D.C., Annapolis, and Baltimore with Cher!

I was lucky enough to fly back east in May to see my sister Cheryl! She came out to visit us in November, and she's moving back to Utah this summer, so I was dying to get out there! She has lived there for the past 4 years and we had never been! I was really hoping to drive and take the girls, but with how I was feeling, taking Lucy out of school, driving 24+ hours, we decided it probably wasn't the smartest idea, so I ended up leaving the girls at home and flying out for a long weekend! It was seriously so much fun, and so nice to spend time with Cher! We're only 17 months apart, and literally did everything together from toddlers to high school.

I flew in to Baltimore Thursday evening and we spent the night eating at a delicious restaurant due to her awesome gift cards and just hanging out.

Friday we woke up bright and early-- you know like 9, to head into D.C.! I've been to Washington D.C. probably 3 or 4 times just growing up and through high school-- my dad grew up back east, so we grew up traveling back east! But it had been at least 8 years since I had been! We only had one day, so we crammed in a lot! We started the day at the National Gallery of Art. I love that everything along the National Mall is free, so you can wander in and out as you please!

 SO many beautiful beautiful pieces of art. Rodin, Titian, Raphael, Botticelli, Monet, Manet, Van Gough, Picasso, etc... etc... etc... Takes me back to my AP Art History class. Best class ever.

I was about 12 weeks here, so you get to see my bump in full! It doesn't hide long!

 We had a quick yummy lunch, then headed to the National Archives so Cheryl could totally geek out over the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and the Constitution. She teaches 5th grade.... Haha! We had seen this when we were younger, but it really was so so cool. I feel like every American needs to come to D.C. at some point and see all of this truly amazing stuff!

 And of course Washington monument. Stunning!

 World War 2 memorial

Korean War Memorial, and the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial was so neat.

 Waved to Jefferson from across the river!

and my favorite- Lincoln. We lucked out with such gorgeous weather! It was actually really warm and humid of course! But it was supposed to rain all weekend, so we were just thrilled it wasn't pouring!

The gorgeous reflecting pool looks SO far away from the actual Washington monument when you are standing right next to it, but from the Lincoln memorial you really do get the perfect reflection! 

 The Vietnam war memorial was my favorite. I had been to all of these places before, but it's so different coming back as an adult. There were notes from students all over. So sweet.

 And of course the White House! 

 Heading back to our car we walked past Fords Theatre where Lincoln was shot... and then a gift from the heavens appeared.....

 Starving, but unsure of where to turn next, this couldn't have been better timing. And it was maybe the best meal of my life. I'm not even joking. I love me a good cheeseburger... and good fries... and a good shake.. sigh... Drooling now.

 We saved my favorite white house for last!

Seriously the most gorgeous temple I've ever seen. 

Even just being on the temple grounds is so amazing. The details are always so gorgeous, and I love just walking around the temple and getting to touch it, and see all the beautiful work. The doors on the temple were amazing and each panel was something different. I would love to go back and do a session here!

We nearly died of exhaustion.. not really, but sort of. But managed to get out of bed, be super heroes and fill up Cheryl's tire that was losing air, and made half the drive to Annapolis without her A.C. working in her car! Haha! But the crab cakes made it all work it. Yummmmm. And of course the delicious Smith Island cake!

 Annapolis is seriously stunning. So gorgeous, old, right on the ocean, the naval academy is there... it was dreamy. It makes me so sad Tyler has never been anywhere back east! He's so deprived. 

 Finding a way to get my feet in the ocean at the Naval Academy!

We spent the evening at the greatest outlet mall ever... and by the time our feet were going to fall off, and we waited way too long to get our Cheesecake Factory cheesecake to go, we were exhausted!

 We totally crashed again Saturday night, and slept in quite a bit on Sunday.

