DC Trip!!!

Its been a while since I last blogged due to the fact that Trey and I just got back from a mini vacation in Washington, DC!!!! It was AMAZING! We flew out on my birthday, November 13th, and arrived around midnight, luggage-less. Lovely huh? We have the worst luck with luggage not arriving to our destination - this is the third time it has happened! So, we stayed at the Capital Hilton on Friday night and then moved to the Hilton Garden Inn on Sat - Wed. It was very nice and smack dab in the middle of downtown DC which was perfect. I got an unbelievable employee rate since I work for a Hilton hotel so that was definitely one of the main reasons we decided to go ahead and travel, sort of last minute, to DC.

Definitely one of our best vacations - filled with lots of history and yummy food - you can't beat that combo!

Saturday we ventured out into downtown while we waited on our luggage to arrive and we walked around...


You gotta LOVE these old buildings, I cannot imagine seeing them daily if you worked downtown...



Washington Monument...


World War II Memorial...

We met up with Kaitlin and Ray for dinner Sat night which was a definite treat because we haven't seen each other (other than our weddings but that does not really count) since Montreat in 10th grade!!! Kaitlin is my penpal of roughly 13 years and we still write letters to this day. I wrote all about our trip to Virginia for her Wedding in May. But this is the first time we have hung out and really talked, face to face, since Montreat church camp. I was a little nervous since it is very different to write letters every month or so for years, and never really have a conversation in person or on the phone. It went perfectly, of course! We didn't skip a beat, we all talked and laughed the entire dinner and had the best time. Our friendship is so amazing, for two people who live so far apart and only write letters for communication, I can honestly say we would still be dear friends if we lived closer to one another and hung out all the time. I am truly blessed to have her in my life!

We ate at a yummy restaurant - this is my salad...

Trey's soup appetizer...

My snapper...

Trey's lamb...

Since it was my Birthday the day before, Kaitlin mentioned that to our waiter and they brought me this YUMMY dessert!!!

The four of us! (dont know what look I am giving - ha!)

Kaitlin and I....

It was wonderful to see them and spend time together and I so appreciate them coming in town for the weekend to see us! :)

On Sunday, Trey and I made plans to eat lunch with Kristen Pryor, one of my friends from elementary school that I was super close to when she lived in LR. In early HS she moved with her family to Florida and we have tried to keep in touch through facebook, emails, etc through the years. I didn't realize she lived so close to DC (in Fairfax VA which is like 20 min away!)
We walked to lunch and went to this Fabulous mexican tapas place called Oyamel. On the way here is what we passed....

Doesn't this cheese shop look to die for???? I heart cheese!

The Restaurant..

I got this super delish drink called prickley pear juice - look at that Hot Pink color!!! It was made for me!!!!

The Guacamole was AMAZING!!!

We had churos for dessert which were rich - but tasty!!

Kristen and I....

After we had lunch, we went to visit the museums - we hit the Natural History, American History, and Art Smithsonian Museums - tons of walking but they were very neat.

A very cool silver tree that an artist created - way cool in person!

We got to see the Hope Diamond!!!

Gotta love those Teenage Mutant Turtles!!

Trey and I standing in line with the statues waiting for the train to come. Mine is a little blurry!

The back of the White House....

We got to take a tour of the Capital which was one of the highlites of the trip. Trey called our Rep and scheduled a tour with Vic Snyder's office and she was the sweetest thing - very knowledgeable and we learned a ton of information that we wouldn't have known if we had just done the self lead tour. Awesome experience!

This is the art winners from Arkansas - they hang the winners from every state on this very long wall where the people walk daily to get to their offices in the Capital. it was pretty neat.

Look at this Goregous chandlier!!!!

Great pretzal - love it!

Vietnam Memorial - it was so emotional seeing all those names.....

Lincoln Memorial

Our last day we went to the famous Ben's Chili Bowl which was DELISCIOUS!!!!!

It was WELL worth it and we even got to meet the little old lady that owns it - her husband, Ben, passed away a year or so ago, but her sons run the place and she was the sweetest thing ever!

We also went to the Holocaust Museum which was very emotional. We were there like 5 hours taking our time, it was very well done and we were glad we went.

We had such an awesome time in DC - would love to go back at some point to see all the museums and sites we didn't get to see. You just can't do it all in four days - but we sure tried!!

I heart vacations - always have, always will!