I've said it before, but it bears repeating. Time with your spouse is really important. Time away from your kids is really important. And while we love our little stinkers to the moon and back, time away from them recently was almost a necessity. So it worked out perfectly that we were invited to a wedding in North Carolina, a place I used to drive regularly when I lived in DC. And gosh, I was really "homesick" for DC. Thus, a trip to DC and North Carolina was scheduled!
Now this was no easy task, getting us to the east coast while our kids stayed home in Denver. It took a lot of coordination. I had to have my sister stay with us the night before we left so she could wake up with the kids and drive them to my best friend's house in Boulder. Then my best friend watched them until my sister got off work and could pick them up. Then she took them back to our house and survived another 30 hours until Mimi could fly in. Did I mention that my daughter has extreme separation anxiety and I also had to pray daily that she and her caregivers would survive this chaos.
So with all that planning in place (and don't forget the three pages of information I left for Amber/Kari/Mimi... Avery is a handful!), Matt and I embarked on our trip... until we got to the airport and were met with the longest security lines we'd ever seen (we found out later due to a bunch of TSA agents getting fired for groping or something similarly ridiculous). We made it to our gate, but only after they had closed the door. Bye bye plane to DC. (Insert a few tears because of how much work it took to get there only to not be heading to our destination!)
This would not have been that bad seeing as how we called Frontier and were able to secure (i.e. pay for) seats on the next flight out. Granted, it was five hours later, so we just headed to Root Down and had a nice, slow breakfast (this is all prior to 8am)....
Meanwhile, Auntie Amber assured me that things were going well on their commute to Kari's house. (Insert MAJOR sigh of relief) Here are texts I received while we waited at the airport...
But THEN. We get in line to board our flight (boarding passes in hand), and we are denied by the boarding agent. Apparently, despite our seat numbers on the boarding pass, we did not, in fact, have seats. And no amount of cajoling, arguing, complaining, or tears could fix it. (PS - Frontier was SO rude to us and I advise everyone to fly any airline but them if you can) So, here we were, stuck at the airport AGAIN, and if we didn't make the last flight out we'd have to the cancel the trip since a flight the next day wouldn't get us to the wedding on time. (Cue tears... remember, we put the kiddos through quite an ordeal for nothing! And Mimi was flying in! Ack!)
But we waited for the last flight (with more adult beverages) and some episodes of Suits...
And alas, after almost a full day at the airport (thank you wasted vacation day for Matt!), we boarded the plane (and just so happened to be seated next to Senator Blumenthal from Connecticut. I was probably the only political nerd that knew who he was (trust me, the flight attendants were SUPER rude to him, so I'm hoping they didn't know!). And yes, I did say hello to him. :)
My other fear about missing the day in DC was that we wouldn't get time with our friends who I missed SOOOO badly. :-/ But guess what, they are rockstars and met us even though we landed at 11pm. Seriously, they're the best! Drinks and conversation on Michael's rooftop until the sun came up... my favorite kind of night.
**It must be said here that I LOVE these people. These are some of the best friends anyone could ask for, and I'm so thankful we got to spend time with them. I cried saying goodbye, and I tear up thinking about how good for my soul this visit was. I'm so thankful to have such awesome people who know ME so well, the good and the bad of me. DC and these people have my heart in so many ways, and I hate the struggle of wondering where "home" is when it feels so obviously there and here. I miss that place and those friendships, and that's SO hard as we get older. That city and those people helped build me into who I am today... I miss them. Okay, gushing over...
Brunch with Bryan and the Matts the next morning in Bloomingdale:
Then we picked up our rental car and hit the road for Chapel Hill... it was gloomy/rainy weather but still a gorgeous and nostalgic drive.
Then it was wedding time!!
(Oh, and Benjamin and Avery were doing just fine:)
This was one of the most sincere and heartfelt wedding ceremonies I've ever been to. So full of love and personality in so many ways. What an awesome privilege to attend! (It was for Matt's friend Jake from DC who now lives in Durham)
Despite the weather, we had a great time!
Matt and the groom:
This group of guys has been emailing for YEARS. And I don't just mean emailing to say hi, I mean emailing thousands upon thousands of times to discuss politics/religion/music/sports/relationships/kids/you name it.... It was pretty weird to see them all in one place :)
Since I didn't know many people at the wedding (and since she is one of my favorite people ever who flew down from Boston to see me!), I left early and met up with Erin in Chapel Hill. We had some fancy cocktails at a nice place for the older crowd (since we're both in our mid-thirties after all), but then we decided to pretend like it was ten years ago... and we went dancing. :)
Time to dance! (Matt and some other people from the wedding joined us, and we CLOSED down the bar. When was the last time we did that?? The DJ was pretty great and it was fun to live like young kids for a night) :)
The next morning we met Erin for brunch in Durham and headed back to DC...
