D.C.

This past week I spent time in D.C. for an internship conference.  The conference itself was a complete waste of time, but I was able to spend time with my cousin, Kristen and her husband Josh, who moved out there from Seattle in January.  They were wonderful hosts (no surprise, there) and took me around to a bunch of monuments/places of interest.

We met for dinner on Tuesday night.  Kristen said I could hop on the Metro and come to a place near her work.  I was a little overwhelmed braving this, especially since I had to get off one line and get to another.  I made my way to the restaurant during "rush hour" so I had to become pretty aggressive - which isn't usually my style.

I got to Circa early, but didn't mind since the sun was shining.

Pretty fountain

Josh & Kristen

On Wednesday, Kristen picked me up from the hotel after the conference and we commenced the ultimate sight seeing.  We started with Arlington Cemetery, the Iwo Jima Memorial and the White House.  We met up with Josh for dinner, and then continued the sight seeing well into the night.  I think we finally made it back to their condo just before midnight.  We were all exhausted, but I was completely blown away by everything they showed me.  

 

Arlington National Cemetery

JFK's grave sight and the Eternal Flame

JFK

RFK

RFK

Edward Kennedy

Guard at Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Changing of the guard

He's telling us to be quiet and stand

View of the tomb from the garden/yard below

Iwo Jima from behind

Amazing with the sunset

White House

Washington Monument from the White House

Backside of White House

 Cousins!

White House (backside) at night

The Capitol building

Washington Monument reflecting outside the Capitol

Lincoln Memorial

Abe

Smiling Abe

Frowning Abe

Jefferson Memorial

Jefferson

Backside of Jefferson with Washington Monument between pillars

Kristen and Josh made this trip for me.  I miss them a lot, but they seem really happy there.  It was so great to see them in their new element, and having them give me a great tour was really awesome. 

Take Luck,

LP

Flashback Friday - The Honeymoon

Does this sound at all familiar?

It should.  

Because I have so far posted about The Meeting, The Proposal and The Wedding.  So naturally, with our one year anniversary being Monday, I figure it is only appropriate to complete the flashbacks with a look at our honeymoon.

We took off for our St. Lucian honeymoon on Monday night, a day after the wedding.  It was literally a full day of travel to get from SeaTac to St. Lucia in the Eastern Caribbean.  We flew from Seattle, to Chicago, to Puerto Rico, and finally landed on the island.  The trip time wouldn't have been too bad, we had to sit and wait through a five hour layover in Chicago.

When we got to Puerto Rico, we saw a map and were able to put into view just how far we had traveled so far, and just how far St. Lucia is from Seattle.

 

We finally made it to our Sandals resort - Halcyon Beach and were looking a little rough around the edges.  But considering the week before the wedding, the wedding and reception, and the 19 hour trip to the island, we were more than a little tuckered out.

Lovely

We wasted no time in putting our tootsies and booties in the sand and relaxing.  

We had the most amazing trip and definitely celebrated the fact that we were newlyweds.  We laid on the beach, drank lots of fruity drinks, went on excursions and took in every minute of the amazing island we were on.  It was "winter" in St. Lucia, so it was only 85+ degrees everyday with a few minutes of rain showers. 

Prepare for more picture overload.

Our suite amongst the botanical garden

View from just outside our suite

Restaurant on the resort

More views down the beach

Handsome hubby

That's me!

Pure bliss

Lovebirds

On an excursion down the St. Lucia coast

Piton Mountains

Getting ready to snorkle

Post-snorkling

Mud bath in hot springs

Waterfall

Under the freezing waterfall

Cliff jumping at Honeymoon Cove

Cliff jumping with our excursion group

Candlelit dinner on the beach

More lovebird-ing

Sand

Love under an umbrella during two-minute rain shower

Rat Island

Another Sandals resort on St. Lucia

Being silly

Our last night

I don't know if I would call it the highlight of the trip, but there was one thing that we always talk about when anyone asks about our honeymoon.  I had planned what I thought was going to be a very romantic, sunset dinner cruise.  As soon as we were dropped off at the boat, Ryan immediately told me that I had been extremely mislead.  This was no romantic, sunset dinner cruise.  This was going to be a crazy and drunken booze cruise.  We ended up having a really good time and mingled with some other couples that were on their honeymoon.  

Then it got awkward.

The MC of the dinner cruise was a midget.  

And that's not at all what made it awkward.

He called out one of the other employees who was his "ex-girlfriend" and they started pole dancing together.  

That is were the awkwardness began.  It didn't end there.

They proceeded to pole dance with each other... Eventually taking it to the floor where the midget MC mounted the actually-above-average sized woman and started to hump her.

Awesome.

Nothing says romance like a humping midget. 

Gross.

I never imagined I would have this sort of memory/story to share from our honeymoon.

Take Luck,

LP