Holy HOT pictures :)

Here are Elena's pictures from the weekend. (Again I'm sorry they are out of order)

 One tiny part of Arlington Cemetery

 The booth where Lincoln was shot

 On the bridge to Georgetown, right next to our house

 On the Key Bridge (same bridge as above)

 Inside of the building museum

 Elena playing with Legos at the building museum

 Part of the Lego exhibit 

 The Law Enforcement Memorial

 again

 Taking a break in the heat

The Capitol

The Holy HOT Weekend/Week

The weekend my mom was here we had absolutely beautiful weather. The week after she left was a whole different story! The week was scorching hot, with an extreme amount of humidity, which is one of the many reasons I miss Colorado, (but that is better left for a later post).

During this week of miserable heat, Elena and I spent every evening at the pool, just cooling off! We would spend about 35-45 minutes at the pool before coming inside and doing a workout in our living room! It was a good way to spend the evenings.

After a week of spending time inside, we were ready to get our and tour by time the weekend started. Saturday we started pretty late after spending the morning sleeping in. We first headed to the National Building Museum, that features the advancement of buildings through the different World's Fairs in America. We also paid to tour the Lego exhibit that featured many major buildings around the world that were built in Legos. Some are pictured below.

After we were done looking at that museum, we headed out into the heat to view the Law Enforcement Memorial and even found some guys from Salida that were named on the wall.  After that we decided to walk  (how dumb right?) to the Navy Memorial. We lasted about 2 minutes at the memorial before we had to head to an air conditioned building. It was miserable! We then wanted to head to the Newseum, but when we got there and found out it cost $22, we decided against it, for the time being. We then headed to Ford's Theatre to see if we could tour it. It was about 3 when headed there, and all the tickets for the rest of the afternoon were sold out.

As if we hadn't done enough that day, we decided to head to Union Station to see what it was all about. We were so hot that we weren't that impressed, plus there wasn't much there. One downfall to our time here is that we don't want to spend too much money, so we really aren't getting to enjoy the different food that DC has to offer, which would have been a good thing to do at Union station. That finally ended our day out in the heat. We were happy to get home to our wonderful air conditioning.

Sunday we got up somewhat early, and headed to Arlington National Cemetery. We got tickets to ride on the bus to The Tomb of the Unknown Soilder, the Kennedy Grave, and the Arlington House. After we rode the bus to all those, watched the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider, and walked around that area, we headed to the opposite side of the Cemetery to see all the memorials the bus misses. One of these was a pentagon, September 11th Memorial. We were booking it all around the Cemetery, as we needed to head home by 1 to eat lunch before heading to our new destination. By time we were walking all around there, we were hot, tired, hungry, thirsty and behind schedule. We headed home for a quick lunch before heading to Ford's Theatre, the place where Lincoln was shot. It had a museum in the basement and then headed into the theater where Lincoln was shot for a presentation. It was a pretty neat to see!

After all that, we decided we had a had a full weekend and decided to head home for the night to relax before a long week at work and after a busy weekend of touring.

Sorry the pictures are out of order. (More pictures will come tomorrow when I get them from Elena)

 Falling Water out of Legos

 Union Station

 Waiting outside Ford's Theatre

 The Arlington House from Below

 The Eternal Flame at the Kennedy Gravesite

 Arlington Cemetery

 Changing of the Guards

 Changing of the Guards

Again

Mom's Visit

The second weekend I was here was an extremely busy one, as my mom came! :) Mom flew in Friday at 5, so I got off work early and met her at the airport that is right on the metro. We came back home to eat dinner before leaving again to go down to the mall and do all of the "touristy" things. We had close quarters the time she was here, but made it work, as we were barely at home.

On Saturday, the three of us got up early and went to my cousin's little league game (he is 12). After the game, we, the 6 of us, went out to eat at Chilis and had a fantastic time! After that, my uncle headed home and my aunt, cousin, Elena, mom and I headed to the Sept. 11th, Pentagon Memorial, the Air Force Memorial, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Georgetown (quickly), and then my aunt and cousin dropped us off at home and we walked to the U.S. Marine Corp Memorial (aka Iwo Jima), which is only 3 blocks from our house. Needless to say, we had an extremely busy day!!

The next day didn't change much! We started by going to the Eastern Market. It is a popular farmers/flea/flowers/arts/crafts market! We walked around and enjoyed browsing, but never bought anything. After that we headed up to the National Cathedral, where we had to metro and then walk about a mile and a half (unfortunately in the process I lost my $40 metro card :( ). The Cathedral was amazing, as well as the gardens around it! My aunt joined us at the cathedral and then took us to one of the 2 art Smithsonians. I was the only person really impressed with that museum, but we saw it and then continued on uptown to eat dinner at Austin Grill. The weather was so nice even that we were able to sit outside and enjoy it. After dinner we made a quick run by the Einstein statue, showed my mom where my work was (all with my aunt) before we were dropped off back at home. Again, another really long day!

Monday morning both Elena and my mom were up early to head to work and the airport. My mom had a flight out of DC at 9 which allowed her plenty of time to get home from Denver. It was a great weekend and it was sad to see my mom leave (always am), be we had a fantastic time with her. Pictures of everything are below!

My Current Home

I am very lucky to have had my aunt and uncle's place to live for a while, but having me there was a hassle for them and a long commute for me, not to mention, I kicked my cousin out of his bed. So, the Tuesday after Memorial Day, Elena flew in. My aunt was so nice to go pick her up and bring her to the outskirts of DC where we currently live. We only live here for one reason, Elena's internship pays for it, otherwise we would live in the middle of nowhere as this place is EXPENSIVE!! We live in Rosslyn, VA (Arlington, VA) in an apartment complex. We have a 1 bedroom apartment that is fully furnished. It is perfect for us, as I just have an air mattress  on the floor. Below is a map that shows the distances to our works: We live at A, I work at B, and Elena works at C. The Yellow is the metro I ride, only one stop, which is fantastic! All in all, we really love the location of this place and the convenience to everything (we even have a Safeway around the corner)!

A night or two after we were settled in, we decided to head down to The Mall and do the touristy things. We saw the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam Wall, and the World War II Memorial. It was HOT, about 100 degrees, and very crowded with school groups, but we wanted to make sure that we got the major things out of the way! Below are some pictures. Elena takes a bunch of pictures, but I do not. So far I have my own pictures, but soon I will be adding hers too!

 Our Dining/Living Room