Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Washington D.C.

Kyle and I had the wonderful opportunity to go to the inauguration of our 44th president, Barack Obama. It was our Christmas gift to eachother. We luckily had friends there to stay with since all of the hotels were sold out. John, Dave and Erik showed us the town, they were such great hosts. We went all over the place in just 4 days. We went to Alexandria, Arlington, Georgetown, Adams Morgan, and of course all over DC. This trip was so much fun!
Here are the pics of our adventures. 
The night before the inauguration we decided to go explore downtown DC.  It was pretty crazy, there were secret service agents everywhere.  We went to the national mall to check out where we would be going to the next day and this is who we found.  Anderson Cooper was broadcasting his show live.  Kyle put me up on his shoulders and I was on the show for a few minutes.  Nana (Kyles' mom) saw us on the TV back in Utah.  Pretty cool. 
Inauguration Day
It may appear like it was warm but it was sooooo freeeezing!  Around 10 degrees and we were by the river which added the coldness.  We got so bundled up, I think I had 5 layers on. 
What a crowd.  
We were only in the middle of the mall so there was peoples gallore!  The teleprompter is what we saw all the action on.
Kyle was so cold he used our blanket as a scarf.  We joked saying he looked like a terrorist.
Inauguration night.
We went to downtown Alexandria.  It was so charming and the buildings were so old and had so much character.  We parked on this little street and walked around. 
We found a super cool little pub.
And listened to live music by David Andrew Smith (check out davidandrewsmith.com).  He was amazing and played a mixture of his own songs and requests from the audience.  
This pub was so chill.  Way different from the places in San Diego, where everyone gets all made up just to go out.  This was so lowkey, just the way we like it. 
We drove around all night checking out cool neighborhoods.  We even drove past all the countries emabassy's.  My hair was driving me crazy I just didn't want it touching me at all.  Here was the result.  When I walked into 7-11 like this people thought I was crazy.
Kyle said this ice sculpture was pretty famous.  I guess it was on the news and stuff.  
The next day since we slept in so late from lack of sleep inauguration day and staying up so late that night we didn't get out to do stuff until about 4 pm.  We went and saw the capitol and got some cool pics.
I hate this picture but Kyle had some mad photography skills so I gots to give him props. 
Hosts with the mosts.  Dave and John were our guides through our nations capital.  They were awesome!  Thanks so much guys!
I had hand warmers in my gloves, they kept my fingers toasty but my face was in need of help.  Too bad they don't make face warmers. 
The metro is the DC subway.  They have the nicest terminals.  Once again these pictures of me are ugly but Kyle's skills rule agian. 
This is the worlds longest escalator.  It was so scary to look back when we were going up it.  This picture was from our iPhone so it doesn't do it justice,
it was never ending, like a bad dream. 
Our last day in DC we spent at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History.  That place is incredible.  You could definitely spend more than one day in it.  Here were some of the sights.
Steel column from the world trade center.
The original Star Spangled Banner.
Abe Lincoln's top hat.
Filing cabinet from White Water.
And last of all we visited the White House.  Kyle and I had been waiting all day to visit the White House and to our luck when we got there our camera was out of batteries.  So we only got to take a few photos with our iPhone so the quality isn't the best. 
One of the entrances.
Our trip was such a quick one but we did get to see a lot of sights.  We hope to make another trip out there again real soon!