Washington D.C. Day 2

The second day that we were in Washington D.C. Josh headed back to his conference and I went by myself to the National Gallery of Art. I have to be honest that is just how I like it with art museums. I love art and loved the prospect of having the whole day to stare (gaze sounds better, but dorkier) for as long as I wanted or as little as I wanted at anything I wanted. I took pictures of every painting that I loved, which was a lot of them. I am posting a few of my favorites.

This fountain was in the foyer of the museum. It was incredible and the flowers were so beautiful.

This picture is called "Old Woman Dozing over a Book," (does that surprise you?) by Nicholaes Maes. The pictures DO NOT do this painting justice. It was A.MA.ZING.

"Woman Holding a Balance," by Johannes Vermeer. Can you believe that I was looking at an ORIGINAL Vermeer.

Funny enough the last time I was here this was my favorite painting. I was so excited to see it again, and this time it didn't strike me in the same way. Okay call me strange, but I really feel like some art just aligns with your soul. They match up. I guess at the time my soul aligned with this painting. I still think it is beautiful though. The texture of all of the fruit was perfect and so life like.



Now this one on the other hand, i think I looked at forever! I love it! "Workman Before an Inn," by Isack Van Ostade. The detail was incredible.

There was a class there painting some of the artwork. Most of them were these way cute older people.

Okay people this is a DA VINCI. Yes an actual Leonardo Da Vinci. The color was indescribable. "Ginevra de' Benci".

It was mounted on a wall that had an open back that you could see the back of the painting also by Da Vinci. It was so surreal!

Okay this is a picture that I am sure you have all seen it is the actual painting that is the front of the dollar bill. It is amazing! By Gilbert Stuart.

I was in love with this one, although I think I edited it a little crazy. I wish this was up in my house!!! Maybe I could get a print because I NEED ONE! "A Quiet Day Near Manchester" by Alfred Thompson Bricher

"El Rio De Luz (River of Light)," by Frederic Edwin Church. Love it.

"Le Gourmet" by PABLO PICASSO. Can you believe I saw this and not only did I see it, but I took a picture of it. I was so worried that I couldn't take a picture, I guess since I couldn't take pictures of ANYTHING in London. I asked the guard if I could. He started laughing like I was asking the craziest question.

"Banks of the Seine, Vetheuil," by Claude Monet. I saw numerous Picassos and Monets. I was giddy in these galleries.

"The Olive Orchard," by Vincent Van Gogh. I LOVED this painting.

There were some wonderful sculptures and Asian pottery (not shown). "Little Dancer Age Fourteen-" by Edgar Degas. I love that there are cloth clothes on this sculpture. Breath taking.

After I was done with my 4 hours all to myself of serious bliss. I headed to The Corner Bakery for food (I once again opted out of eating and waited WAY too long). I passed the gigantic Capital Building. I love this angle. Can you see all of the police cars and armed guards with MACHINE GUNS. I don't know if I was more freaked out, or glad that I knew I was safe.

The Supreme Court. I was once again giddy with how ABSOLUTELY cool everything was !

This is the front of Union Station. When Josh came to visit me back in the day we were gong to lunch on Valentine's Day (we got engaged that night) and there were street vendors selling roses EVERYWHERE. Josh bought me some and a homeless guy that was close by started to talk to us, asking us lots of questions about our relationship. In the course of our conversation he found out it was Josh's birthday and on our way back from lunch he TORE (I mean like sprinted right at us) toward us and told us he wanted to sing "Happy Birthday" to Josh (I actually thought he was going to beat us up or something at first). He sang it good and loud and for Josh. Nice huh? A little disturbing, but nice.

Later that night I met Josh and we got some Starbucks hot chocolate. Their Salted Caramel hot chocolate is TO. DIE. FOR. They accidentally messed up my order (I like the white hot chocolate), and gave me their plain hot chocolate and it isn't really that good (no offense to you plain Starbucks hot chocolate lovers!), so sweet Josh traded me and let me share his yumminess and I drank the plain stuff too. It was so cold that we would get a lot of this stuff in the course of our 4 days.

And we bought some hats from a street vendor. I kept feeling like I was wearing an egg shell shaped hat on my head from looking out. I kept checking myself out in windows and mirrors. Anyone would have thought I LOVED my reflection, but I really just had to see if it looked as weird as it felt...maybe it did, but I liked it.

That night we headed to the Kennedy Center.

They have free performances at the Kennedy Center and I was so excited that they had one going when we got there, but it wasn't that great. So we just checked everything out.

Definitely a classy joint :) Oh how I ADORE Jackie Kennedy. You have no idea how many books I have on that woman (most of them fashion books).

