DC and the "Blizzard of '09"

Beware: Picture overload! I could not edit my pictures for this trip, it was too hard to choose, so I don't expect you to look at every picture, I am posting this for my own sake. Anyway, for our anniversary we decided to take one last big trip before baby #3 comes along. So we decided on Washington DC, probably our favorite place! It was a lot of fun, we have both been there twice so we got to see a lot of different things this time and we got to experience the huge blizzard, that the news there was calling "The Blizzard of '09", which we thought was pretty funny. One thing we learned, DC does not handle snow. The whole enitre city shut down for 2 days, including: all museums, buses, taxis, all above ground metro stops, and all restaurants! I mean no one was out or driving or anything. None of the roads or sidewalks were plowed so we were basically on our own. But it was a really fin experience and we still got to see almost everything we wanted.

The first day, before the snow hit. Of course we got the typical "tourist picture" of the white house

Our favorite stop this trip was Fords Theatre. I learned so much about the Lincoln assassination and we got to see a lot of official artifacts, including the actual gun that Booth shot Lincoln with.
Here is a shot of the box that Lincoln was sitting in. Booth snuck in and shot Lincoln and then jumped from this box. I never realized it was such a high jump and right in front of the whole audience who did nothing at the time. No one even realized that Lincoln got shot until a few seconds too late. Booth was already gone.

I know, I know pretty lame shot! This is the closest we got to the memorial. We didn't really walk the whole mall this time or even walk down to Lincoln. It was too far, and a little too cold.

A shot of the mall before the snow. It started snowing soon after this shot was taken.

The next morning! It really did snow a lot in a short period of time. We were one of the few that braved the snow and the walking in snow up to our knees at times! It was a little crazy but a lot of fun as well. We went to the capitol early in the morning because it was the ONLY thing open in the whole city. We decided to take a tour of the inside so we sat down with a group of people to watch the introduction video before you take the tour. As soon as the video was over the tour guide announced that we would not be able to take the tour because they were shutting down the capitol and everyone needed to leave. We were so bummed! But we happened to be the last two out of the theater and as everyone was filing out a different tour guide stopped Andy and I and secretly said she was giving the last tour of the day and to follow her. So we ended up getting a private tour of the capitol, it was us and about ten other people, and the rest of the capitol was empty! It was really neat.

Inside the capitol rotunda. It was so beautiful and grand. There was not way to get a picture to do it justice.

Heading down the marble staircase. Everything truly was incredible inside. She said that everything that looks like gold, is gold, and there was a lot of it!

Andy posing with Brigham Young. Each state has two statues, our other statue is Philo T. Farnsworth, the founder of Television (yippe)! We also got to see Congress in session, it was pretty dull actually, they were reading the health care bill, and none of the senators were there. After we left the capitol, we just hung in our hotel the rest of the day and ate in the hotel restaurant (luckily there was one). The same waitress actually served us lunch and dinner, how often does that happen?

The next day everything was basically still closed so we hit the movie theater. Here is Andy anxiously awaiting, Avatar in 3D, which he hated with a passion (just ask him)! But I talked him into movie number 2, which was The Blind Side, and we both loved that. We also hit my favorite restaurant in DC which is Potbelly, the yummiest sandwich shop, and I had been waiting to go there every day and it was just as good as I remembered it!

Me and Potbelly, I had to get a picture of it.

I love this picture! After the movies we got off the metro a couple of blocks before our hotel and just walked around the city. It was a lot of fun because no one was out and it was really quiet and peaceful.

On our last day we took the metro out to Alexandria, VA to see the Geroge Washington Masonic Memorial (anyone read The Lost Symbol lately)? It was actually a little dissapointing because I thought it would be open to look inside, but apparently it's closed in the winter (thanks for not putting that in your book, Dan Brown)! Anyway we still took the many, many flights of stairs to the very top. It was neat to see off in the distance, the landmarks in DC.

We also hit all of the remaining Smithsonians. I wanted to see Julia Childs kitchen, which was fun to see. Here I am striking a pose with Julia.

I also wanted to see the George Washington Zeus statue (to learn more about this see, The Lost Symbol). It was really neat to see in person.

Walking around the mall, we noticed tons of snowmen. There were even people having snowball fights and we noticed people sledding down the hill at the capitol! It was really fun to experience snow in DC.

On the last night I made Andy walk up to the capitol so we could get a few night shots. Our hotel was actually about two blocks from the capitol, so it was a lot of fun to be that close.

This Christmas Tree was right in front of the capitol. Every year a different state donates a tree. This was from Arizona (way to go Katie). It was a lot of fun being there around Christmas time. Sorry the picture is blurry.

This last picture is of the Union Station ceiling. Our first night in DC we ate inside of Union Station and we were in awe about how huge and grand the ceiling is. It was really fun to eat under the ceiling.

And that's that! Congrats to whoever made it this far. Also thanks to my cousin Amber and my mom for helping with the kids.

Also a little side note, Austin had his Christmas preschool program while we were gone and Grandma Baugh came and that's all he could talk about, so thanks mom Cathy for coming, Austin loved it!