding the metro and were excited for our trip to begin. We started off by going to the Capitol Building and having our first photo shoot of the day.

Yeah Gorillapod!

Is the Capitol Building a Big Deal? -Jen

Excited to celebrate her birthday!

After the Capitol, we walked along the mall and saw part of the Cherry Blossom parade. We were going to go to one of Spike's restaurants (from Top Chef) but were not hungry yet. We decided to go check out the National Archives. In the National Archives, we saw the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights. We then hit up the gift shop where I got a copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution (just in case I teach 5th grade some day!)

Stealing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution

After the National Archives, we made our way to our 2nd Smithsonian- the National Museum of Natural Science. We checked out the orchid exhibit, saw the Hope Diamond, other pretty impressive jewels, gems and jewelry.

Orchid Exhibit

Hope Diamond

Look at those Jewels!

Next was Smithsonian #3- the Smithsonian of American History. In here, we saw dresses that First Ladies wore to the Inaugural Ball, Abraham Lincoln's top hat and Julia Child's kitchen.

Julia Child's Kitchen!

After three Smithsonians we were a little museum-ed out. We had a photo shoot with the Washington Monument and then made our way over to the Tidal Basin and Jefferson Memorial to see the "cherry blossoms." Unfortunately, DC was hit with some storms and basically all the cherry blossoms were gone :( We did manage to find a few trees with all their blooms still on. Justin and Collin picked us up near the Tidal Basin and we were on our way to the National Harbor!


We drove to the National Harbor in Maryland to check out the Peep store! Yep, you heard right- a whole store dedicated to PEEPS! We had fun taking pictures, seeing all the peep apparel and of course, eating the sugary-marshmallow goodness.




Justin and Collin then drove us to our hotel in Old Town Alexandria. Jen and I freshened up and started walking through Old Town to find a place to eat. We ended up eating at a cute French Bistro. Jen got a Filet Mignon while I tried Beef Bourguignon. On our walk home we stopped off at Whole Foods and got some little desserts. We snuggled into our beds, ate dessert, watched My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding and were out by 9:00pm!!

End Day #1!