More of D.C...

The second full day of our vacation was really fun. We had tickets for an Old Town Trolley tour. It's basically a bus (trolley) that takes you around to various attractions and you can get on or off at any of the attractions you wish. It was really nice to be able to do this, mostly because we were able to see way more than we would have seen on foot, and the driver of the trolley was very knowledgable about DC and narrated the entire time.

We got on the trolley at Union Station, a historic building with beautiful architecture. It is still used as a train station today, with Amtrak trains departing and arriving all the time. It is also connected to the metro station, so we just took the metro to the Union Station stop and took the escalator up into Union Station.

Our trolley tour started at 9 am and we could ride it until 5:30 pm. It made 19 different stops, but we knew we couldn't get off at every stop. Some of the stops were attractions we had already seen or were planning to see later on.

We did stop at the Library of Congress to see the gorgeous architecture of the Jefferson building. It is the largest library in the world and houses many important historical documents on display, one of which is Jefferson's rough draft of the Declaration. We saw the finished, original Declaration of Independence in the National Archives the day before, so it was neat to see his marked up, edited rough draft as well.

Above: Outside view of library; Inside of part of the library

Next we stopped at Ford's Theatre. If you are ever in DC and have a chance to tour the theatre, you should! It really made history come alive for me (as did so many of the things we saw in DC)...but just to sit in the same theatre and see the theatre box where Lincoln was sitting when he was shot by John Wilkes Booth was astounding. The tour guide told us the detailed story of exactly how John Wilkes Booth plotted to kill the president. After Lincoln was shot, he was unresponsive and taken across the street to a boarding house, Peterson house, where he died a few hours later.

After our Ford's Theatre tour (which was free, as was every other attraction we saw in DC), we could tour the Peterson house. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to do that on this trip, but I wish we had.

We had a quick lunch, then got back on the trolley to go to the Washington National Cathedral. The sixth largest Cathedral in the world, it is really a sight to see. It has gorgeous architecture and stained glass windows, and the entire cathedral is made primarily of limestone from Indiana!

President Woodrow Wilson was buried there, as was Helen Keller and several other famous people. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his last sermon there, and Ronald Reagan's funeral service was held there. The cathedral took 83 years to build. We went on a docent-led tour through the cathedral, which was very interesting.

Later on, we stopped in Georgetown for some shopping and walking around. Then we got back on the trolley to stop at the White House grounds.

The White House was beautiful.

By that time, it was 5:30 pm and we headed back to Union Station for dinner. Then at 7:30 pm, we boarded another trolley for our "Monuments at Night" tour. We LOVED this tour!! Seeing most of the major monuments at night was really cool. My favorite was the Lincoln Memorial. It was very moving.

We also stopped at the FDR Memorial, Iwo Jima, Vietnam Memorial, and Korean War Memorial.

It Gets Better With Age

Travelling with my hubby...I think it can't get any better. We've made so many memories and had so much fun. Today he said something to me out of the blue that I thought was so sweet. He said, "Honey, you and I are like wine. Even though I've never had any, I think our relationship just gets better and better with age!"

I couldn't agree more. We've been married three years and one month. I love him more and more each day.

Meeting My Blogging Friend

This is my dear friend Meredith and I. Meredith and I have been blogging friends for about a year now. She lives near Richmond, Virginia on her family's farm. We have gotten to know each other better through blogging, emailing, and Facebook. When I found out we would be driving through Richmond on our way to DC, we thought it would be really neat if we could meet in "real life"! A few months ago, we started praying about this possibility. Everything worked out and we made plans to meet for lunch on our way to DC.

So last Saturday, dh and I met Meredith and her younger brother, Oliver, for lunch at Chick-fil-A outside of Richmond. We had a great time and I am so glad we had the opportunity to meet in "real life"!

Meredith is such a sweet person and has been an encouragement to me ever since I've known her. I am so thankful for her friendship.

You can visit Meredith on her blog at Striving to Serve at Home.

