Grace and I celebrated our very first anniversary on February 24, 2008. It was on a Sunday and I was able to take her out to a a nice restaurant in Greenville,
NC after church on Sunday night. It was called "Texas Steakhouse" and really, really reminded me of home. On Monday, we left for Pennsylvania to make the formal move to NC. On the way up North we traveled up I-95 to Washington, DC to celebrate our anniversary. I had booked a hotel room with a jacuzzi tub. However, upon our revival it was pretty run down so we looked for 2 hours at Panera Bread for another room. We finally found another one with a jacuzzi tub about 12 miles south of Washington in Clinton, MD. The next day we started out by traveling by the Pentagon in route to the Arlington National Cemetery. Their we were able to see the Tomb of Unknown Soldier, the grave sites of John and Robert Kennedy, the memorial to the military chaplains, and the original 
home of Robert E. Lee. We walked through the cemetery to the USMC War Memorial and the symbolizing of the flag raising at Iwo Jima. It was huge, and very cool to see. Although instead of walking it, we should have driven over. Since it had been raining sporadically all day it wasn't as pleasant a walk as it could have been. But we made it safely and we did get to see it which was the important thing right? LOL! From there it was on to downtown
Washington across the Potomac. We were able to find great parking by the Washington Monument directly across from the Jefferson Memorial. It was great because it was free! We were told that was very uncommon. The Jefferson Memorial was one thing we did not go to see though and the Washington Monument tour was closed for the day. But we made the most of it by walking the umpteen thousand miles of the whole mall. From 
the Monument to the US Capital Building and back again to the Lincoln Memorial. My what a walk! It was magnificent to see all of the old historic buildings and the Smithsonian alone was amazing from the outside at least. Since it was after business hours we did not get to tour anything but the outdoor sites. It was still awesome to see though. No wonder that they say it would take at least a good week to see every building and all of the exhibits inside the Smithsonian. That is so easily verifiable when you see the buildings. Unfortunately for us one other downfall to our rainy, I mean pleasant day, was that our digital camera's battery ran out of juice. We have 
a nice 6MP Casio camera with a 2.7 inch screen on the back and a great rechargeable battery. Usually it only needs recharging about every 400 pictures. It has a wonderful battery life which also makes forgetting to charge it so easy. And that is what happened. We arrived at the Washington Monument, took a few pictures and then it died. We traversed on though and when we reached the end of the 
mall we borrowed another guys camera and stuck in my SD memory card and got a picture by the capital. Then we walked the long trek back to the other end of the mall and kept the camera off. This allowed the battery to suck up enough reserve energy for a few last shots, including one by the Jefferson Memorial. Grace couldn't believe that I actually asked a guy to borrow his camera. Yep, that would be me! At the conclusion of the evening I took my lovely wife to a riverside restaurant that served authentic
Latin food. It was called Cabana's and was probably one of the most romantic restaurants that I have ever been to. It had private candle lit booths with small sheer curtains. It was an excellent way to get out of the cold and to enjoy a relaxable private dinner. And to make it more interesting, our waiter was originally from Honduras and since we and both been there before it made for good conversation. He ended up bringing us a free desert of our choice to help us celebrate. Our night ended on a pleasant note and I am glad that things worked out for us to go. I had never seen any of our nation's historic and patriotic sites before and Grace had only seen them when she was younger and so this was a great trip for both of us. It was definitely something that we had on our travel list of things to do and places to visit. I just hope next time it is not raining, cold, nor is everything closed.
NC after church on Sunday night. It was called "Texas Steakhouse" and really, really reminded me of home. On Monday, we left for Pennsylvania to make the formal move to NC. On the way up North we traveled up I-95 to Washington, DC to celebrate our anniversary. I had booked a hotel room with a jacuzzi tub. However, upon our revival it was pretty run down so we looked for 2 hours at Panera Bread for another room. We finally found another one with a jacuzzi tub about 12 miles south of Washington in Clinton, MD. The next day we started out by traveling by the Pentagon in route to the Arlington National Cemetery. Their we were able to see the Tomb of Unknown Soldier, the grave sites of John and Robert Kennedy, the memorial to the military chaplains, and the original 
home of Robert E. Lee. We walked through the cemetery to the USMC War Memorial and the symbolizing of the flag raising at Iwo Jima. It was huge, and very cool to see. Although instead of walking it, we should have driven over. Since it had been raining sporadically all day it wasn't as pleasant a walk as it could have been. But we made it safely and we did get to see it which was the important thing right? LOL! From there it was on to downtown
Washington across the Potomac. We were able to find great parking by the Washington Monument directly across from the Jefferson Memorial. It was great because it was free! We were told that was very uncommon. The Jefferson Memorial was one thing we did not go to see though and the Washington Monument tour was closed for the day. But we made the most of it by walking the umpteen thousand miles of the whole mall. From 
the Monument to the US Capital Building and back again to the Lincoln Memorial. My what a walk! It was magnificent to see all of the old historic buildings and the Smithsonian alone was amazing from the outside at least. Since it was after business hours we did not get to tour anything but the outdoor sites. It was still awesome to see though. No wonder that they say it would take at least a good week to see every building and all of the exhibits inside the Smithsonian. That is so easily verifiable when you see the buildings. Unfortunately for us one other downfall to our rainy, I mean pleasant day, was that our digital camera's battery ran out of juice. We have 
a nice 6MP Casio camera with a 2.7 inch screen on the back and a great rechargeable battery. Usually it only needs recharging about every 400 pictures. It has a wonderful battery life which also makes forgetting to charge it so easy. And that is what happened. We arrived at the Washington Monument, took a few pictures and then it died. We traversed on though and when we reached the end of the 
mall we borrowed another guys camera and stuck in my SD memory card and got a picture by the capital. Then we walked the long trek back to the other end of the mall and kept the camera off. This allowed the battery to suck up enough reserve energy for a few last shots, including one by the Jefferson Memorial. Grace couldn't believe that I actually asked a guy to borrow his camera. Yep, that would be me! At the conclusion of the evening I took my lovely wife to a riverside restaurant that served authentic
Latin food. It was called Cabana's and was probably one of the most romantic restaurants that I have ever been to. It had private candle lit booths with small sheer curtains. It was an excellent way to get out of the cold and to enjoy a relaxable private dinner. And to make it more interesting, our waiter was originally from Honduras and since we and both been there before it made for good conversation. He ended up bringing us a free desert of our choice to help us celebrate. Our night ended on a pleasant note and I am glad that things worked out for us to go. I had never seen any of our nation's historic and patriotic sites before and Grace had only seen them when she was younger and so this was a great trip for both of us. It was definitely something that we had on our travel list of things to do and places to visit. I just hope next time it is not raining, cold, nor is everything closed.
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