We headed straight to my cousins' new house in Falls Church and had a fun dinner with everyone!!
The next day we cruised the city for a little bit only to be slightly discouraged by the weather. But we met up with Michael and he took us to H Street for some amazing food at Toki (HIGHLY recommend this place if you're in DC, though we've heard the wait time at night is quite long), over to the new Union Square (which was closed sadly), and back to Bryan's for a drink on the patio before meeting up with the gang. It was a great afternoon.
Meeting up with our people at Chuchkey for some tasty beers and snacks:
Then grabbing dinner at Etto:
The next morning we headed to the Hill to visit with Colorado's newest Senator, Cory Gardner! So crazy that I used to work with him all those years ago... it was awesome getting to catch up with him for a little bit. He and I may not share the same political positions on everything, but I sure am proud of how much he cares about Colorado and how hard he works to do his best for our state.
Stopped by to see a few old colleagues... and gosh, I have to say that I miss that place SO much. Floods of emotions were coming over me as we walked the halls. Some places felt so familiar and some places felt so foreign. (And why couldn't they have remodeled the Senate cafeteria when I was still there?) ;)
After that Matt and I decided to be tourists. We walked by the Supreme Court (on a historic day of gay marriage discussion), walked by the Capitol and House office buildings and took the Metro down to the Mall...
...where we decided to use the AMAZING bikeshare to cruise the monuments. Best decision! If you plan it right, it is dirt cheap. As long as you change bikes every 30 min or so, you don't even have to pay (after your first "registration" fee). So we did that for the rest of the day!
We have a special place in our heart for Lincoln (awww, we miss you Lincoln!):
And we had never been to the MLK memorial, so that was awesome to see. It is very well done with many great quotes that aren't the "typical" quotes you hear so often. I took pics of a few of my faves.
Then we walked over to the spot along the Tidal Basin where Matt proposed all those years ago (Nov 2008, yikes!):
This is where it really all began!!
Still smiling after two kids :)
He picked a nice engagement spot, right? :)
Then we biked over to Old Ebbitt (where we had dinner before getting engaged)... we even got to see an old friend/bartender from Finns who bartends here now, so that was another blast from the past!
Then we biked to the American History museum to peruse there for a bit...
Then metroed over to Eastern Market to get ready for our last night in town...
Rented another bike to cruise my old neighborhood:
Look, there's my favorite apartment!!
And THEN. It's about 4:37pm and we get to Rose's Luxury, the infamous semi-new restaurant in Eastern Market that requires you to stand in line at 4:30pm until they take names at 5:30pm and tell you a general idea of when to come back to eat. Seriously. This was the line at 4:37pm. And see that tiny white rowhouse with the neon green sign? That's the restaurant. You'd miss it if you didn't know it was there (but apparently the whole world knows it's there!).
After putting our names in, we got drinks at Molly Malone's (which is the poor man's replacement for Finn MacCool's, which was our Cheers for the last year of our time in DC). But at least it felt somewhat nostalgic. #ripfinns
Old Denver (now DC) friends came to say hi!! We finally got to meet their little man Everest!
He and Avery shared the same due date!
Eventually everyone met up there so we could wait for the text that our tables were ready.
Love this guy :)
And we made it! We got in!! So here's the deal, Rose's was named the BEST NEW RESTAURANT IN AMERICA by Bon Appetit last year. Seriously. In all of America. And at first I thought there's no way it could be that good. But alas, I was proven wrong. We enjoyed one of the BEST dining experiences of our lives... the food was unbelievable! The atmosphere was great, the decor simple but trendy (my pics don't do it justice at all)... and the FOOD. By the time we left, we ate everything on the menu. And it was pretty amazing. :) (Bon Appetit article: http://www.bonappetit.com/restaurants-travel/best-new-restaurants/article/roses-luxury)
Oh my gosh I miss these people:
Our last day, Matt and I decided to take an Uber over to Georgetown to just stroll around and grab lunch. We hadn't seen all the new construction by the water (which are super cute), and it was fun to enjoy the nice weather by the river. Gosh I miss this town.
Grabbing a beer and reading at Tony & Joe's for a bit...
Pic in front of the Swedish Embassy of course:
And we finished our time with a visit to Kramer Books in Dupont Circle. You'll recognize these if you've lived in DC :) We got a little dessert and worked for a bit, then begrudgingly called an Uber to go pick up our luggage and head to the airport.
Well, we made it to our flight...
Goodbye DC, we miss you more than you'll ever know. We miss almost everything about you. We hope to see you soon.
Oh, hello plains of Colorado...
Don't worry, even though Mimi already watched our kids for four days, I put her to work the next two days while I recovered from a stomach bug! She's the best Mimi ever. Right??
Some pics from her phone while we were away:
