2008 Summer Vacation Recap

We're back from vacation! :) And we had such a great time. I am happy to be home, but sad to leave all of our friends! How about a little recap?

Thursday night
After a bit of a late start, we arrived in Pittsburgh and went straight to dinner with Mike and Emily. Dinner was nice - we went to an Irish restaurant and had these awesome pub chips. They were very tasty!

This is my first picture of the trip - and a sight I had through most of our vacation! :)

Friday
We got up and said goodbye to Mike and Em. Then we headed to our next destination: Philadelphia.

Upon arriving in the city, we found the Visitor's Center and one of my favorite founding fathers was there to welcome me! Of course, we had to get a picture together.

We then headed right to the Liberty Bell - probably the only thing I wanted to see in the city. But it turned out to be kind of a let down. The bell itself is super small and you can't touch it. And I am a big fan of touching history. Unfortunately, not touching history seemed to be a huge theme during this trip.

After seeing the bell, we realized that Constitution Hall was just across the street. So we headed inside for a tour. We saw the main court that they used to hold trials, as well as policy making. We also saw the room where the founding fathers drafted and signed the Declaration of Independence. I thought it was pretty neat to see, but was kind of disappointed to learn that much of the structure was rebuilt and it's not the original. Still, it was cool to see.

After seeing all those sights, we headed to the waterfront. There were a couple of pretty cool ships to see and the engineer loved them. I did enjoy seeing all the water and the massive ships. We also got these amazing smoothies - and they were so amazing, that I had to blog them!

Later that evening, we met up with Trina. She was nice enough to let us stay with her and we had so much fun! We went out to dinner and then had some drinks. I suppose the pictures will tell the story...

Hanging out together at Continental's outdoor patio.

I got a thumbs down because I was having issues chugging an extremely strong vodka cranberry. This is also after my loving boyfriend yelled at me "suck it down". I refused, but my crazy best friend did race the boyfriend. It was the fast $10 either one of them have ever drank.

One of my best friends in the entire world! :)

And this is what happens when I'm told to "suck it down.

Yes, I thought it would be great to pose with a box of Flinstones Vitamins in a CVS.

I am very sad that we don't have a picture of Paul housing a package of beef jerky. He finished an entire bag in about 15 minutes.

Saturday

Due to the prior evening's festivities, we had an extremely late start to our day and headed to DC to meet up with Matt and Jeff at a picnic. We only stayed about an hour and then headed back to Baltimore. After seeing Jon's apartment, we crashed with Justin. He was so nice to order us a late night snack and hang out for a bit.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures from Saturday. I think I was out of it most of the day! ;-)

Sunday
We didn't mess around at all! We got up and met Kristin at IHOP for breakfast. I love catching up with friends - they are the best!!

After breakfast, we drove straight to DC, parked the car, and headed to Union Station. My awesome boyfriend decided that since we only had 1 day of sightseeing, that we should take a duck tour.

We bought some tickets online and the lady assured us that by purchasing tickets, when we arrived at Union Station, we wouldn't need to wait in line. So we got the tickets, took a quick walk and train ride, and arrived at Union Station. Of course, when we get to the counter, we have to wait in line and find out we can't get on a tour until 2pm - it was currently about noon.

We made the best of it and headed to the National Archives. I had really wanted to visit it because there is an original copy of the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Constitution.

Here is a copy of the Magna Carta. It's also the only picture I took in the Archives. You can't take flash photography, and I forgot when I turned my camera back on. So my picture flashed...and the security guard lady kind of freaked out. So I put the camera away and we only have video.

After seeing all the cool documents (and it's really awesome to see Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson's actual signatures), we ran back to Union Station (literally) in order to make the Duck Tour.

We hopped on our Duck and met Captain Frank. He took us around and we saw virtually all of the area: The White House, all the federal buildings, the Washington Monument, The Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, and the Capitol. After we saw all of these sights, the Duck went into the water and we headed underneath Reagan airport. It was pretty cool see all of the planes land right over us.

Here's some of the highlights of our duck tour:

We took a picture of this sign for you know who.

On each duck tour, you get a quacker. I've now taken to quacking at everything I don't like.

Having fun on Duck Soup - our duck!
The US Capitol Building. Something cool - the statue at the top is Lady Freedom. She stands 19'6" and is the tallest statute in the city. An ordinance was passsed in the city which does not allow any statue to be greater than 19' tall - because nothing is taller than freedom in this country. Also, she faces East, so that the sun never sets on freedom.

Another interesting Capitol fact - this is the 3rd dome for the building and this one weights 9 million pounds. Yikes!

Here we are with Captain Frank and our Duck!

After our tour, we called up Matt and Kirsten and did some walking around with them.

We started at the big house...

We did a TON of walking - we walked by the Washington Monument (which by the way - is 2 different colors due to the Civil War). Then we headed to the WWII memorial. It was very moving and interesting to see. I only took a few pictures, but it was definitely something to see.

Then we headed to what I had really wanted to see - the Lincoln Memorial. It was absolutely amazing. I don't know why I wanted to see it so bad, but I am so glad that we did. On his right side (on the wall) is the Gettysburg Address and on his left side, is his Second Inagural Address. Both so full of history.

Yes, I am a bit sad that I couldn't sit on his lap, but I guess that's just something I'm going to have to either 1) live with or 2) keep on my list of life goals.

Hanging out with Matt and Kirsten during the day was fun - we're glad they are back on the East Coast - hopefully we'll get to see them more often!

(On a side note - when the heck did I get so tan? Is it because I'm sitting next to people who are super white? Weird!)

After Lincoln, we hit up the Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial Wall. Both are incredibly sad. There's something about seeing the Vietnam Wall with all those names that just breaks your heart. Plus, people leave stuff for their loved ones. It really does make you appreciate freedom and be thankful for life. And thankful for what those men sacrificed for us.

Sunday night we went out to dinner with friends and it was fun!! We hit up a French Bistro with Matt, Kirsten, Jeff, and Kate. Dinner was yummy (but very spicy!) and afterwards, we headed out to a fun bar for some drinks!

I'm not sure whether to call them the 3 Amigos or the 3 Stooges.

Monday
We were sad to leave our vacation behind, so we fit in one last thing: the "offsite" Smithsonian - Air and Space. It was cool to see the actual plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and a Wright Brother's place. I, of course, didn't have as much fun as the planes, trains, and automobiles lover, but it's ok - I made a fun video of the place! :)

Driving home last night was sad - I wasn't ready to say goodbye to my summer vacation. But I know we had some really fun times and we'll always have the memories.

Now we can look forward (and start saving) for our next great adventure!

To our friends and family who let us crash on your couches - thanks! We had a great time and really appreciate it!

Paul - you are so much fun and I had a super fun time. I love you!