Cherry Blossoms!

My last little *check* I had to make while living in the DC area was seeing the Cherry Blossoms. Everyone rants and raves about it and now I know why! They are GORGEOUS! THIS GUY helped me keep track of when they were blooming and what to expect when going into the National Mall during the Cherry Blossom Festival.

This photo is super blurry, but you can get the idea. EXPECT CROWDS UPON CROWDS!!! I've never seen the metro so packed in my life! This was actually on our way back home, and the pay stations ended up not working because of the crowds so everyone at this point got a free ride! YAY US!

Selfie with the blossoms

Crowds, crowds and more crowds! It wasn't even this bad in NYC when we went!

So pretty! And this was actually one of the only pink trees we saw! Most were still white. 

My person =)

Jefferson Memorial. We were too lazy to walk around to it. 

Cherry Blossoms Trees line the whole Tidal Basin

I was so glad we got to see them! Even with the amount of people that were there too, it was totally worth it!

Money and Museums!

WAAAAYYYY back at the beginning of February, D and I took a day to see some more DC sites! 

You guys get to see very great quality Iphone photos today! I didn't dare bring my good camera (cameras and photo taking weren't allowed anyways) because we were touring the Bureau of Engraving and Printing! AKA THE REAL MONEY MAKERS! 

 The tour is free and a lot shorter then I thought it was going to be. Probably wise so that people don't go and make counterfeit! They take you through some of the process and you can see through the windows and watch the workers do their thing. I had fun waving at them, you could tell they get bored.

But y'all, the process is SO TEDIOUS! I learned A LOT! Like did you know that money really isn't made of paper?! Yeah, me either. It's FABRIC, and other things combined, but mostly fabric! I couldn't get over that. So money literally, DOES NOT grow on trees people! 

 After, we went to the Washington Monument and rode to the top to enjoy the view. D hadn't done it before so it was a must! Sadly, it went undocumented, but you can see the view here, when I went with my mom and sister in November. Oh, and it was also FREEZING!!! The wind chill + humidity + winter= FROZEN! Being from Alaska, my body temp is always like a furnace, and saying that it was cold... means something! BRRRR!

We hopped back onto the metro and went to the Postal Museum. Seriously, the architecture back East is unbelievable!

It used to be an actual post office and they still have the old mail boxes. Aren't they so cool?!

 They had a ton of old stamps to look at in the museum. Fun Fact: D used to collect stamps! I learn something new about him all the time! Going on 5 years of being together and you can still learn something new about eachother. =) Marriage is fun you guys!

Anyways, they had these stamps at the table you could go through and pick them out. I totally thought they were fake and just for little kids to entertain them, but D proved me wrong! I couldn't believe they were giving free stamps away. I acquired a couple from WW2 and so forth. Pretty cool! 

 They had a whole area of old postal transportation. We didn't stay too long but it would be really fun for kids! There was a lot of hands on activities and what not.

 I'm giving you guys lots of fun facts today! Did you know the postal service has a mascot? Yep, it's this dog named Owney. And yes, this is the real dog! Taxidermied and all!! I don't remember the history but it was creepy. 

 Again, the architecture... so dang cool! I'll never get over it.

Ford Theater and The Capitol

D and I always try to do something on the weekends, and when we aren't travelling to another state, we are usually exploring DC area.

After getting back from Vegas, we only had a couple weeks until heading to Alaska. So that Saturday  (Dec. 6th) we decided to go into DC and see the Ford theater and tour the Capitol building.

The Ford Theater you need tickets which is like 4-5 bucks. Not too shabby. If you're early they take you down to the museum and you can see the gun that killed Lincoln and other random things. It was cool but we had to wait down there for an hour (yes we were that early, we thought the metro would take longer). After we waited, they took the group into the theater. It's smaller then I thought it was. but back then they didn't have huge theaters like we do now. 

The lady who gave the "briefing" stood on the stage and gave us all the history and logistics about what went down. It was cool, but kind of long. I started to fall asleep... (school's not for me folks, I can't do lectures!) I did learn some new things though.. like the interior is NOT original due to a fire... sad. That kind of took "wow" factor away. Nonetheless, it is a must see in DC!

Us and the Presidential booth

Exterior of the Theater

Across the street is the house that they took Lincoln to get medical attention. I guess I never paid much attention in class because I didn't remember that happened... This was part of the tour to go into the house and see the room and bed he died on. 

After going into the house, they take you up an elevator and its a huge museum of the civil war history and more about Lincoln... We decided to bypass all of that and head to the Capitol.

You don't need tickets to the Capitol but I advise you call in and make an appointment if its prime tourist season. I'm all about travelling on the off season! It's cheaper, less crowded and I find you get more out of tours this way.

Our tour group had maybe 10 people in it so our tour guide, who was extremely cool, gave us a longer tour! 

D and I with our headsets on. I only had my iphone with me to take photos. I didn't want to risk my camera getting taken away. Is it just me or do government official buildings make you uncomfortable? yes, you too? okay good! 

This circular hallway was AMAZINGLY beautiful!

Brigham Young statue! I guess there are two statues of people from every state in the building. This was news to me. The state votes on the statues if the person meets certain qualifications (being dead is one for example)

The ceilings are so pretty! Very "Europe" like. I was loving it.

Unfortunately, the main dome is being retrofitted and needs to be done by the next inauguration. The exterior of the dome has scaffolding all over it too. But you could see some of the artistry done which was really nice.