washington dc

As you may recall from the last post, October 7th was Honk's and my one year anniversary! Woo! 

We celebrated by heading to Washington DC! Honks was in a wedding, so we made a vacation out of it.

We kicked off early on our flight enjoying some bourby drinks.

The nice flight attendant gave us a couple of free ones! 

Layover in Houston, of course I made Honks take a "it's our anniversary, we need a photo" selfie. 

Note the new hair piece. 

When our flight landed, we were in Baltimore (cheaper to fly into). I was confident I could figure out the metro to get us into the city where we would take an uber from there. What I wasn't expecting was there was a time cut off for traveling back to DC. Oops. After a lot of walking in the wrong direction, we ended up taking an uber from the parking lot/metro entrance that was closed. It wasn't too expensive, so that was nice! 

By the time we arrived, it was around midnight, and your girl here was hungry. We met up with Kevin (the groom), who so nicely took us to a yummy pizza place. Look at the size of those slices!! 

I believe it was this particular evening that we went back to Kevin's place. We had to be super quiet because Amanda (the bride) was sleeping. We tiptoed inside, Kevin went to tell Amanda we were there, I sat on the couch, and Honk's pulled a chair out from the dining room table. As soon as he sat down, the chair broke and he hit the ground. It was hilarious, but of course I couldn't laugh as loud as I wanted, so instead I took pics (which must've been on snapchat, because they're not on my phone).  Amanda came out from the back and was totally cool with everything. She is so nice! 

We had gotten an AirBnB for the week. I highly recommend it! We found one in Kevin's neighborhood, it was very convenient. 

The next day we went to go sightseeing before everyone got in town. 

Pigeons, my sister's favorite (totally sarcastic).

Honk's middle name is Lanier, so I made him take a picture with the street sign.

The Washington Monument! Probably my favorite in DC. 

We found a nice person to take our pic. 

Can you spot little ol' me? 

Lincoln Memorial

Other side of the Washington Monument.

World War II Memorial 

Walking down towards the Lincoln Memorial 

Finally arrived! 

I wish all these people would get out of my scenery pics. 

Just a couple of beardies hanging out. 

A tile recognizing where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I have a dream speech". 

Korean War Memorial 

FDR Memorial 

If I remember right, this was a gift from Japan. 

Views of the Jefferson Memorial from the river. 

and again with my favorite..

and this guy!

Finally made it to the Jefferson Memorial. 

I found a unicorn!

We stood next to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing whilst waiting for our uber. 

We went straight to Daniel and Margaret Anne's house to meet their precious new nugget, Lochlan. 

Adorbs! 

We met up with the crew at a bar that had tacos. I can't remember the name, but the food was good! 

Groomie and groomsman love.

After that we went to the most magical place.. a bourbon bar. I believe it was called Jack Rose (I only recalled bc of Titanic). 

Walls and walls of the glorious drink. Cheers!

Thanks to Kevin, we got to tour the Capitol building the next day! 

This is a replica of the statue of Freedom that stands atop the Capitol building. The real one is bronze. 

jokesters.

There are two statues representing people from every state, but I think there are three from Alabama. Here is Helen Keller. 

We started in the Crypt. 

The star in the middle shows where all the streets are laid out from in the city. 

Sadly, there was a ton of restoration going on in the Rotunda. 

Rosa Parks, another Alabama statue. 

Our tour group: me, Honks, JB, Robb, and Ciarra

We're outside the Florida rep's room, where Kevin works. How exciting! 

That night was the rehearsal dinner.

Daniel and Honks having a moment. 

We got a little silly, but it was fun!

I pretty sure Honks and I ordered late night food for the second time of the trip..

Wedding day soon arrived! We grabbed some lunch, then Honky was off to do groomsman duties. I went back to the room to watch some football, take a nap, and get ready. Thank goodness Auburn had an off weekend, or it could've offset my plans!

The ceremony was outside and was gorgeous! Amanda's dress was spectacular. It was a bit chilly, but shortly after we all went inside for dancing and drinks.

Everybody loves Honks. 

Heather, Robb, JB, and Ciarra. Ciarra became my wedding date since these other three were in the ceremony. 

Daniel, (i can't remember, how embarassing), Patrick, and Honks modeling the awesome sunglasses favors. 

He knows how to work it, y'all. Fist pumping and all. 

The happy couple gettin' down. 

Isn't that dress beautiful?! 

I think this was a Sewanee folks pic. 

Isn't Honk's purse cute? 

The next day, we found some grub, then walked to the Smithsonian Zoo. 

Fun fact, I sometimes refer to Honks as my little buffalo. See the resemblance?! Of course I made him pose with the sign. 

As I did with other things. 

Lions!

The elephants were quite active. 

Look who I found! 

Mr. Leopard

Flamingoes are just so pretty. 

I seize any opportunity to take a picture with an eagle!

As we were leaving, we saw an animal on the loose! A real life raccoon! 

It was his feeding time, apparently.

I had to pose with the sign on the way out. 

We went to eat at a BBQ restaurant after the zoo. It was yummy and quite filling.

That night we walked around to see the monuments lit up at night. 

Vietnam Memorial

We hopped into a little gift shop while waiting on our uber to get out of the cold.. who would buy this?! hahah! 

The next day we went to see some museums. 

First up was the Newseum.

It was all about the history of the news and had some interesting historical pieces, like this section of the Berlin Wall. 

The balcony had awesome views. 

Selfie!

The gift shop had this gem that I wish we would've purchased..

After that we went to the National Museum of American History. 

We started running out of time, so we moseyed over to the Natural History Museum. 

A water buffalo! Honks wouldn't pose with this one. 

But I got him to take one with the non-water version. :)

I got a possum pic for Binky.

A buffalo skeleton and a cooperative boyfriend! :D 

Of course I posed with the Herrings! 

And my dad's name was basically up in here with the Rays being next to the Herring fishies. 

As with the trip I took back in 2013 here, I loved the room with the rocks! 

So so pretty! 

Dinosaur room! 

Daniel and baby Lochlan came to meet up with us. His wife works in this museum. How cool!

We walked down the mall to the Capitol building.

I found this albino squirrel. Creeptastic. 

The golden hour set in! 

Margaret Anne walked to meet us and I took a couple of pics of the fam! 

We went to Kevin and Amanda's that night for some bourbon and visiting on our last night. We ordered sushi in, and it was delicious!

We got up the next day and took our packed bags to the train station. We checked them into a bag check while we got some lunch. 

We had enough time to run over to the Postal Museum! 

For some reason, I was really looking forward to this one. 

The most rare stamp: the inverted Jenny. 

Have you heard of Post Secret? 

You write your secret on a postcard, then send it in. 

Owney, the unofficial mascot of the postal service. 

I had not bought a piece of art on this trip, so I got a little double stamp that was matted of the monuments with the cherry blossoms. I didn't take a picture, but it was a cute little momento! 

We made it to the airport and onto our flight on time! 

Someone was not ready to get back to the real world..