We headed into Baltimore to eat dinner at the famous Miss Shirleys! We had a little bit of wait, and since the Preakness was the day before I had to make a quick drive by of Pimlico park where the race is held! It is seriously so ghetto all around the track! But still cool to see it all still set up!

 My breakfast was seriously amazing, and maybe the best meal of the entire trip!

We rock the squinty eyes well!

 That area of Baltimore was SO gorgeous. Everything back there is just so green it's unbelievable! 

 We then headed into the city to check out where Cheryl lived for the first couple years, and where her and Kyle went to school at Johns Hopkins. 

Here's her cute little row house! 

She wasn't quite in the ghetto, but it sure didn't take long to get there! There is just so much of Baltimore city that is so sad. Rows and rows of houses and businesses boarded up, people just walking the streets, homeless, etc... etc... Crazy. Then you get downtown and it's gorgeous again! We drove through downtown way too tired to walk anymore and settled on Fort McHenry for quick gift shop stop and sitting by the ocean again!

We headed back to where Cheryl lives- Owings Mills to catch a movie! The Age of Adaline- so good! And then hung out at her house that night. Playing with Ziggy- her cat. Who is clearly not used to other human interaction and maybe scared the crap out of me every time I had to get up and pee in the middle of the night. Haha!

Monday I got to get up and go to school with Cheryl! Her school is a title 1 school, and she has such a diverse class it is awesome. She is seriously an incredible teacher. The principle, and every co worker I met seriously raved about her! They are all so sad she is leaving and are begging her to stay! She is the team lead of all the 5th grade teachers, and is amazing. She's actually going to be a Language Arts Specialist for the Salt Lake County school district when she moves back. She is awesome. Her class was getting ready for simulated congressional hearings, so I got to help them get ready to answer questions from government officials who were coming to the school to hear their speeches, etc... And it also helped me remember, that no, I am not smarter than a 5th grader! Haha!

 After school was over we had a couple hours to kill- at Target mainly, and then Cheryl dropped me off at the airport for my 6pm flight... Well, 5 hours later and still sitting on the plane the massive thunderstorms finally hit Baltimore and we weren't going anywhere! Ugh.. I finally got it worked out to fly out of the Washington D.C. airport at 6am the next morning to make the 9am fight in Minneapolis to make it back to Minot in good time the next day. So at 11:30pm in Baltimore I left the airport.. found a random nice car driver to take me and another Indian man into D.C. I would have had Cheryl, but she was still on flash flood warnings and her car tire was still losing air... Haha... So it was quite an adventure! I finally made it to the D.C. airport at about 1am-- alive-- hooray! But the security gates were closed, all hotels full, so the only choice was sleeping at the airport, not even in the terminal! It was a pretty crappy situtaion, but all I could keep thinking was that I was SO glad my kids weren't with me! I feel like I ALWAYS fly with my kids, so I was just so happy to be alone, and not having to worry about them! I met a super nice kid from Detroit who shared my outlet with me and we ended up talking basically all night about how crazy it is that I've been married for 8 years, and almost have 3 kids! I seriously love meeting new people and traveling, so that was fun that it wasn't the longest night ever! I finally made it past security at about 4:30am, and managed to get about an hour and half of sleep before my flight took off... and finally get some food! Thank you McDonalds! I finally made it back to Minot around 11am, and am so thankful for good friends to take care of my kids! My cute friend Melissa ended up watching Clara for two full days while Tyler was at work because I got home a whole day later than planned. I'm so glad Clara didn't have to go to work with Tyler, and she was on cloud 9 playing with friends! I'm also so thankful for my cute husband. He knew how important it was to me to go and see Cheryl and he made it happen. I sure love that man! And the girls love it when daddy is in charge.. even if he has 'lots of laws'... he always gets them ice cream! Haha! And takes them to soccer games, music class, birthday parties, church, and school. Sheesh! He's the best husband and dad ever. Hands down.

It was such a fun trip! I'll have to take Tyler with me next time! ;-)