Friday came and my sister who was 8 days overdue (who happens to live 2 1/2 hours away from Washington D.C.) had her baby that morning. BASICALLY, after seeing a picture of that little nugget I was ready to hop on a plane and head to Virginia. So after playing phone tag with my younger sister, husband, mom, and everybody else and their mom, Spence and I decided to buy tickets to leave for D.C. that day at 7:55 p.m. We booked our flights and car rental around 1 p.m. on Friday and Spence booked the hotel. At about 4:30 p.m. my younger sister came to pick us up and drove us to the airport. Unfortunately with crazy weather delays our gate changed and flight times kept getting pushed back. To make a long story short we missed our flight (crazy story!) and ended up getting a flight for the following day around noon. I was pretty bummed because it was cutting our already short trip, even shorter!! A guy (who missed the same flight) was in front of us in the customer service line and told us to just show up at the earliest flight to D.C. the next day, which was 7 a.m. He said it was very possible that a few seats might open up and they'd be able to put us on standby and hopefully squeeze us on. Without hesitation we decided that we were going show up and hope to get on that 7 a.m. flight.
Everybody boarded the flight and about 10 minutes before the plane took off they put us in the two empty seats, towards the front, sitting right next to each other! They said, "This never happens!" We were so entirely blessed the entire rest of the trip. Spencer and I swear that there was a reason we didn't make that first flight. The hotel, car and flight change of plans worked out WAY too smoothly to think otherwise. Even though it was super frustrating at the time we definitely chose to be grateful for that trial!
We landed in D.C. at about 10 a.m. We went and picked up our rental car and headed to the hotel. Of course our room wasn't ready (like we expected) but we were at least able to drop off our suitcases so they weren't sitting out in the car while we were out exploring. We walked down the street our hotel was on and found a little place to eat lunch.
Afterwards it was late enough that our hotel room was ready. We went to the hotel and after some drama with our room we got situated, freshened up and headed to Arlington National Cemetery as quick as possible.We made it just in time for the last bus tour around the Cemetery! I have been to Washington D.C. once before with my family and we made it just in time for that last tour around the Cemetery also. Needless to say I always feel rushed when I go visit Arlington, but that's o.k. because honestly I feel like I see everything I would like to see. That includes the changing of the guards. If you have not done this, it's a MUST in D.C. There is a type of respect and reverence here that you don't experience very often anywhere else.
He's so handsome!!
John F. Kennedy's tomb:
Washington Monument in the back:
The Amphitheater:
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier-it is dedicated to American service men and women who have died without their remains being identified.
The changing of the guards-From April-September 30 the guards change every 30 minutes and October 1st-March 31st the guards change every hour. Once the Cemetery closes to the public the guards will change every 2 hours. Pretty amazing! Check out this article here. This was during hurricane Sandy.
Afterwards we decided we were going to go to Georgetown Cupcakes. I used to watch D.C. Cupcakes on TV all the time so I was so excited to finally get to test taste them and see if they were REALLY that good!
They handed menus out at the door:
Of course we knew we would have to stand in a line to get inside the store to get us some cupcakes. It was probably about 8p.m. once we made it to the shop and got in line. I think it only took us about 35-45 minutes to get all the way through the line and in to the store!! Not bad at all! I've heard it's been A LOT worse. We made the wait worth it by ordering a dozen cupcakes. : )
My dream KitchenAid mixer:
Where the baking happens!!
Happiness!!!
Everything inside was just so pretty; Pink boxes, a sparkly KitchenAid mixer, freshly cut pink flowers. I was in heaven! Now you know the way to my heart! ; )
2 peanut butter fudge, 2 salted caramel, 2 banana split, 1 chocolate ganache, 1 mint chocolate chip, 1 key lime, 1 vanilla, 1 chocolate birthday, and 1 metropolitan. We knew we would be headed to see my new born nephew the next morning and wanted to bring cupcakes for them to try also!
We tried the peanut butter fudge cupcake right there outside of the shop. It was seriously so good! It was my favorite out of all of the cupcakes we got. Spence cut it in half with one of his pocket knives. It was so moist and delicious. After cupcakes we walked down the little shopping village and found a Chipotle to eat at for dinner.
After dinner we drove around and found more monuments to visit. We found the Franklin D. Roosevelt National Monument. It was dark outside but it was actually really fun to visit in the dark. There was still a good amount of people there.
Taste testing a couple of cupcakes that night:
Banana split-super moist and such a yummy fresh banana flavoring in the cake part of the cupcake. With the icing, peanuts and chocolate on top it tasted JUST like a banana split. It was kind of crazy actually!
Salted caramel-really good also! I loved the simplicity of it. Not too much, not too little.
Next part of the trip coming soon!
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