washington d.c. day 4.

bolling inn had overbooked their rooms. 

so, as a courtesy, they put us up in the general's house, free of charge. I was soo bummed out that we had to sleep there instead of in our original $45 room. (not! hello!) they gave us keys and directions, and lizzie, jon, and i went to check out the house. it. was. so. nice. we dropped off our belongings, and went to pick up gary and mei from the airport! it's okay that their flight was so delayed, we didn't have to get up early (sarcasm). we just listened to tunes and chatted until they landed.

this is the house the next morning. not bad, right?? i wish i had gotten photos of the bedrooms and bathrooms, but i didn't think to do that. i love the covered back porches that houses in the east/south seem to all have. Jon flipped through the guest book and saw that only ONE other enlisted family has stayed there before us. and that enlisted person was a lot higher ranking than jon is. all the rest of the family's were officers. we thought that was pretty funny, and even funnier when jon signed it "CORPORAL Jon Hagerman and family"

we only stayed one night, it was fun while it lasted!

like i said previously, a perk of having my dad travel to DC with us was having his knowledge of the city and options to do really fun things. he contacted utah's senator? to get us a private tour of the U.S. capitol! it was so awesome. our tour guide was cute, and she told us lots of fun facts about the capitol. this is us with the statue of freedom, who sits on top of the capitol. she faces the east, because "the sun doesn't set on freedom". she is 19'6" tall and no other statue in washington D.C. can be taller than she is.

this is the very center of washington d.c.'s grid. 

there are two statues for every state represented in the capitol. Philo T. Farnsworth, the 'father of television' and the other was Brigham Young, the second prophet of the LDS church.

the dome of the capitol.
it was difficult getting everything in a picture. it is huge and very beautiful. 

after the tour of the capitol, we went to the library of congress. i didn't get any pictures, but it was so cool! the architecture was amazing.

lizzie had to go to work straight from the library of congress, so the rest of us tried to see as much as we could. this is one of my favorite pictures from the trip, jon and i in front of the capitol with the washington monument behind us.

gary&mei.

we went to: the united states botanical garden.

funny photo combination.

the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum:

we ate a hearty meal, that only cost around $10. yep.

 we watched a 3D vid about the hubble telescope.

the video was so amazing! stars in 3d are so worth it.

and we explored.

we explored some more outside of the museum. walked around dc, looked at beautiful statues and architecture, and even shared messages with people who have big doors.

(as jon's punishment for making horrible faces, those photos are not going to be hidden)

after allll that walking, we decided to call it a night and head home. 

i wore my sensible shoes the entire time, and my feet STILL hurt. 

jon on the other hand....

washington D.C. day 3.

on the first and second night jon and i were in D.C., we stayed at the Red Roof Inn, located in Alexandria. it worked out really well because it was close to the metro and close to where my sister lived. sweet, sweet lizzie let us borrow her jeep for the week. it was so nice of her, we wouldn't have been able to see a lot of stuff that we did without it. 

 unsurprisingly, the red roof inn didn't offer a continental. so we drove to Bolling Air Force Base to go to their commissary for breakfast. we bought this baby food. maybe one of us ate some of it for breakfast? i cannot confirm nor deny this.

after we ate, we parked the car in some sketchy neighborhood and jumped on the metro!
we made a quick stop at the museum of natural history. i hate to say it, but it was subpar compared to the one in manhattan. it was fun though, and the two of us learned a lot...

this looks busy, but its not nearly as confusing as the nyc subway.
(okay, enough of the comparisons.) 

 we zipped our way to arlington national cemetery. this is such a serene place to be. i was somewhat disappointed with the dead grass, but it was beautiful nonetheless. 

the iwo jima memorial. i've seen it before, but i had forgotten how big it was. and it has so much more meaning now. it was awesome to be there with my marine. 

it was ridiculously hot.
every morning, when we left our room, we'd take 3 bottles of water each.
this is us taking a break. when we first got to arlington, we thought it'd be possible to skip the bus ride and just walk. after we walked to the marine corps memorial, we knew that we wouldn't be able to see everything if we walked. anddddd it was way too hot. so we bought bus tickets instead. :)

the tomb of the unknowns.
definitely one of my favorite things in washington d.c. 

JFK is one of only two united states presidents buried in arlington. 

this is his headstone and the eternal flame. 

arlington was beautiful.
it was a quiet and peaceful day spent there. 

after hiking all over arlington, we. were. starving.
lizzie-beth heard of this really yummers place to eat in chinatown, so we met her there after she got off work.

uhhhh YUM. 

it was the cutest atmosphere, and had really great food. 

also, they have one in palm springs. hmm...

this is before they ate, that's why they look grouchy.

after dinner, we went back to Bolling AFB. jon and i had reserved a room at the Bolling Inn about a month before our trip out there. we had called the day before we left for DC, and then we called the day of to make sure our reservations were still good. honestly, we were both a little worried about it because their rooms went for $45 a night. that's pretty ridiculous, especially considering the prices of other hotels nearby. so something seemed fishy... they kept reassuring us, and telling us that our reservations were all set. well, when we got to the check in desk, the sassy lady at the front was 100% frazzled. the phone was ringing off the hook, and there was a line of people waiting to be helped.
to make a long story just a smidge shorter, they overbooked their rooms. meaning....we didn't have a place to stay that night. that wasn't going to fly, because we were leaving straight from there to pick up my dad and mei at the airport and bring them back to the room.
i guess you'll find out in the next post what happened........

however, 

this is how happy we are to all be reunited in washington!!