D.C. y'all!

Good grief, how has it been a week since I last posted? I know everyone is dying to see my pictures from D.C., so sit back and get ready for lotsa scenery shots. My sister says no one likes scenery pictures, but how can you not love all these fantastic buildings? 

It was a glorious day, but very windy/snot-freezing cold. Brooke, Candace, and I walked from our friend's apartment to see the sights. Up first was the Capitol.

View from the other side. 

Looking down towards the Washington Monument. All the inauguration stuff was still up (you can see the fence at the bottom there). 

We walked down to the Natural History Museum for some much needed heat and food. Did you know most of the Smithsonian Museums are FREE?! How convenient! The Natural History one had a pretty awesome cafe downstairs.

Pretty cool Earth projection room describing how our big ol' planet was formed.

NEMO!

Dental exams.

RAWR!

All I could think about amongst the dinosaurs was the ever classic movie, The Land Before Time.

Cera! 

Little Foot!

Then we moved on to Ice Age. 

There is an impressive collection of gems and minerals up in this museum. 

Exhibit A: The Hope Diamond. 

I'll take two, please. 

This ginormous emerald. Ya know, this is my birthstone if any of you sticky bandits wants to go grab it up for Rachelpalooza in May.

Warning: the rocks/minerals just mesmerized me so I took a bajillion pictures of them.

Isn't it crazy that these formations are just nature made?!

So colorful!

Raise your hand if you had one of those rock tumbler kits when you were a kid. They never turned out as cool as these babies.

Malachite is so awesome.

Hey there gold from Alabama! The symbol for gold on the periodic table is Au. Coincidence? I think not. (referencing Auburn, duh)

Glow in the dark rocks! 

Well hellooooo! Saved the best for last, amiright? Hahaha

We ventured back out into the cold to see more of the monuments. My favorite is this sucker, the Washington Monument.

I came to DC in 5th grade, and we went to the top. There was an earthquake a bit ago, and they have the whole thing fenced off so we weren't allowed to get close. 

Dang fence. 

The monuments are set up in a cross shape with the Washington Monument in the middle. The White House was off to one side.

Next was the World War II Memorial. 

I wish the fountains had been turned on. 

After that we walked down next to the reflecting pond

to the Lincoln Memorial. That pond reminds me of Forrest Gump. 

There were TONS of Canadian geese. 

Can you see the Capitol way back there? 

Hey look, a non-scenery pic! 

I probably shouldn't admit this, but the Lincoln Memorial reminds me of that Ren and Stimpy episode where they think there is gold hidden in his ear. I have a weird memory.

If you happened to be checking Instagram that day, you saw how obsessed I was with the columns. 

Of course when we were headed back to the house was the perfect time of day for picture taking.. ya know, when the sun sets just enough that all the buildings turn a rose-y gold-ish color. I wish we had had more time to walk around!

See what I mean about the lovely coloring on the Washington Monument?

We didn't make it over to the Jefferson Memorial, but I got this shot through the cab window. 

We headed to happy hour soon after that for these big ass beers. 

I was ruhl excited!

The DC locals/new friends!

It rained the next day, so we didn't do much sightseeing. We went to the W Hotel for a couple beers and I got to see one of my old friends from college (hey Kendal!).  There is a straight shot view to the White House from the rooftop bar. 

While we were there, Obama was either leaving or arriving to the White House. We got to watch the line of cars headed to pick him up. How exciting!

In the metro.

The rain continued the next day, but that didn't stop us from getting bottomless mimosas. Let's be honest, nothing can stop bottomless mimosas. 

Yummm

That pretty much set the tone for the day, so there weren't a lot of pictures. Sunday was our last day, and we didn't fly out until nighttime so we got to do some more sightseeing. Of course I forgot the carry along my nice camera. Drats. 

I love the neighborhoods in DC! How cute are these? 

We ate lunch in the train station.

Then we headed to the Air and Space Museum. 

Who else is a sucker for old logos and fonts? 

I know I can't be the only one. 

Once we left there, it was time to head back to pack up.

It was the perfect picture taking time on our way back! Ahhh I love the rose-y gold buildings!

One of our gracious hosts, Matt! 

Goodbye, DC! I can't wait to come back!