Memorial Day Weekend

I must say that this was a fabulous weekend! All the planning was left up to Ben, which many of you know is hard for me to do, I'm such a Peggy planner that relinquishing control actually felt great!

Friday I arrived in DC around 5ish, Ben met me and we hit the metro to our hotel. Ben had switched hotels for the weekend so we could be closer to all the action. We were two blocks from the man, it was great! We had dinner at Rosa Mexicana, which I was really excited about because of all the hype from the restaurant in ATL and NYC. To be honest, it was just okay... in fact, I had better guacamole at Lauren's lingerie shower. But it was fun, GREAT pomegranate margarita, and definitely great company!

Saturday we got up early to eat breakfast in the Concierge lounge. Yes, we've gone platinum! It seems we've spent more nights in a Marriott bed than our own so we get free eggs, snacks, and dessert throughout our stay. Ben and I took full advantage. Most days we got up early enough to hit breakfast twice before they closed. It's the small things (and free dessert) that get me going. While at breakfast we also met our new friend, Jeeves. Not actually his name, but he was the head concierge. He was a machine, you'd ask him a question and he'd spit out an answer. This guy was great.

So anyway, back to the Saturday activities. Ben was able to pull a few strings with some of his peeps and got us a White House tour (that's one thing I bet Jeeves couldn't do). I was really hoping for a Michelle or Barack appearance, or for their dog to coming running down the steps, but that didn't happen. And for some reason every time I saw the young secret service guys I kept thinking of Mandy Moore in Chasing Liberty. I'm sad, I know. So no presidental appearances, but I did see all the different colored rooms and where the President holds his press conferences. We then headed for Ford's Theater and got in on the last tour of the day.

After Ford's Theater we walked up to Chinatown to get some lunch. When in Rome... I decided to be adventurous and eat at a local joint. Several places were advertising lunch for $3.25 & $3.95. Awesome! We walked into one and looked around to see only one couple eating lunch. Needless to say, I got scared and ran out. I'm up for an adventure but I don't want to ruin my vacation. We ended up going across the street to get the $5.95 lunch, for some reason, two dollars more made this place sound much more appealing. There were several people dinning and they ranged from American families to Asian couples, so I was happy. Food was good, but we ate WAY too much. After lunch we hit up the Portrait gallery before heading back to the hotel to rest.

Saturday evening we went to 5:30pm mass at St. Patrick's church. There was a mix of people attending but, for some reason, we were the ones approached to take up the gifts. "Um, I'm not Catholic, is that going to be a problem?" Apparently not, because about twenty minutes later I'm getting up and walking to the back of the church. Now, the whole time leading up to this moment I was thinking, okay, no big deal, I just hope I get the bread because there's no way I can drop it, spill it, or break any crystal. What does the guy hand me? The wine. Great. Ben and I walk towards the priest and I'm nervously smiling the whole time. Is this an appropriate time to smile? There are people starring at me after all. I successfully handed over the wine, bowed, and got the heck outta there. Now, what is comical is the fact that when everyone got up to partake, I was the only one still sitting. I'm honestly surprised lightening didn't strike.

Saturday night we ate at Chef Geoff's kitchen and toured around a bit. Got some wine and decided to enjoy the view from our hotel room and watch helicopters come in and out of the White House all evening.


Sunday we headed over to Arlington, watched the changing of the guard and all the motorcycles lining up for the Rolling Thunder arrival into the National Mall. We walked from Arlington to the American History Museum and then headed to lunch down by Union Station. We hit up the Capital only to find out that tours weren't going on but would be on Monday. While walking back from the Capital we realized the parade of motorcycles was still rolling through, three hours after they began. It was amazing to see. Exhausted we headed back to the hotel, swam, cleaned up, had hors devours in the concierge lounge and headed out to take some night shots of the memorials.

Monday we slept a little later, maybe due to the fact that I think we walked 8+ miles the day before and had a nice breakfast in the concierge lounge. We hit up the Capital tour, but the House and Senate wings were closed so we only got to see the dome and the hall where the inaugural brunch was held. After the tour we headed to the botanical gardens to get some pics and then it was time for lunch. Ben had heard of this great pizza place that he wanted to check out back up in Chinatown, Matchbox. This place had only been open for a few years. It was previously an old Asian grocery store, 15ft wide and three stories tall. It was great!

After lunch we walked back to the hotel to get my suitcase all packed up, which was really hard to do. The whole weekend was so much fun that I just wanted to stay out there with Ben. We had a little time before we left so we caught part of the Memorial Day parade and got to see Gary Sinise (or Lt. Dan), parade's grand Marshal.

All in all it was an amazing trip. We ate way too much food, but that's what a good vacation is all about. Ben comes home tomorrow and then we leave for California a week from Saturday.

Life is good.