Easter in DC

We woke up on Easter morning to some photos of Alex opening his Easter "basket" we sent down. It had about 5 pounds of candy in it. That's not a lie. (Admission: it started out with 6 pounds but it sat around our house waiting to be delivered a little too long.)

CANDY!

Check out my cool basket!

My sister found this "basket" online and had it personalized for the little guy. I thought that was pretty neat! I think he had a good Easter morning! (Note: I miss the old days of Easter egg hunts at Aunt Phyllis and Uncle Burr's house myself. I loved those days, Mom!)

My Easter love

It felt a little funny not to have a church to go to on Easter morning, but we still celebrated the risen Lord in our own way. We enjoyed seeing all of the families dressed up around town as we walked around seeing more sights. We had a quick lunch at a place called "Nando's PERi-PERi" which serves some of the best chicken we'd ever had. It was a real departure from our "normal" restaurants, but it was a pleasant surprise. I highly recommend giving on their restaurants a try if you're ever out East. Yum! 

We took the Metro into town to see Dupont Circle. I think we'd seen it before but I couldn't remember and I wanted to walk from there to see Embassy Row. It was all so quaint and neat. We just love D.C. and could not have asked for better weather. We wandered through a farmer's market. We sat at a coffee shop and people watched (OK, it was a Starbucks. Again. It was near Embassy Row, though, so it counts as a coffee shop and not just a strip mall place serving over-priced mochas!).  

This photo doesn't do the quaint neighborhood justice. At all. Loved it.

If this is not an American home, I don't know what is. LOVE!

Once we'd had our fill of exploring D.C. we headed back to the Pentagon to make the 1+ mile trek UPHILL, in the heat of the sun, to return to our hotel. (Note: It was a piece of cake this time. Amazing what the human body can adjust to! If I had to make that trek everyday I think my butt would look like J. Lo.'s.) Anyway, we hung at the hotel a bit and then opted to go back to Pentagon Row to sit in the sun and people watch. Our legs were about spent after walking more than 25 miles in 3 days. That is not an exaggeration. I wore a pedometer each day, friends. 

Our new friend, Susan. Yep. Susan.

We enjoyed the Pentagon Row area so much. They had comfortable places to sit in the sun and all kinds of restaurants to enjoy. We met a little dog, Susan (pictured above), and petted her while missing MacKenzie. (Note: I am shocked at how some parents take their children to a public place and just leave them to play. This one little kid was basically attacking Susan and poor Susan's owner was having a hard time straightening out some stranger's kid. You know the very same parents would have had a fit if little Susan got scared and bit their kid, but they were not stopping him from tormenting the poor dog. It just isn't right. End of nervous pet owner rant.) 

My happy place: nose in a book, sun on my back.

The outdoor sofas at Pentagon Row were amazing and I made myself right at home with the book "All You Could Ask For" by Mike Greenberg. Yes, Mike Greenberg of Mike & Mike in the morning on ESPN. I love that guy! (The book was so good that I could not put it down and read the whole thing that day. I highly recommend it for a quick, sweet read.) What does Jackson do when I lose myself in a book? He plays on his phone reading articles and such. He tries to talk to me and gets ignored. He walks around the area looking for places to have dinner. He tries to talk to more again and still gets ignored. He plays with random dogs. He asks at 5:00 when I'll be available to hang out again. I say 6:30. He sits quietly until 6:30 at which time he shouts about the bell ringing and challenges me to show little kids how to do cartwheels properly. I oblige him because he was so patient (except he really wasn't and I could hear him critiquing the kids' gymnastic abilities for hours while I read). Nothing makes an aging woman feel better than showing little kids how to flip themselves about properly. #NeverSlowDownNeverGrowOld

We grabbed a quick dinner and then headed to the hotel to meet up with Susie and head to the airport. It was such a nice and relaxing day that we didn't even complain too much when Susie made us get to the airport at 8:15 for our 10:00 p.m. flight. (I am so much more flexible when a good book has my full attention.) Our flight was an easy one. Jackson was so into his audio-book with his new headphones that he only bothered me two times the whole flight. It was a world record. (I've never loved my Mom more than I do now for buying him those headphones! I should have done that years ago!)

