Our Beautiful Weekend in DC

Happy ~~Tuesday~~ Wednesday everyone. As you can see, I started this post yesterday but couldn’t finish because of a major migraine! I’m better now though- thanks.

I’m going to do a little weekend recap since we had an amazing one- mostly. Friday night I stayed up way longer than I should of and witnessed my Rangers lose to the LA Kings. It was a sad sad night for me and somehow I managed to fall asleep only to wake up 4 hours later to head out to Washington DC. I’ve been dying to get away with my 2 boys- even just for the weekend and this little trip was such a treat. We made it down there at 11am and since we had a party to go to later that night, we had a few hours to explore the city. Our last trip there 5 years ago left us not seeing the Lincoln Memorial, so that was top priority this time around. We first headed down to see the most famous house in the US. The White House is always so beautiful.

“Let me in!”

Next up we walked to see Lincoln. Since my first trip to DC with my parents, I have loved this memorial. President Lincoln is my favorite leaders of all time and I couldn’t get enough of the memorial and later on some of his belongings in the National Museum of American History.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of all things Lincoln.

These Ionic columns were along the inside of the memorial. So gigantic and grand.

The pics below are from the museum.

Lincoln’s hat worn the night he was assassinated. (seriously how crazy is that!)

A little bit about how Mary Todd Lincoln redecorated the White House… I knew I liked her for a reason!

DC is full of history as you can imagine and memorials to fallen heros of war. It is captivating and peaceful and you come away from being there with a great feeling of patriotism for your country (you know, if you’re an American).

One of my favorite memorials was the one for Korea.

The statues “walking” through the trees makes you feel like you’re walking alongside real soldiers. Beautifully done.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was seeing the flag that inspired the US’ National Anthem- The Star Spangled Banner. The first part of the exhibit tells you about the war (the War of 1812) fought against the British while using some of the lyrics from the song. It gives you an amazing visual of what it was like. I saw and touched a piece of the bomb that bursted in air. It was incredible. When you turn the corner, enclosed behind a huge piece of glass and in only a faint light, was this ginormous flag. It takes your breath away when you correlate the story you just read and this beautiful piece of American history. Then- in a tiny box you see the original manuscript of the Star Spangled Banner. Going along the rest of the exhibit, you see some of the history of the family in charge of caring for the flag. And then… you hear the song sung (or played ala Jimi Hendrix) in a few different versions. I lost it when I heard the Whitney Houston version (which is an all time favorite of mine). I really couldn’t help getting choked up. Although photos were not allowed inside of the exhibit, it’s something I will never forget. Click here to learn more about the flag and song. Some really cool facts, I promise.

On the same floor as that exhibit was were I saw my second favorite thing… Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers. This was an OMG moment. I can’t even count how many times I’ve seen the movie! My fave movie. EVER.

Yup, I’m THAT dork- and a happy dork at that.

As you can tell I was in love with DC, from the history to the architecture, I soaked everything in and it left me wanting to go back. I took lots of pictures of things I loved and that inspired me.

These 2 shots are from the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum. There were rooms from different states and time periords. This room was the prettiest.