I'm finally getting around to blogging about our most recent adventure! This past July, Aaron and I ventured to Washington, D.C. to explore and spend time with family. In February, my uncle passed away unexpectedly and since he served his country for over 20 years in the Air Force, he was going to have the honor of being buried in Arlington Cemetery. As soon as we knew when the funeral would be, we decided to make a trip out of it knowing my uncle wouldn't have it any other way!
We flew in on a Saturday and spent that first evening in Old Town Alexandria enjoying seafood and watching the fireworks with my parents, cousins, and their kids.
The next day, we had made plans to take the train from Union Station to Penn Station in Baltimore to see the Orioles play. As some of you may know, our goal is to make it to every baseball stadium and Camden Yards did not disappoint. In fact, it may be my favorite stadium so far and the food was delicious!
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| If you're ever at Camden Yards, you MUST try Boog's BBQ! |
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| Walking behind the outfield, they have medallions in the ground for all of the homers that have been hit and we Gordon's! |
On Monday, we took the metro to Mount Vernon. Little did we know that different sections of the metro were shut down for maintenance making the commute significantly longer. Add that to the wonderful D.C. heat and me being 20 some weeks pregnant and it made the day much less enjoyable than it could have been.
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| Unfortunately, they were doing some repairs but here is a view of the front of the house. |
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| President George Washington and Martha Washington's graves. |
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| The Potomac River |
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| The farm at Mount Vernon |
After walking around the grounds, we made our way back into D.C. and decided to visit the American History Museum.
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| Abe Lincoln's top hat. |
Later that evening, we ate at an awesome barbecue restaurant called Hill Country Barbecue and then walked over to see the White House.
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| The Washington Monument at sunset. |
My sister and her family arrived late Monday night and we had decided Tuesday would be the perfect day to go to the zoo. After seeing all kinds of animals, we went to Union Station to grab some lunch at Shake Shack and then made our way over to the Russell Senate Office for our scheduled Capitol tour. I highly recommend scheduling a tour with your state senator or representative if possible! We were the only five people in our tour compared to large groups of 20 or 30 people.
The funeral was scheduled for Wednesday, so we spent the day with family. While the circumstances surrounding why we were at Arlington Cemetery were less than ideal, I can honestly say the experience was one I will always remember. The service itself was held in the Fort Myer Old Post Chapel. Following the service, a horse-drawn caisson was used to transport the casket to the grave site. It was a beautiful and honorable ceremony.
Later that evening we dined at Old Ebbitt Grill and it was super tasty. The wait was long, but well worth it.
On Thursday, Aaron and I got up bright and early to see the monuments and then made our way to the Air and Space Museum. After learning all about planes and spaceships, we went to the Holocaust Museum for our scheduled time. I had been the Holocaust museum on past trips to D.C. and found it to be very informative. However, after having been over to Germany and seeing two concentration camps in person, I didn't feel as if I got much out of it. It probably didn't help that they pack you in like sardines making it difficult to read the information posted and see certain exhibits.
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| Lincoln Monument |
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| Vietnam Memorial |
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| Korean War Memorial |
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| World War II Memorial |
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| A little chocolate ice cream never hurt anyone right?! |
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| Loved spending time with this sweet girl and her mom and dad. |
Friday was our last full day in the capital city. We went back to Arlington Cemetery and bought the tickets to hop on and hop off the tram at various sites (highly recommend this!). After our tram ride, we made our way back to the National Mall to visit the Natural History Museum before heading back to our hotel room to rest up for our next baseball game at Nationals Park.
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| JFK's gravesite |
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| The nurses in war memorial. |
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| Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
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It was a wonderful week, despite the heat, spent with family and full of lots of history and education!
