Such a great trip!!

Where do I start? We had the BEST time down in our nation's capitol. D.C. is one very cool city – with lo ts and lots to do. We had only 4 short days – but we made the most out of all of them. We saw: a couple of the Smithsonian museums, the Jefferson Memorial (we rented paddleboats and paddled over next to the monument), the Library of Congress, the Capital building (just the outside, we didn't go on the tour), Mount Vernon (home to President George Washington), an indoor climbing gym called Sport Rock, Old Town Alexandria, and Gettysburg (an all-day adventure). Exhausting, huh? But we couldn't have had any more fun, spending time with family and good friends (and thanks to Em & Brett for letting us crash there). We took over 250 pictures so I have plenty I could put up … so I will just put up some of my favorites. We just have too many great pics (all the credit goes to Cory ... he's got a really good eye). Believe me, part of me wishes that I could have stayed there in D.C. … but it's back to the real world for Cory and I. He started his 7th trimester of school today and I'm back to work. As much fun as we had, it was very nice to come home to New York - and it's a nice feeling that New York feels like home. I know how blessed we are to have such great family members and great friends! We want to go down again, but our summer is pretty booked with other fun adventures. A few weeks of school and then hopefully up to Toronto over Memorial Day weekend. I love the spring and summer times so much!

Pictures: top row are at Mount Vernon, next row is Cory at the climbing gym, the inside of the Library of Congress (it's really ornate inside), the Library of Congress from the outside, the personal library collection of Thomas Jefferson (housed at the Library of Congress), next 2 are at the Capital Building, seeing the Jefferson from our paddleboats, the Smithsonian castle, and the rest are at Gettysburg.


It's hard to describe the feeling at Gettysburg. It was kind of cloudy and a bit foggy when we were there, which made it feel almost surreal. So much of the landscape hasn't changed that it looks remarkably like it did in 1863, when the Battle of Gettysburg was fought. I read that there are over 1300 monuments scattered around Gettysburg. So many states and different regiments have put up their own memorials that there's just so much to see! We bought an audio tour on CD and it navigates you around the key places as you drive. I didn't realize how much ground the battles covered! It was quite a bit - the CD said to allow for 2 1/2 hours, but I think we took like 8 to see everything. One of the pictures above is of a barn that was standing at the time of the Civil War, and if you look you can see a cannon-ball hole still there. One of the pictures (next to the barn picture) is of a place called Devil's Den/Valley of Death - where some of the heaviest fighting took place. We stood where President Lincoln gave his now-famous Gettysburg address. We stood in the cemetery where some of the soldiers are buried - many of the graves marked as "unknown" and many of them mass graves, labeled by state and how many bodies are there. The Battle of Gettysburg took place over 3 days and is considered the battle with the largest number of casualties - and a victory for the Union, marking a turning point in the war. All in all, some 50,000 men lost their lives at Gettysburg. It was such a beautiful and sobering place to be. I'm so glad we got the chance to go!