Days 7, 8 & 9

Soooo . . . I'm going to try and finish up the trip recap today . . . less details, more pictures.

Megan left Saturday morning and Tom and I didn't have to be at Penn Station to catch the train until 11:00, so we walked around one last time, went to Starbucks and then finished packing before our taxi picked us up at the hotel.

Having never been on a train before, I thought it was pretty cool. We went through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland . . . check those states off the list. Please ignore the super shiny face.
We got to D.C. around 4:00 and Alison met us in her flexcar. Have you heard about these? So cool. We went to her house, relaxed a little bit, went and checked out a possible new house with her, walked to the National Zoo . . . . it was so HOT and we only saw 1 freaking animal. We came back to her house and had a BBQ on her deck. It was lovely . . . no pictures to show from the BBQ. :(

Sunday was a busy day. We started out at Arlington National Cemetary in Virginia.

Then we started our tour of the memorials . . . first stop . . . Jefferson.

Then we headed towards the Washington Monument . . .

Next stop was the World War II Memorial.

My Grandpa Jones fought in New Guinea.Here we are at the Lincoln Memorial . . . and we spotted this guy peddling free hugs. This wasn't the same guy that was on Oprah. Most people passed by without glancing at him, some looked at him confused . . . but Tom and I definitley wanted to get in on the free hug action.

Still walking, walking, walking . . . heading back towards the car.We decided we were ready for a break . . . Alison had mentioned earlier that there was a Target in Virginia that we could visit . . . a new Target . . . count me in. Now I've been to Target's in 3 states . . . Washington, Indiana and Virginia. Don't you wish you were me? We also ate lunch at Chili's . . . was it Chili's? I can't remember now.

We were semi-cooled off by this point and went to the White House.

Gotta love those tourist photos.
When Heidi and I went to Washington, D.C. in high school, we were fascinated by this lady. She has been holding vigil across from the White House every day since 1981 protesting nuclear war. She even got into it with a guy right after I took this picture.
We headed back to Alison's house, ate pizza and watched a movie (which I slept through) and then headed back out again to see the monuments at night and the FDR Memorial which we had missed during the day.

I don't know if you can see it . . . but in the picture below of the Washington Monument, there are a red and blue lights reflecting on the water. A motorcade went by while we were standing there . . . Alison said it wasn't long enough to the President. I wish it was . . . I could have given him the finger for pre-empting my Today Show appearance.
At the FDR Memorial. Alison, Franklin and Tommy.
Silly, silly Tom.
Alrighty, that wraps up Sunday (day 8). Monday, Tom and I were on our own because Alison had to work. We had a leisurely start to the morning, Tom walked down to a bakery and brought us back some doughnuts and then we were on our way. We took the Metro to the Smithosonian stop and started at the Holocast Museum.

Had to take Tom's picture in front of the Department of Agriculture. Bet that's not a tourist photo hot spot.
Me in front of the Department of Education . . . No Child Left Behind . . . yada, yada, yada.
Our next stop was the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. There were a billion kids running around there so we mostly just dodged wild kids for an hour or so and then left . . . but not before getting our picture taken by the Neil Armstrong mural. Classy.
This is where the real adventure begins . . . and most of the details of this part are hazy because I was so flippin' hot and tired. We set out to walk to Alison's office . . . should have been easy enough. Not so much. Tom should have channeled my Dad's directional sense at this point . . . but alas, we got so turned around we had no idea which way was which. I kept asking for a shout out from Tom because I only complained a moderate amount, and I didn't cry once. There's always a first for everything. After several phone calls to Alison we finally made it. And here is her beautiful office . . . where her and Michael save the world.
The paparazzi in me just couldn't resist making her pose with this . . . Outside her office.

After resting at her office for awhile, she took us to a fabulous chinese restaurant and then we went to a bar that is in the Guiness Book of World Records for having the most beers. Do you see me in the picture . . . yep, that's me with a Bud. All those hundreds of choices and I stick with the trusty Bud in a bottle. Tom had a beer from Holland and then a 60 minute IPO . . . whatever that means.

CHEERS TO A FABULOUS TRIP!

We went back to Alison's and thought we were in for the night . . . but her buddies Michael and Jaime called and so we walked down to another little bar and met them for one last beer in D.C.