How I Love Spontaneity

Friday night at around 10, my husband and I were watching a movie (the poor dear, bless his heart for sitting through "Charlie St. Cloud"... I just may continue this thought in a later post!) when we suddenly decided to go to D.C. in the morning. It truly happened just like that - An exchanged glance, a question of, "Wouldn't it be cool...?", an affirmative response and a "Let's do it!" A high five and a few laughs later, we decided everything we wanted to see in the city the next morning. Of course, when the alarm clock went off the next morning we asked each other if this was such a good idea. Our second guessing caused us to lose an hour, but we were on the road to D.C. nevertheless.

Strom didn't want to deal with a car in the city, so we took the metro in from the Franconia-Springfield stop. While this seemed like a good idea, in hindsight, I'm not sure I would make the same move again. At least not until spring. Words cannot express how cold it was waiting for the Blue/Orange line. I have spent the last 7 winters in Maine, yet I was colder yesterday than I can even recall in recent years. Do you know that feeling that, hard as you might try, you cannot refrain from shaking, shuddering, chattering and shivering? That was me. For a good part of the day. Yes, it was worth it, but I don't plan on returning until it is warmer! 

In case I never mentioned it before, I was born outside the Beltway, so my family has history in Virginia. After moving to New York, we often came back to D.C. (mostly on business trips of my dad's) and spent time on the Mall, in the museums, theaters, and monuments etc. So I have many many memories of being in D.C., touring the city -- and of course, falling in love with the history of it. But for Strom, this was his first "touristy" visit. We were both in D.C. back in August for the Restoring Honor Rally, but we didn't have the chance to play the role of "Tourist." So this was a first for him! And we had a blast. We didn't get to see nearly as much as we had hoped, but we visited as many museums as possible, as well as the monuments (and had one of the most delicious dinners you could imagine - but more on that later!).

I was of course, disappointed to go through my pictures once we got home to realize the cold gave me more camera shake than I had realized. So 'oh well' for variety here. But you can at least see from my slim pickins' here that we had a lot of fun. There is such rich history in the city, you can feel it as though it were a concrete thing. Hallowed ground... it's the only way to describe it.

So, did Strom enjoy it? In case you were wondering, he did. Immensely. Although we both found the Museum of Natural History to be an outright joke (there you can find where your relatives originated from -- just pick your monkey! *eye roll*) the Museum of American History received two thumbs up from us (it was my favorite as a kid). We had an incredible dinner from the District Chop House & Brewery (but as I said, more on that later!) and an evening stroll (more like a mad charge to simply stay warm!) down to the Washington, Lincoln, and WWII memorials. 

As soon as it warms up, we'll be on our way back for round two!