Weekend Round up in Washington D.C.

Brant and I got back last night from visiting friends that are now living in D.C. I hadn't been there since I was a toddler- it was so neat!

Here's how it went:

Saturday around 3:35 pm ET - arrive at Ronald Regan airport. Brant's long time friend Phil and his wife Megan picked us up at the airport and we got started right away. First stop- The National Air and Space Museum.

As you can imagine, there was tons and tons of history about flying, airplanes, spaceshuttles, etc. here. Since we had just over an hour to spend there before it closed, we had fun taking in as much as we could. Obivoulsly, Brant was a great fountain of knowledge here and I think he named every single airplane we saw and gave histories on the space shuttles and missiles.

Amelia Earheart's original red plane

While at the museum, we met up with Dustinn and Val and their sweet baby Bradshaw (more long-time friends of Brant). After the musuem closed, we had dinner at Potbelly that night and had fun chatting and playing catch with with everyone. It got late quickly so it was planning and to bed to be ready for the next day's activities.

Sunday we we up and out early to catch church with Dustinn & Val that started at 8:30am. It's such a small world- wouldn't you know it- we ran into Nate and Amy Langley! Nate and Amy were once in our branch here in Utah (and lived in the apartment acorss from ours for a short bit) but now living in the D.C. area going to law school. So fun to see old friends.

After church we headed back to Dustinn and Val's for a quick nap and pizza lunch (thanks again guys), and then we headed out to see the monuments. Thanks to Val who so kept offering to take pictures of us- she was definately patient with us (me) as she played photographer with us wanting to get cool photos of everything. It was a gorgeous day- the clouds definately added character to everything. My mom is going to like this picture of the Washington Memorial since she's got a picture of my brother, sister and I in front of this monument almost 25 years ago (mom- if you send me that sweet pic, I'll put it up on here).

If your familiar with the D.C. area, you'll know that we got around to everything pretty easy on their public transportation (aka The Metro).

After passing by the white house (first picture of the post) we headed to see more. Such a pretty memorial to Ambraham Lincoln.

Yep- 100% certified dorks here :) By the way, does this shot below remind anyone of anything? Perhaps the Hawaii temple...?

Afterwards, it was back to Phil and Megan's place for all the friends to meet up for some excellent cooked beef/ Cafe Rio typle dinner courtesy of the Coplens.

It was getting pretty late afterwards, so we settled for a trip to the Jefferson Memorial. It's kind of hard to tell, but can you see Jefferson here between the columns? This is actually the back view of the memorial.

Then it was back to Phil and Megan's place for the night and planning for Monday Morning festivities- a tour of the Pentagon!

Can you believe that Dustinn has a sweet job at the Pentagon?? There are 23,000 people that work in that building (that's a small city!) and Dustinn was super nice to take time away from his desk to take us on our own personal tour. It was very high security- we both had to show two forms of ID at the gate and then check-in with the security inside who took down our social security numbers, took photos, and made visitor passes out of them (too bad they wouldn't let me keep it as a souvenir). Unfortunately, no photography is allowed on Pentagon property.... with the exception of this mock podium when you first walk in- which was ok since it was a neat little place.

After a good bit of time spent at the Pentagon, Dustin ended the tour outside with the 9/11 Memorial. These benches represent each person that lost their lives in the attack. It was super interesting to learn about this memorial- each bench was facing one of two directions. If it was facing the pentagon (east I think), it was a person who lost their live that worked in the Pentagon.

If the bench was facing west (?) or the direction of the sky, it was a person who lost their life as a passenger on the flight. It's hard to see, but individual names are engraved on the end of each bench.

Thanks for a super neat tour, Dustinn!

The last photo of the trip in front of the Capital (Brant was a good sport whenever I asked him to be in my pictures). This was about the same time frame that votes on the $700 billion bail out bill was being voted on.

Thanks for being fantastic hosts to Dustinn & Val and Phil & Meggan- we had an awesome time!