Trip Home

We had an eventful trip back home yesterday and we know for sure God was taking care of us. Not just on the trip back home, but on our entire vacation (I will share more later!)

Before our trip I packed a cooler full of bottled waters, granola bars, peanut butter crackers, and other breakfast foods and snacks so we didn't have to spend as much money on expensive snacks or drinks in DC. We also decided to eat breakfast in our hotel room every morning, except the last day, to save a little money. Our hotel offered breakfast but, unfortunately, it wasn't free.

So yesterday morning we decided to eat a nice hot breakfast before we left to drive home. We took the metro to a station a few stops away from the station near our hotel. We were trying to find one of the local restaurants that served breakfast that we had read about, but it wasn't near the metro station as we had thought. So instead we saw an IHOP nearby and decided to eat there.

We didn't get on the road until about 8 am (central time/our time) and immediately trying to get out of Arlington, VA (where we stayed) was crazy. It was rush hour and we couldn't get over in the lane we needed to turn left, so we ended up taking a different turn. It was going to be too difficult to figure out how to turn around so we ended up taking a long loop around DC (I-495), which took about an hour extra of our time. It was stop and go traffic most of the way.

I'm soooo glad I don't live in a city or suburb of a city that large!!

We finally got on our desired route and we were driving through Maryland on I-270, enjoying the beautiful views, and realized we were REALLY low on gas. Like, IN THE RED low!

The next town was Clarksburg, Maryland. We took the exit and drove and drove (for what seemed like forever) and there was no gas station in sight. We were out in the middle of nowhere. We started praying. And deciding that we had to have faith--that even if we ran out of gas and had to start walking to a gas station to get some, God was going to take care of us.

(Isn't it funny how we SAY we have faith, but when the time really comes to trust in God, it's alot harder to do?)

Finally we decided to turn around. We turned right at one road, and just down the road--HALLELUJAH!--there was a gas station. (I found this gas station on Google maps--if you are really interested in seeing it, type in 23329 Frederick Rd. Clarksburg, MD).

We pulled up, thinking the gas pumps looked a little ancient, but as long as they worked we didn't care. (But, wait a second...what's that sign on one of the pumps that says "OUT OF GAS"? Seriously?) Dh went inside to see if all the pumps were truly out of gas. The owners were very nice and confirmed that yes, they were out of gas...but told us to go just down the road and turn left and there was another station. We were so thankful.

Thankfully, we made it to the next gas station on the last few drops of gas we had and we able to fill up. Unfortunately, there is no street view of that gas station on Google (23300 Clarksburg Rd. Clarksburg, MD), but we are forever thankful to them for being there when we needed gas. If you're ever in Clarksburg, Maryland...stop by and use their services. :)

More than that, we were thankful for God's mercy and providence in that situation!

By that time (I'm not even sure what time it was), we had spent another 20-30 minutes driving all over to find gas. We got back on the interstate and kept driving. We drove through Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and finally we were back in Indiana. However, about an hour and a half away from home, there was a 18-wheeler that had broken down in the middle of a one-lane interstate (one lane each way, due to road construction). It was 8:15 pm by that time. We were so ready to be home and sooooooo exhausted. Dh had driven the whole way (by his choice) and had to be back to work in the morning (today). We once again committed the matter to prayer and prayed that no one was hurt and that we could get moving again to get home safely. After about 45 minutes, traffic starting moving. We made it home safely about 10:30 pm (only by the grace of God, for we were fighting to stay awake and drive through road construction in the rain and fog at night!)

I just wanted to share about our drive home and how God carried us through it all. It wasn't easy, and what we thought would be an 11 hour drive home turned into a 14 1/2 hour drive. Next time we'll probably fly!!

I'll have to save my updates for when we get back from vacation...for some reason we thought wireless at our hotel was free, but it's actually $10 a day, so I'm just going to have to wait until we get back to write about the rest of our trip!

More on DC...

