D.C.

On Saturday morning Jennifer and I headed up to D.C. to spend the day (and the night!). Our first stop was Arlington National Cemetery. It was inspiring and beautiful-- not at all how I feel about any other cemetery that I've ever been to. But at the same time it was so sad. So, so many people have died in defense of this country, and it makes me feel grateful and a little bit afraid at the same time.

The Eternal Flame-- the grave of J.F.K.

The tomb of the unknown soldier

I think this was my favorite part of the cemetery. The inscriptions reads "Here rests in honored glory an american soldier known but to God". There was a soldier guarding the tomb, and his routine was beautiful to watch, but mostly I felt good standing there and feeling the reassurance that we are each known to God and that he loves us no matter who we are.

From Arlington, we spent 35 minutes (at least!) trying to find the hotel. Unfortunately the street it was on was under construction so google maps and the GPS kept leading us astray. Finally Jennifer called the hotel and stayed on the phone with them describing all of our surroundings until they guided us there. Then we weren't about to drive again. We split the cost of the outrageous parking fee and walked or took buses from then on out.

Dumping the bags in the hotel room

Our first stop was Union station to find something to eat. It had a food court in it, so we both found something we liked. We were still pretty far from most of the monuments and wanted to see as much as we could in the time we had, so we got passes on a tour bus that would pick us up and drop us off at the main attractions.

On the bus

Holding the Washington Monument

Gorgeous!

Me and Honest Abe

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas!