Washington DC: Day 1 & 2.

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Before I dive into the last two weeks, I need to tell you about the crisis that was the day before we left. Brandon left on June 20th to go back to California for another ten days of training for work, which allowed me some nice time to go visit family in Idaho Falls and Logan, and also get some intense editing done for my book. It was lonely without him here, obviously, but I survived the ten days and was so ready to have him back on Thursday the 30th so we could hang out all day Friday before leaving on Saturday to go to DC with his family. For some reason though, we have the worst luck with flights, and his flight from Oakland to LAX was delayed a little bit, and he ended up missing his connecting flight from LA to Salt Lake. It wouldn't have been so awful, except the flight he was supposed to be on was the very last flight to Salt Lake that night, so our reunion was put off for another day.

I called the airline while his flight was taxiing into LAX and got him for sure booked on a flight to Salt Lake Friday around four, but there were so many other flights going out that morning that Brandon decided to hit the standby list for each one. So he went to a hotel for roughly three hours, slept, then went back to the airport to try and get on a 6:00 am flight. Long story short, he didn't ever make any of the flights until the four o'clock that afternoon. We were both super happy that we thought to call and get him one of the last seats on that flight, otherwise he may not have made it home until late that night. He even told the customer service rep at the desk in LA that if worst came to worst, he was going to just need to be rerouted to DC instead of even coming home to Salt Lake. In all his time at the airport, he met Shailene Woodley from the Divergent series, which is pretty dang cool. I was so jealous! I left super early to go pick him up from the airport, and ended up parking and going inside because I was afraid that if I didn't go in there and physically get him myself he might not have ever actually made it home! 

We finally got home around six thirty, did some laundry, ate his one homemade meal that he would have in a month's time, and then he repacked and we went to bed to prep for the next day. I honestly felt so bad. He was already so worn out from training, and then from a long day at the airport, and if you know us well then you know that we don't really relax on vacation. But he was a good sport, as usual, and I think getting his grade back from training and seeing that he crushed the course made it all worth it.

Onto DC!! We flew out Saturday morning and landed in DC around 4:00 that afternoon. Once we got our luggage, we took the green line metro directly from the airport to the stop closest to the house we were staying at. It was only a mile from the stop to the house, but it was like 95 degrees and 80% humidity and the walk seemed to take thirteen days. Not only that, but the GPS put us through some sketchier areas, so we weren't quite sure what to think at that point. Also, sadly, Brandon's mom had lost her phone at some point on our journey, so she and Brandon's dad had to walk even further to go back and find the guy that had picked it up and called us (which did give us a little faith in the people of DC, so that was nice). When we all were finally at the house, we unloaded and just relaxed for a little bit, then left to go find some dinner. After dinner, we went back to the house to plan out our next day, then went to bed. 

The following morning, the rest of the fam went to church, so Brandon and I wandered around the National Mall while we waited for them. It was so neat to be in a place that we had seen and learned so much about; seeing it in person made me feel so patriotic haha. We went through the Smithsonian Castle, which houses pieces from each of the Smithsonian museums. Neither of us had slept very well the night before, so once we had looked at everything we sat and waited until it was time for us to meet the family at the metro.

From there, we went to Mount Vernon! We thought Sunday would be a great day to make the journey out there, because it took us about an hour and a half to get there by metro. We got there and immediately went to the cafe for lunch (because really, what's a vacation if it's not all about the food?) which gave us all the boost I think we needed after the long day of traveling the day before. It wasn't too hot that day, so it was the perfect day for wandering around the grounds. We got to see the house Washington grew up in, where he and Martha are buried, and just got to learn more about the kind of life he lived. We spent a good majority of the day out there, then went into a new part of DC to go to a drum circle. We were there just for a bit, then left to go get dinner.

It was only eight when we finished eating, and Brandon and I weren't tired, so we, James, and Candis headed to Capitol Hill to watch the rehearsal for A Capitol Fourth, a show that was going to be broadcast live on PBS the next day. The only reason I wanted to go was to watch Cassadee Pope perform, but it was super fun to see the capitol lit up at night and hang out with the crowd there. Cassadee Pope only sang one song, so we left after that and headed back to the house to hopefully get a better night's sleep than the night before!