I turned 30 in May (what?? how is that possible) and got to have some pretty awesome celebrations. Sheldon threw me a massive surprise party that I was definitely not expecting. I don't have a lot of pictures on my camera because I was too busy partying and we had fun taking most of our pictures on a Polaroid camera. Just to give you a scale of how awesome the party was, we had a photo booth and a number 30 pinata! It was epic and I was so grateful for all the family that could be there.
My main birthday present from Sheldon was a surprise trip to DC. Sheldon had a work trip conveniently at the same time as my birthday, so we used his flyer miles and I was able to fly out and join him. It was definitely a dream come true, I have always wanted to go to DC! My main piece of advice about DC is don't worry too much about planning what you are going to see because everything is amazing! There were a few museums we went inside just because we were there and had time. I thought they would just be ok, but I ended up loving everything.
The first day I was there I had some time in the morning to myself while Sheldon had to finish working at his conference. Sheldon had already been to the Air and Space museum before I got there, so after waiting in line for tickets to the Holocaust museum and I headed there. The museum is huge, I did not have time to see everything, but I spent most of my time in the space section learning about the apollo missions. Apollo 13 (and pretty much any other space movie) is one of my favorite movies. This is the creepy looking monkey that was one of the first to go up in space.
Some things I took pictures of just because I thought the kids would think it was cool, like the fact that they ate M&M's in space.
One of our favorite tours was the US Capitol building. We booked a tour ahead of time through our congressman and then one of his staffers gave us a private tour of capitol. It was great because our tour was with another family from Utah and our tour guide was a college student from Snow College, so it was fun to have a tour with a bunch of people from Utah. Sheldon is standing in the old supreme court room. It was a dark room in the basement, but I thought it had cool architecture. It used to be rumored that chief justice Marshall would set the clock ahead so that meetings could always stay on time.
There are so many statues in the Capitol, but this was my favorite, sorry for the bad picture. It's called The Portrait Monument and has three women suffragists carved into it. What's really interesting is the rough, uncarved portion in the back. Our tour guide said it was symbolic of the work yet to be completed for women's rights and I don't think this, is fact more urban legend, but they say when we have the first woman president that she would be carved into that section. That day might not be too far off, so I guess we shall see.
In the Capitol every state has contributed two statues of notable persons in the states history. Utah's two statues are Brigham Young and Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of the TV. Our tour guide joked that they hid Brigham Young in this corner out of the way, and it's kind of true. We didn't see Philo.
We made it to Arlington Cemetery and saw the changing of the guards. It was so hot, I could not make it through the whole ceremony. I don't know how those guards could do it in their uniforms.. It was at the cemetery I was really wishing we had some segways, that place is huge.
One place we stopped in just because we had some extra time was the National Gallery of Art. I don't know a lot about art and I wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did. I was really excited to see a Pollock, some Degas, and a painting by DaVinci.
On my first night there we spent a lot of time walking around checking out different monuments. The Smithsonian museums close at 5, but the monuments are open at night. I feel like we walked a few miles that first night checking out the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, and a few others in between. We always meant to rent a bike and ride around to see more monuments, but of course we just ran out of time.
We ate at the Old Ebbitt Grill which is the Oldest Saloon in Washington. Sheldon had told them when he made reservations it was my birthday, so I got the best birthday dessert I've ever had. I licked that plate clean.
On the actual day of my birthday we toured the white house. No pictures were allowed inside, boo, but it was pretty exciting to be in the white house. I was really hoping to get a glimpse of the president while at the white house, and we weren't lucky enough to have that happen, but we did eat at the same restaurant as him that night! We had heard good things about this restaurant called Oyamel, when we showed up to eat there was a large amount of black SUV's outside. Sheldon was pretty sure it meant the president was at the restaurant, so we went ahead and decided to eat there. We had to be thoroughly patted down before entering the restaurant and have our bags searched. While we were eating the crowds outside got bigger and more fire trucks and ambulances showed up to block off roads. It was pretty crazy and exciting. We got a glimpse of the president as he headed out of the restaurant. It was a fun birthday surprise. The food ended up being pretty good, although pricey. We paid $15 dollars for some chips and guacamole.
Sheldon and I though it was funny that we there was a stone from the Nauvoo Temple at the National Museum of American History. It had some nice little description of mormons and glossed over the fact that people burned our temple down and chased us out of Nauvoo.
The U.S. Botanic Gardens were fun to walk around in. They also had some kid friendly exhibits, if we ever go back to DC with the kids. I love pineapple plants, they are so cute. And whenever I see one it reminds me of Hawaii.
We really loved the Museum of Natural History and probably spent a few hours wandering around in there. They had a Butterfly Pavilion that I absolutely loved, and I was so sad the kids weren't there to see it with us. You walk into a little room and butterflies just fly all around you. It's also cool to see the butterfly nursery with all the cocoons that are going to hatch.
We also spent quite a bit of time looking at all the gems, specifically the Hope Diamond. It was amazing to be surrounded by so many expensive, huge gems. So much money in one place!
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| Sometimes you just need a little afternoon siesta. |
When we ordered the Sushi Boat on the menu, we didn't realize it would come in a literal boat! It was good, but a lot of sushi, we weren't able to eat it all.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing was so interesting. Who doesn't love learning about money? One favorite fact I learned was that some bills have a star at the end of the serial number instead of a letter. Those are bills that replaced a bill with an error on it. I always check my money for a star, but have yet to actually find one. It seems like it's like a four leaf clover; lucky and rare if you find one.
One of the last places we visited was the Library of Congress. It is a truly beautiful building with amazing artwork and architecture inside. We took a tour and learned a lot about the history of the building and all the different artists that contributed.
We also made it to the Holocaust Museum, which was a sobering experience, but I was glad I went. I was amazed to learn that whole towns were killed and to think of all the culture and history that was lost.
We also loved seeing the original Declaration of Independence. Interesting fact: some people like to collect autographs from the declaration of independence. Button Gwinnett's signature is the most valuable as his is the most rare. He died in a duel shortly after signing the declaration and there are only 51 known examples of his signature.
It was a great trip and we are very grateful for both Grandmas helping to watch our kids!
