our trip to DC!

Last weekend, Austin and I took a little trip to Washington D.C.

  

Austin has always wanted to run a marathon, and when he found out that the Marine Corps Marathon was in an awesome spot (D.C.) and fell very close to our 4 year anniversary, we decided to turn it into a capital-seeing, anniversary-celebrating, marathon-running mini vacation!

We arrived on Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel.  To our surprise, The White House was only a 5 minute walk from where we were staying!  We took the short trip and said hello to Obama.  

We spent the rest of our Friday grabbing Austin's race packet, shopping around the convention center, and then we had a nice dinner and drinks with one of Austin's college roommates that now lives in D.C.

Austin was motivated!!  I was not... :)

Saturday was jam-packed!  We wanted to take in as much of the city as possible because we assumed that Austin would be pretty much out of commission after those 26.2 miles on Sunday.  We started at the Spy Museum...

We enjoyed the museum, but we wish there would've been more information and exhibits dedicated to current spies, and maybe some stories about real-life James Bonds and people like that. 

When we were finished spying, we walked around the National Mall and saw some monuments.  I was so surprised at how BIG Lincoln was!  It was very crazy/surreal to see all of these places that I've seen pictures of a million times in real life.  The only bummer was that there was all of this dumb scaffolding covering the Washington Monument.  It was still neat to see it though! 

The Newseum was the next place on our list.  Besides watching Austin run his marathon, this was my favorite thing that we did on our trip.  I absolutely LOVED this museum!!  There were 6 floors of wonderful exhibits, interactive activities, and overall awesome-ness.  The whole museum is about News, and the entire thing is so entertaining, interesting, and educational.  I loved every second and definitely recommend it to everyone who goes to D.C.!

Your 6:00 news team, Jammerz & Austie

Sunday was the big day!  Austin's first marathon!!!  He left with a group of our friends that he was running with around 6:00, and I got to sleep in a little bit.  (Normal people weren't really allowed to hang out while the runners were waiting to start, so there wasn't really a point in me being there.)

I headed to the 11 mile marker after breakfast, and Austin ran by shortly after!  I also got to see him at miles 16 and 20, and I met up with him for good after he crossed the finish line!  He finished in 3:53, which is an amazing time for anyone running a marathon, let alone a first time runner.  I am so proud of him!  Go Austin!!

My man with his medal.

After a long nap, we went to dinner to celebrate.  Our friend Jessica recommended Old Ebbitt Grill, and it did not disappoint.  I had the lobster pie and Austin got a steak.  We shared a creme brule for dessert.  It was the perfect ending to a perfect trip.

Austin had to leave early on Monday because of a business trip (boo!), so I spent the day exploring some Smithsonian museums on my own.  I headed to The Museum of American History and The Museum of Natural History.  Both had a lot of interesting exhibits with great stuff to see (i.e. the hat Lincoln was wearing when he got shot, one of the original Kermit the frog puppets, the dress that Michelle Obama wore to the inauguration ball, etc.).

Natural History Museum

American History Museum

As you can tell, we had a great trip!  We would definitely go back to D.C. again because there is just so much to see and do.  Austin and I made a pact to try and go on more mini trips to see as much of our Nation as possible!