Today we went on a tour of Arlington National Cemetery, where we saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, JFK's gravesite, and Arlington House (home of Robert E. Lee), among other attractions. It was so amazing to be there, remembering all the men and women who have fought for our freedom.
We then went to the National Archives building, where the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Constitution are on display. It was amazing to see these documents...my only complaint was that we had to wait in line almost an hour and then it took less than ten minutes to actually see them!
In the afternoon we went to the Museum of American History. There were so many interesting exhibits; we may even go back another day, as we simply didn't have enough time to see it all. My favorite part was the First Ladies' Gowns Exhibit--we saw beautiful gowns worn by the wives of Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, George Washington, and several other first ladies.
After that, we went to the Holocaust Museum. It was such a surreal and sobering experience. I'm really glad we went there.

We're back at the hotel to rest and get ready for dinner. I'll write more later!

Happy Fourth of July!

We've had a GREAT trip so far. It is so amazing to be in the nation's capitol on the Fourth of July! We got to DC this afternoon and did a little sightseeing, then went to the Capitol for the Capitol Fourth concert and fireworks. We sat on a blanket on the east lawn of the Capitol and watched the fireworks going off in the sky. It was beautiful.

I hope to post some pictures when I get back...
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!

Stay Tuned...

The next few days will be busy as we prepare to leave for vacation, so I'm taking a quick break from blogging.

I am hopefully going to be able to blog a little while we're gone. Stay tuned!

Hydrangea Bush

I realized my picture (from yesterday's post) of our hydrangea bush wasn't the best.

I've been getting up a little earlier in the morning to water the plants...there is something so peaceful about walking outside in the cool summer morning and enjoying the beauty of flowers. This morning I grabbed the camera and took a few more pictures of the hydrangea bush. It is so beautiful to me.

Before and After

Early yesterday morning dh chopped down the huge, ugly, overgrown bush that has graced our front yard (in front of the porch) for years (it has been there for the past three years we've lived here and who knows how much longer before that).

This was a project we've been talking about doing for three years, but have never acted on our plan until now. Finally it was just time to stop talking about it and get it done!

Poor bush...I am going to give it the benefit of the doubt and assume that it has seen its better days. I would like to think it was pretty when it was first planted, but it hasn't aged well. :)

The bush in all its glory.

As you can see, it's mostly all dry, dead branches.

(Action pic: Dh posing with the chain saw.)

After the bush was cut down, we hauled it all away to my mom's house. She has lots of woods in the back of her property, where the bush branches were lain to rest.

(And let me just say, hauling it off was not an easy task: it took three car trips to load it into the trunk and backseat of my car. We don't have a truck, so that was our only choice.

Then my car smelled horrible...and the leftover twigs were too big to suck up with our normal vacuum...so we took it to the car wash to vacuum it. We also Febreze-d it and took it through the automatic car wash to get it sparkling clean for our trip this week! It's kind of sad--it's the first time I've ever taken my car to the automatic car wash, but it needed it!)

Later in the morning, our good friends, Robert and Amanda, came over to help us plant. The guys mostly chopped away at the stump that was leftover from the bush and got it as short as they could. Amanda and I went to Lowe's and picked out some plants.

We came home, ate lunch, and got straight to work.

We dug out all the dirt and millions of rocks (why on earth there were so many rocks, I do not know!) that were left. We put down good soil, weed cloth, and mulch. By the time the afternoon was done, we had planted a beautiful hydrangea bush, some daylilies, and some sentimental blue balloon flowers. The daylilies should start blooming soon.

You can probably see the part on the porch where it's lighter than the rest--apparently when the porch was last painted they painted AROUND that huge bush!! Also, the gas meter isn't the prettiest sight to have in the flower bed, but hopefully once the plants start growing and we plant some more, it will be hidden a little. Hopefully soon we will also be able to get a glider rocker to put on the front porch. It would be lovely to sit outside on summer evenings and relax or read a good book. :)

Our hope is that the hydrangea bush will grow enough to cover the remaining part of the stump. I am also planning on planting some hostas in the back part of the flower bed later.

This was my first time planting anything, but I learned a lot. Mainly that it is hard work, but totally worth it in the end when you can see the results of your labor!