A December update! (part 1)

Once, again I got busy and haven't updated this in a while...but that's life.

So I will attempt to update you all with what has been happening around here...

For the week of Thanksgiving Meagan came to see me!!! Yipee.  She was here for 8 days and we had a great time exploring the city. She had never been to DC before so we spent the week wandering around, seeing the sights, visiting museums, walking until our feet hurt. Unfortunately I was sick the first few days so we didn't get to do quite as much as I had hoped, but we really did visit most corners of the city.  The week she was here we took over 300 pictures, so I can't post them all-but I will attempt to post a bunch that will give you an idea of everything we did while she was here!  

The first day she was here we went to see the Capitol Building. Unfortunately we couldn't get very close because they are building the site of the 2009 Presidential Inauguration. 

BUT: we did take some fun pictures.  And throughout the week Meagan kept feeling like the Capitol building was moving, because you can see it from almost anywhere in the city. Meg- I promise it is not moving!

That evening we also wandered into the Botanic Gardens, which are BEAUTIFUL, and ventured into China Town to see the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum...and went to Potbelly's (a great sandwich shop) for dinner (by the way, the China town in DC does not even come close to comparing to the China town in San Francisco...)

Throughout the Botanic gardens there were replicas of monuments and museums, all made out of plant materials. AWESOME!

We saw beautiful orchids in the botanic gardens, they were really hard to get a good picture of because the room was really dark...

My favorite part is the Jungle room. It is over 3 stories tall and has tons of tropical plants growing in it.  There is a catwalk that is 2nd story height that you can walk around on and see all the plants. 

Day 2 in the city we wandered around and checked out some more museums....on the walk from Union Station down to the National Mall we stopped at this big sculpture of President Taft...

And then wandered past the National Gallery of Art (we didn't go in it this day) to the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum:

cool glass pyramids outside the National Gallery of Art

This was a real NASA lunar lander, but it never went to the mood because a previous version was successful.

A moon rock!

The Ice Skating Rink in the National Sculpture gardens, which we didn't get to go on. When we went the tickets were all sold out, and the next day it rained all day!  Sad times!

The next day we wandered some more!

To see the White House!

On a tour of the monuments and memorials!  This is the reflecting pool with the Lincoln memorial in the background.

This is a view of the Washington Monument from the Jefferson Memorial.

The Roosevelt Memorial (by far my favorite!)

More of the Jefferson Memorial! And a Beautiful Tree!

The Lincoln Sculpture in the Lincoln Memorial.

Where Martin Luther King Jr. stood for his I Have A Dream speech!

To the American History Museum! This is Meagan with the real C3PO!

Crazy  LED art in the tunnel between the East and West buildings of the National Gallery of Art
Awesome Alexander Calder mobile in the National Gallery of Art

The Library of Congress, the largest library in the world! (the second biggest library in the United States is the University of California systems library!)

More Library of Congress!

A beautiful day in the city!

For Meagan's last day in the city we went to the Baltimore harbor so that we could say we saw the Atlantic ocean. Technically it was the Chesapeake bay...but whatever.

 There were these really cute paddle boats on the bay, but they were closed for the winter.

Meagan, is that the best place to put your face?

The USS Constellation!

Well that is a small taste of pictures from Meagan's trip here...I will post more updates of current events tomorrow!