Washington DC

Keeping with tradition I'm posting this about two weeks after the fact. Lexi and I went to Washington DC for a long weekend. One of Lexi's good friends, Kathleen, lives just outside the city. She was gracious enough to let us stay with her. She even let us sleep in her bed. (She slept in the other room--it wasn't sketchy)

This is Lexi with Kat with the Washington Memorial in the background.

We got a chance to see downtown a little bit. This is Chinatown. I was surprised to learn that there is a building restriction in the city that limits the height of buildings. Other than special monuments (i.e. Washington) buildings can't be higher than 12 stories tall (or something around that). It didn't really feel like we were in the middle of a big city because the buildings were very medium-sized.

We also met up with Adam and Andrea Alba (that's a lot of a's). Adam is one of my old mission companions. He's in law school at George Washington University. It's kind of a strange picture, but I just realized that I didn't snap any other pictures with them.


The weekend we were there just so happened to be the cherry blossom festival. I wondered why they needed to have a festival for their cherry blossoms until I actually saw them. It was so beautiful downtown. Totally festival-worthy! And after being in the frozen land of Ithaca it was nice to see some harbingers of spring that will eventually come.

This is the Jefferson Memorial

View of Washington Memorial from steps of Lincoln Memorial

Inside Lincoln Memorial

Part of the WWII Memorial

This is the Federal Reserve. I wanted to get a good look at Uncle Ben Bernanke, but I don't have a paparazzi-grade zoom lens. It was also a Saturday, so he probably wasn't in the office.

On Sunday we went to Arlington Cemetery and saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was an amazing experience. It is a very tranquil, respectful place. I think that most of us (especially myself) aren't patriotic enough. This trip was a good reminder for me.

When we pulled into Kat's neighborhood we saw this gigantic structure. It is the George Washington Memorial Masonic Temple. It turns out that they give tours, so we went through it. It was a very interesting experience to say the least. The top of the tower had an amazing view of DC.

On the way home we were able to see the Washington DC Temple (non-Masonic version). It was closed at the time, so we didn't get to go inside :(. This temple is so big! It was Lexi's first time seeing it in person. I had been there before, but we were both amazed at how big it looks when you get right up next to it.

Then it just so happened that we drove right through Scranton, so Lexi humored me and we stopped at the Steam Town Mall to see the sign. It's in the food court at the mall these days.