Fall Foliage - DC Style

I love FALL! And one of my favorite places to take it all in is on the East Coast! Luckily, Nate and I got to do just that - we took it all in! We had a GREAT trip to D.C.! I don't know if it was so fun because we could reminisce about the good 'ol days or if it was because we weren't lugging our 3 children around. Hmm...maybe a combination of both! The fall colors were gorgeous and the weather was absolutely beautiful even with a day or two of high humidity (we aren't used to that anymore!). We were able to catch up with lots of old friends and do some things we never were able to do while we were residents rather than vacationers! We laughed hysterically because you'd think after living there for over 5 years, we'd know our way around. Needless to say, out came the map and it was attached to our nose for a few days until the cob webs began to clear!

Some of our highlights:

• Behind the scenes tour of the Supreme Court Building by Dave Moore (an old roommate of Robert's and currently clerking for Justice Alito) Who knew there was a full size basketball court right above the courtroom? I walked by the this building everyday on the way to work and yet never went in for a tour!) It was absolutely beautiful!
  
• Eating dinner down in Old Town Alexandria with some old friends and then getting completely drenched on the way back to our car. It was the only time it rained the entire time we were there and it happened to be right after we finished up with dinner. If we would have stayed in for 10 extra minutes we would have missed the whole storm! Oh well, it made for a great laugh, right Robin?
  
• Going back to the Jefferson Memorial where we tried to recreate our engagement picture. I'm almost certain we haven't aged a bit! :-)
  
• Eating at Chevy's! I know that doesn't sound all that exciting and cultural, but it was a fun place that we would frequent when we lived right across the street from it in Pentagon City!
  
• While we're talking about eating, another place we hit was the Peking Inn Gourmet on Rte 7. The Lemon Chicken is to die for! The funny part about this place is that from the outside it looks like a complete dive, but when you go in and see that there is a 45 minute wait and you are surrounded by pictures of all the dignitaries and diplomats that have been there, you know it is a good place to go!


• Spending a good portion of our time on the mall at the Smithsonian Museums and art galleries including the new American Indian Museum, Natural History, National Gallery of Art, Portrait Gallery and then a new Spy museum (which is not connected to the Smithsonian - ie, they make you pay to go in, but it was worth it!) We also went to the Edward Hopper exhibit which was very fascinating!


• Getting to see Hans and Jody (our world travelin' friends who found themselves back in D.C.) and their newest arrival, baby Garrett!
• Last, but not least (and our main reason for the trip) was going to the "Colonial Ward" reunion - what a blast from the past! So fun to see so many familiar faces. Hopefully it won't be another 10 years...