Our quick trip came to kind of a hilarious end when we got on the bus to our parking lot at midnight and realized that none of us remembered which shelter we needed to exit at the get to our vehicle. A helpful man on the bus pointed out how silly it was to park and not write down the aisle and shelter. I informed him that it was 5 a.m. Friday morning when we parked. I love helpful fellow travelers. ;) We eventually found Susie's car and got home and to bed by 1:30 this morning. Yes, we like to get everything that we can out of our trips away. No, we are not well-rested today. It was worth it, though, to spend some days people watching, sightseeing and reading in the sun!

Selfie Saturday in DC

We woke up to a gorgeous day on Saturday and set out to enjoy it by taking in some more sights. Our first stop as at Cosi for breakfast. Yes, Cosi again. Hush. I love that place. We ate out in the sunshine and loved life. Then we headed to the Capitol because we'd never spent much time in that area. 

Quite the building

I was struck by how pretty the building was. We don't make buildings like that anymore. 

"Holding up" Capitol Hill

Imagine my surprise when I looked over and saw Jackson taking a "selfie" in front of the Capitol building. 

"Let me take a selfie"

I went and "photo bombed" his "selfie"

Again.

As you can see the stairs are closed so this as close as on gets

I love this man!

Jackson won't let me get veneers. This photo proves I need them. STAT.

The other side of the building, less crowded and more beautiful

Once we finished being absolute tourists at the Capitol we headed over to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court

It was everything I always imagined it would be

Jackson running up to "knock on the door of justice"

This is me as close as I will ever come to fulfilling my childhood dream of being a Supreme Court Justice

We were amazed at all of the foreign tourists who really wanted their photo taken in front of the Supreme Court's door but had no idea what the Court really did. I kept threatening to educate them, but Jackson felt it was better that we move on. I agreed. I still love you, Chief Justice Roberts, even if you don't know what is and is not a tax (*cough* ACA *cough*). 

From there we strolled over to the Library of Congress. It was one of the more ornate, beautiful buildings we'd ever seen. Jackson, ever the gentleman, walked in and asked to take a self-guided tour to the men's restroom. This elicited a hearty laugh from the librarian. I admonished said librarian for "encouraging my husband's antics" and he just laughed again. Jackson wants everyone to know that the bathrooms were equally as fancy as the building. He's so helpful. 

The view from the bench where I waited for Jackson to complete his "self-guided tour"

"Do I look smart and stuff?"

You could quickly walk by the actual reading room where most of the research for legislation happens. It was a gorgeous room!

Not too many nerds present on a sunny Saturday

We spent some time after that at a coffee shop people watching (fine, it was a Starbucks! But it was in the Capitol Hill neighborhood which is amazing.) before heading back to the hotel to clean up for the anniversary party for which we came to town. I cannot quite figure out how Ben and Diane are related to Jackson's family because it is kind of convoluted, but I really like them! Ben is a former military guy who was actually born in Hartford City- small world! I often joke to Jackson that if Ben were about 55 years younger he'd have been my pick. ;) In all seriousness though, I cannot imagine having been married for 60 years! What a privilege to spend that much time with the one you love. (Note: Insert sappiness here- I don't think 60 years will be nearly long enough to spend with Jackson and I want many, many more!) Ben and Diane's sons put on a beautiful party on the 16th floor of a hotel looking over the city. The food was great and the company was even better. It was a lovely evening and I am glad we got to be a part of it. 

Jackson catching up with a cousin he had not seen in 10 years!

The Petefish family "mustache" you a question

Married 60 years and still dancing!!

Roaming around D.C.

Tax season is finally over and we are ready to hit the road. My mom got Jackson some Bose headphones for his birthday (early) and he was pretty excited. 

The top corner is him getting his present. The next one is him on the plane looking cute.  Next is Jackson enjoying some silence. The final photo is when he takes his headphones off and realizes how loud it is when he doesn't have his headphones on. Love it. 

After we got off our early morning flight we decided to go ahead and start seeing the sights in DC. We really wanted to see cherry blossoms but we had heard that they were no longer in season. That was kind of true. We did find one, though, and took advantage of having Susie with us to grab a photograph of the two of us. (We really need to travel with a photographer.)

