**warning: about a million pictures ahead**
One of my very dear friends got married last weekend, and thanks to frequent flier miles, hotel rewards points, and sheer determination, we were able to make it out for the amazing weekend. And since we aren't able to travel much these days due to various limitations, we decided to make the most of our travel out east with a jaunt up to Washington, DC to visit our old stomping grounds. The trip was absolutely amazing, a little bit heartbreaking (because we don't actually live there anymore), and much too short as always.
Friday evening we caught a direct flight* to Raleigh-Durham and checked into our beautiful hotel (Washington Duke Inn... wow). Sadly, Matt didn't have enough vacation days for us to get out earlier, so we weren't able to partake in all of the Indian wedding festivities of the evening (Erin's husband Alok is Indian), but I did get to catch Erin out at a cute wine bar in downtown Durham still in some of the traditional garb. She looked beautiful and so utterly happy. And a HUGE surprise is that her med school friends (some amazing women) flew our dear friend Stephanie in from KENYA for the weekend!! They kept it a secret from me too, and I was brought to tears seeing our wonderful friend who now lives so very far away. I could tell right away that it was going to be a sweet, sweet weekend.
The clouds moved in on Saturday but didn't dampen anyone's spirits, especially the bride's. While Matt took Benjamin down to the hotel pool, the girls all helped Erin get ready (including me doing her hair?!?) at the hotel, and she looked stunning.
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| we skipped the hotel crib and had him sleep on the 2nd bed :) |
The wedding was being held at one of her doctor-colleague's homes about 30 minutes outside of Durham, and sadly, the weather seemed quite ominous. With spirits still high, we made it out to the estate and hunkered down as the 5pm wedding was delayed for two hours during a massive downpour. You know that Erin and Alok have amazing friends and family when not one person seemed frustrated or upset about having to get a little wet while waiting under the tent or getting shuttled one-by-one from the house to the tent under an umbrella. The mint juleps were flowing (it was Derby day afterall!), the appetizers were being served, and everyone was happy. Some of us girls waited with Erin in the house for awhile and had a great time dancing, chatting, and taking pictures. She was such a beautiful, happy, excited bride!!
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| photos from her photographer |
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| being surrounded by doctors boosts my IQ by 30 points |
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| waiting out the rain before Benjamin had to get into warmer clothes... |
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| the manly duty of carrying all the women's stuff to the car |
Sunday morning we met up with the newlyweds and some friends for breakfast at Foster's Market (YUM). My old friend Cory from our days in the Senate even drove up from Charlotte to say hello. I don't think I had seen him in at least four years or more... but it was fun to reminisce and chat about his old boss John Edwards. :) After saying our farewells, we drove up to Washington, DC, and I must say that Benjamin was quite the trooper! He slept for much of the drive and didn't seem to mind getting changed at a rest area. And by the time we made it into DC for Karen to pick us up at the rental car drop-off, he was back in good spirits and ready to hang out! Good thing, because we met up with Whit, Carly, and Karen in my old neighborhood for dinner and updates on how much DC (and Eastern Market) has changed in the last three years. We walked the neighborhood, stood in awe of just how different things are now, and missed the "old days". We stayed at Whit's place (thank you State Dept for his amazing place!), and Benjamin was a rockstar sleeping through his THIRD night of the trip (in his comfy stroller)!
On Monday we slept in a little before Matt headed off with Whit for lunch on H Street while Benjamin and I met up with an old roommate and her son Judah for lunch at Busboys and Poets. It was SO terrific catching up with her (I could go on forever about her, so I'll just stick with that).
Benjamin and I then met up with Matt while Whit had to head to language class (he's moving to Columbia this summer). We decided to catch the metro up to the National Zoo in Woodley Park, but of course had to stop for a picture at the famous Ben's Chili Bowl, since obviously, it has such a cool name (and delicious chili). :) After swinging by Bryan and my's old apartment at the Woodley Park Metro stop (memories!), we trekked up to the zoo and enjoyed a comfortable warm walk around the semi-barren zoo. Seriously, where are all the animals?? I've always had that gripe with the national zoo, but I suppose I can't be too upset because it is free and all... thankfully we did at least get to see the two pandas eating (indoors, boo) along with a couple other cute animals. Matt's visit there was entirely ruined because the otters were temporarily moved as their "new habitat" was being constructed. Devastation.
