10.28.2007

Skymiles!!




Niels and I experienced the beauty of flying free on Delta Skymiles for our first time last month. I was gifted some miles from my office back in May, and we have since been toying around with many cities that we could travel to that would be fun and relatively inexpensive.

My theory is that when school and work are involved in travel planning, there is never really an optimal time to take a break. Things will always be busy, so the best thing to do is just pick a time and place and then go!

After considering all of our options, we settled on Washington DC. Niels and I have both been before, but it has been at least 10+ years. We stayed with our amazing step-grandparents that live in Bethesda, MD. Their house is over 40 years old, and everything within it has some sentimental value and tells an elaborate story from their lives. They have traveled pretty much anywhere cool you can think of , and have been to all 7 continents! Crazy.

Our highlight of staying at their house was getting to see them use the "torture chamber" , a.k.a. the best business concept ever! The "torture chamber" is a mini-semi truck that is equipped with a full-blown gym in the back of it. It comes to your home along with a personal trainer 3 days a week. Wouldn't that be nice!!






Our two favorite sites from our trip include were Mt.Vernon (George Washington's Estate) and the newly opened International Spy Museum. It was fascinating to learn about the history of espionage! They had several exhibits that dispalyed recording bugs and hiddent cameras in everything you could possibly think of. (Even artificial dog poop!) We spent almost 3 hours there. It is a must see if you are back east.


Our friend Stephanie works for the Ohio Senator on Capitol Hill. She arranged for us to have a staff guided tour. We felt pretty cool going through all the back doors and underground tunnels and shuttles that all the senators and congressmen use to get around. We were most impressed by the amazing architecture . There are authentic frescos and beautiful domes all over the place. One cool thing about the Capitol is that there are statues all over the place. What happens is that each state gets to submit two statues to the Capitol. There are strict guidelines for them including: the chosen person has to have done something really relevant for the particular state, they have to be bronze or marble, etc. etc. So basically you have to be really special. We came across one of the two Utah statues on our tour, Brigham Young. We never found the other one, but my guess is that it is likely Donny Osmond ;)




2 comments:

Sara said...

It looks like you guys had a great time. So fun to see your pictures!

Anonymous said...

wwwwwooooooww that picture of you two in front of george washington's estate is beautiful. well done, well done. love youuuu
(lizzie)