None of us had been to the Jefferson Memorial so that was our next stop. 

It is seriously beautiful.

I was shocked at how huge his statue was.

We went below the memorial to go to the restrooms and Susie was escorted to the women's restroom by a lost pair of Japanese men. It was hilarious.

The view from the memorial is quite neat. 

It seemed to give Susie a bit of a headache though. ;) (How cool is it that she was willing to pose for this photo for me?! Bravo, Susie!)

We left the Jefferson Memorial and stumbled upon the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. This monument was so neat that I decided that Susie could take a normal picture with her baby boy. ;)

Isn't this water feature so cool? You see a little sign that says, "do not step on the rocks, coins hurt the fountains." We didn't see that sign until after we all made wishes with the coins I found in my purse.

Jackson's prom pose.

Jackson also greeted Eleanor Roosevelt.

The memorial had many of FDR's famous quotes, I liked a lot of them.

And of course his most famous quote of all, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

The above quote, however, is one of the best I have read. Ever.

As if being an awesome and very quotable President wasn't enough he also had a statue of his dog next to him at his memorial. #Winning. 

Just down the way from FDR's memorial was a memorial for Martin Luther King Jr. It was really large and was also flanked by some of his best quotes.

From there we walked down to the Korean War Memorial which was interesting. It depicts soldiers in the actual act of war and also has a wall with engraved photographs on it. Susie said it is very creepy at night and I believe her! The Lincoln Memorial is at the end of the reflection pond so we stop by to see it (again, we'd visited on prior trips I'm told). This was, by far, the most crowded memorial of the day as shown below in our photo.

Again with needing to travel with the photographer. (Minus Jackson with the funny eyes. Squint much?) We never get photos of the two of us!!

By this time we'd walked about 500 miles and we figured it was time to find lunch.

We found my favorite East Coast lunch spot, Cosi, and dug right in. (Big thank you to Jackson and Susie for bearing with me while we found said restaurant!) 

From there was time to go on our Pentagon tour. I was so excited to see the Pentagon. They had an official picture taking area where we were able to stand behind the podium and pretend to be important. (I'm just kidding about the pretend part, we are important.)

While some people tried to look stern behind the podium, I could not hide my excitement.

We had to wait for about an hour for our tour to begin in what felt like an airport. The tour was very fast and very structured. We were not allowed to stop and look at any displays nor were we allowed to get out of line. We had one soldier in front of us speaking and one soldier behind us making sure that everyone stayed where they were supposed to be. That was a little intense. The best part of the tour was by far getting to see the internal 9/11 memorial. We were amazed at the yellow hue to the room and were informed that all of the windows at the Pentagon are spy proof and cost $10,000 per pane. The tour covered 1.5 miles of the estimated 17.5 mile Pentagon campus. (That is just inside the building!) After the tour ended we went to the 9/11 memorial that is outside of the Pentagon. It is made up of benches that either face the building if you were on the plane that day or face away from the building if you were inside the Pentagon at the time of impact. It was very interesting. 

We decided to walk back tour hotel from the Pentagon as it was only about a mile. Uphill. Poor Susie. We had finally had enough and needed a nap. Waking up at 3:30 a.m. is for the birds. After our nap we met up with some of Jackson's family that had arrived for the party tomorrow. We caught up with them for a while before heading down to Pentagon Row (a cute little village area) for dinner. We were seated next to some pretty cool looking flight men at the restaurant. I had trouble paying attention to what was going on with Jackson because I kept observing the military people around us. It is a little distracting.

Our hotel had a great view of the Pentagon. Since we were not allowed to take photos of the building while we were close to it, we took a photo of it from our hotel. After dinner and grabbing a quick drink with Jackson's family we came back to the hotel to crash out for the night.

We did get this adorable photo of MacKenzie from my cousin Bethany who is watching her and my folks' dogs while my parents are away at Alex's birthday party for the weekend. She has a way of getting her tummy rubbed no matter who is watching her. Spoiled! We love that little puppy!! (Thank you, Bethany!) 

We are looking forward to another big day of sightseeing today!