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| first metro ride! |
We then met up briefly with the Nagel family who metroed down from Germantown. We enjoyed some drinks while catching up at Open City and had a great time (their boys are two of the cutest I know!!). They are in the process of adopting a little boy from Russia who has Downs. Due to political issues over there, the process has been put on hold, so if you think about it, please pray that they get to take the little boy home soon!
That night we headed over to Michael's condo where he hosted a fabulous party for us. Drinks, appetizers, pizza from Matchbox... all on his awesome rooftop! The weather got a little chilly, which meant Benjamin went to sleep quickly all bundled up and being snuggled by everyone, but we stayed on that roof for hours catching up, laughing, reminiscing, and dreaming about what life would be like if the Larson family still lived in DC. (Thank you for such an amazing night Michael!)
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| the awesome view from Michael's |
After staying up WAY too late talking with our friends, we slept in on Tuesday (and again, Benjamin apparently loved snoozing in his comfy stroller... what a lifesaver that stroller was for us!) and were sad to find out that rain was in town for most of the day. We still decided to walk downtown in hopes that we could beat it, but of course by the time we got within blocks of the White House, the rain started coming down! I had envisioned so many cute pictures of Benjamin on his first trip to DC with the White House, the monuments, the Capitol... and sadly we just couldn't make it happen. He snoozed away while we walked in the rain taking a quick picture of the White House then heading out to the Hill to meet up with some old friends/coworkers. We were able to catch my old friend Congressman Gardner for a few minutes to chat and take a photo, and I swung by the Senate side to see some friends in the Russell Building. It was so bittersweet roaming the halls of the Senate once again... I was a little overcome with nostalgia and longing for that crazy, bustling life I lead for over five years. Wow how life has changed.
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| Nick is Chief of Staff for Cong. Tipton! What!?! :) |
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| SO CRAZY TO SEE THIS |
So that's it! What a LONG post, sorry! We loved seeing so many old friends in such a short visit, and while I am certainly so grateful to live in such an amazing place with great friends and family nearby, I think there will always be a part of me that longs for my other "home". I suppose many parents go through this struggle trying to decide between one place or another (or in our case a big, expensive city vs. a small, less expensive city), or between a condo in the middle of it all and a home with a giant yard and garage. And it sucks, that whole struggle. I guess until we win Powerball, we can't have it all :) But don't think that I'm not going to play Powerball now and then just so I can try!
* For the moms-to-be out there, I did want to share how our flying experience went since I was most nervous about this and craving all the advice I could get before we left! We did end up bringing both our carseat and stroller on the trip and decided to gate check both based on advice I'd been given (we also put bags we found on Amazon over each which seemed to work well). This turned out great, and on our flight out Southwest even allowed us to bring the carseat on the plane since there were a few open seats. It was really nice to not have anyone next to us! We fed him during takeoff and landing, though figuring out the timing of landing was a little tricky and we ended up having to use the pacifier also... but no ear problems to report. Otherwise we just brought a couple toys to keep him busy if need be, and Benjamin did excellently. He didn't sleep for too long, but he was in a good mood and thankfully didn't cry/bother any of the other passengers. They actually complimented us on his demeanor and "behavior" during the flight! Shocking, I know :) And even though we took the exact same thing through security in Denver and DC, the TSA treated our diaper bag differently both times. They most certainly don't care about what or how many liquids you have in a diaper bag, but for some reason Denver wanted me to pull everything out and keep it separate (which is annoying and had us waiting at security while they went through my bag and rescanned it), and DC didn't care at all. Oh, and Southwest wanted to see Benjamin's birth certificate, but Frontier didn't. Go figure.
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