To be honest the Kennedy Center didn't have that much to look at or listen to, so we decided to head. This was disappointing because we had to take a longer Metro ride (to the Foggy Bottoms stop, sorry but I thin that name is hilarious), and then a shuttle to get there.

Since we didn't have any other plans and I really wanted to visit the Pentagon City Mall since it too was one of my old hang outs. That sounds a little crazy that a mall would be a must see for me going back to D.C., but look at this place! It has EVERYTHING! So much fun.

We went shopping for a little while...oh how I love shopping.

And then we went to Johnny Rockets for dinner. Fun day!

Washington D.C. Day 1

One day in November or December, I forget, Josh came home from work with the exciting news that his boss had suggested he go to a conference in D.C.  He has wanted to go back to D.C. ever since the first time he went there 9 years ago (almost exactly), to ask me to marry him.  He was so excited and I was extremely jealous.  I also have a deep love of D.C. in my heart after living there doing an internship for Senator Bennett.  Well, sweet Josh quickly checked out our frequent flier miles and figured out how I come along!  We planned for me to fly in at the end of his conference and then spend a few days together!  I was so excited!!!!

Right after we got there we headed for the metro and I saw my old friend the fare card machine.  I used to see this guy a lot.  Yes everyone looked at me like I was CRAZY for taking a picture of him, but it has been way too long.

Yet another thoughtful thing Josh did (sorry if this is repetitive for some of you), was to book us a hotel just about right next to where my old apartment was in Crystal City, VA.  Every day we took the same metro stop I used to take 9 years ago.  We actually once saw the Utah State interns getting on the metro (as they had USU sweatshirts on).

This was our hotel room.  I have no idea why I always take a picture of our hotel room, I guess I don't want to forget any of the details. 

As I hadn't eaten anything all day I was about to faint with starvation.  I was too busy getting the last minute details ready for my sister Heather (thanks again Heath!), who was babysitting to eat breakfast and my flight left around lunch, but I figured I'd eat on the plane....huge mistake as they no longer offer meals for free on the plane and I could have paid for one, but I was too annoyed that I HAD to pay for it to want to do it.  So I ate two packages of pretzels and thought about how Delta was going to suffer without the $7 I would have paid for lunch.  Anyway, I was famished.  So after we dumped our bags in the hotel we took my beloved Metro to Union Station, this was the Metro stop I used to take to work (are you catching that this trip was all about memories?).  We ate at the Corner Bakery and I FELL IN LOVE with it.  I have been there before, but only for dessert (which wasn't my favorite), so when we ate there I was pleasantly surprised how delicious it was.  As D.C. is 2 hours ahead of Utah Josh was still working so he spent most of our meal as you see in the picture above, but it was fine as I just basked in the joy of being in D.C. and took pictures of every square inch that I could see.

And this is what I could see (and a lot of other pictures that I won't bore you with, but I LOVE looking through them.

This is inside Union Station.  One thing about D.C. that reminded me of London is how beautiful all of the architecture is.  EVERYTHING is beautiful from the ceilings to the light sockets (okay I have no idea if the light sockets are beautiful, but I bet they are). 

Also Union Station.  I spent many a moment in that Ann Taylor up there. 

Also Union Station.  There is a little Godiva Chocolate shop that is around here and 9 years ago when Josh came to visit he bought me chocolates there, and he did again on this trip.  It was so fun!

One happy girl.  I was giddy the whole time!

Even thought it was pretty cold, Josh was determined to see all of the old places we used to visit.  We went to the building I used to work at.  To the doors that I used to have to come down and pick up the flowers that Josh would sent me (he sent me some amazing flowers). 

Whoops this picture is out of order-this is outside Union Station.

This building is so much more enormous than you can believe.  Most of the time you just see the dome on top.  It is HUGE! 

And I think I took about 172 pictures of the Washington Monument.  The sky that night was pink and beautiful.  Another thing that was interesting is that there was a helicopter with a search light on it flying all around us.  They did this every night.  I am sure it is party of security. 

The WWII Memorial is new since I had lived there and it was so much fun to see.  There were some wonderful quotes all around it.  Seriously my patriotism was about to burst by the time we left D.C.  I love this place so much and it just made me love our wonderful country all that much more.

A blury pic of the inside of the WWII Memorial. 

The Lincoln Monument.  It is so much further away from Union Station than we remembered, but we were determined to send our little Lincoln a picture of it as he was thrilled we were going to see it. 

Once again the architecture was too amazing not to take pictures of. 

From the side of the Lincoln Memorial looking at the Washington Monument (I told you I went crazy). 

More pics of the beautiful pink sky, and the hot guy I got to spend the whole 4 days with (with the exception of the next day when he was at his conference).  It was so much fun!

The whole time we were there Josh kept saying "I could live here".  While I don't think that is going to happen any time soon, we both have such wonderful memories of this place.