D.C. Trip

Michael had a healthcare conference in D.C. last week and it worked out for me to be able to join him for a night! We haven't had a night to ourselves in over 2 years, so it was really overdue! Michael's mom kept the boys and my parents watched over the dog's and took the boys to their soccer and baseball games.

I headed to the airport Friday morning. There was terrible traffic, rain and a concrete spill so I was a little afraid I would miss my flight. But, luckily my plane was delayed about 30 minutes so it all worked out wonderfully!

I arrived in D.C. and dropped my bags in the room and we headed over to P.O.V.  It is known for it's wonderful views overlooking the White House. We had both skipped lunch, so we just had a couple appetizers and drinks to hold us over for dinner.

It was a GORGEOUS day, so after appetizers we decided to do a little touring. As we were walking from P.O.V. to the Washington monument we see a few policeman start to run out into the middle of the street and a large crowd. In an attempt to avoid the large crowd, we start to go the opposite way down the street. A secret service man starts yelling and screaming at us to turn around and run fast. Michael and I are a little confused but go the way he tells us and then try to get farther away from what is happening. A helicopter lands about 200 feet from us and then begins searching from above. We headed up to the Washington Monument which was a little farther away from all the action. We definitely knew something was going on. Later when we arrived back at the hotel the story was all over the news. We figured out that we were only a couple blocks away when a shooting happened. Here is a little clip of the news story:

"Shortly after 3 p.m., an armed man approached an outer perimeter checkpoint for the White House on E Street near 17th Street in Northwest D.C. Secret Service Uniformed Division Officers gave “numerous verbal commands” to the man, telling him to drop the weapon, but when he failed to comply, he was shot once by a Secret Service agent."

Since we were in D.C. for such a short amount of time, we didn't plan an official touring group. We really wanted to do the Segway tour, but it didn't work out this time. We walked to a lot of the monuments and had fun just strolling around for a couple hours.

Washington Monument

We made a quick stop by the Jefferson, FDR, Korean War Memorial and MLK Jr. Memorials. It was such a gorgeous day and we had a lot of fun walking around.

We made a VERY brief stop by the Lincoln Memorial. We were running out of time and it was SO crowded. We tried to take a picture, but the sun was strong in our eyes, so this was the best we could do.

We headed back for the hotel to make our dinner reservations. However, since there was a shooting an hour earlier, every single road to get back to the hotel was completely shut down. We ended up walking an extra 2 miles all the way around the closed roads just to get back to the hotel. Michael and I were really hurting by the time we got back to the hotel. We hadn't planned to walk that much so we were both in very uncomfortable shoes! I think my feet are still hurting! We also had to push back our dinner reservations.

We changed and headed out for dinner. We went to a steakhouse nearby called BLT Steak. We were both very unimpressed with our steaks and both didn't even eat much of them. We decided to skip dessert at the restaurant and head to a chocolate bar, Co Co Sala. We both had after dinner drinks and an amazing chocolate dessert.

On our way back to the hotel we passed by the White House

We slept in on Saturday morning and then headed to Boqueria for their bottomless brunch. It is a Spanish restaurant and I have to admit that I was a little intimidated by the menu. But, I saw awesome reviews so we decided to try it out. This place was AMAZING! There is a limit of 2.5 hours for the brunch. Michael and I kind of laughed and thought that there was no way that we would stay at a restaurant for 2.5 hours for brunch. Well they practically had to kick us out when our time was up. I highly recommend it!! The brunch is a set price and is all you can eat and drink. You check off whatever options you would like to order and they continuously bring you food. We were stuffed! I liked every single item that we tried. The drinks were also very delicious! 

After brunch, we had a couple more hours before we needed to leave for the airport. It was drizzling, but not very hard so we decided to walk around for a little while and see some more of the sights. 

We walked past the White House

Then headed to the World War II Memorial

We also spent some time in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. We headed back to the Lincoln Memorial since we didn't get to really enjoy it the day before. By this time it had really started raining, so everyone had taken cover out of the rain inside the Lincoln Memorial, so it was packed to the brim and very loud.

Then we were off to the airport! It was a really fun, but quick trip. I would love to bring the boys back and do a couple of tours and be able to take our time at the memorials because it is always so amazing to see!

Meanwhile the boys seemed to have a blast at Nana's house. It was raining for most of the time, but the rain did let up for them to be able to go outside and ride in the corvettes for a little bit!

Peyton is definitely my little life of the party