D.C. my second home
I already spend quite a bit of time traveling to and hanging out in the D.C. area as most of you know my sister is there. But this year my company decided to have our Christmas party in D.C. as well! Worked for me!
We headed down at the butt crack of dawn Friday the 11th. We had to be at our hotel by 1:30, so we were on the road at 6:07! Side bar - we stayed at The Willard in the heart of D.C. just down the street from the White House (George was off galavanting around the Middle East or some place). This place was beautiful and FULL of history. I have an informational pamphlet on it somewhere at my apartment. It's intriguing - the people who stay there including the President of Turkey (I think that is what the bellhop said). Anyway, it was expensive...and as the Controller of the company, it hurt my stomach. ha ha
Anywho, we got to the hotel shortly after 1pm, checked in, and met up with the rest of the crew in the lobby at 1:30ish. We headed to our first leg of our venture - a private tour of the Capitol! My co-workers husband is an executive for Chrysler so he is high up in the corporate world food chain. The eight of us met with our tour guide at the Veterans of Foreign Wars building (I think that was the name of it; my memory is fuzzy due to everything we saw that day). We began in a Senate building (Dirksen, maybe?) where we got a idea of how building is set up and how much staff each senator gets depending on size of the state...at least that is the gist of what I heard. I was pretty tired so I hope I retained some correct info. We also saw models of the Capitol, what was proposed versus the final, along with some basic history of the building. We headed through a corridor and rode the little train to the Capitol building. It was amazing to see the old Supreme Court room, the former senate chamber and we were able to sit in galley on the House side where the President gives the State of Union address. I think what made the tour so great was our tour guide Steven. He knew his history, was very enthusiastic, and we could tell he loved doing this for a living and had been doing so for many years. If we had some young prospect I think it would have been a different experience.
We decided to enjoy the almost spring-like late afternoon and hit another site after the Capitol. We grabbed a cab and headed to the WWII memorial. Aside from the Capitol, that is about the only thing I hadn't seen yet in D.C. They did an excellent job on the design and I got some great pics of it and the surrouding monuments.
We walked back to our hotel to get ready for the next event - dinner and cocktails! I must say I looked very sharp in my new suit and straight hair. I think the waiter was flirting with me right in front of my b/f! ha not really but he was entertaining though. We had a pre-dinner cocktail at the hotel then headed to The Oval Room where we had a pseudo-private room for the eight of us. Dinner was okay. We had small, raw scallops for our first course, the salad was very good, and I had the duck. And of course dessert - pumpkin cheesecake. It was the best food item all night! We headed back to the hotel and had a night cap before crashing in the gigantic, extremely comfortable beds. I hadn't had too much to drink as I hadn't eaten much all day so I held off on too much wine as my stomach would've hated me all weekend (it did anyway but why make it worse). I had about 4 glasses of wine all night, so I felt good and ready to nap.
The next day we visited the Aquarium which wasn't very big but it was interesting. Then we headed to the Renwich gallery where we saw some interesting art: quilts, sculptures, paintings, and carvings. We left D.C. and headed to Donna's as we were all heading to Southside to watch the Packers spank the Seahawks!
What a blast the game and the whole night was! We had a great turn out, so I got to see my VA friends and even an old friend from NY! After the game, our tables were being moved so the band-of-the-evening could set up. So we headed to another favorite spot - Chadwick's for another beverage and munchies.
We headed home the next morning. I couldn't wait to get home but I was sad to leave as I always am...and it seems to get worse each time. Who knows - some day I very well could be a resident again. And that would finally get many people to stop saying "you need to move down here." It's nice to be wanted though. ha ha
Next trip: Feb. 28 for Bon Jovi and St. Pat's Day bar crawl in Old Town! yeah!!
Leg up!!
We headed down at the butt crack of dawn Friday the 11th. We had to be at our hotel by 1:30, so we were on the road at 6:07! Side bar - we stayed at The Willard in the heart of D.C. just down the street from the White House (George was off galavanting around the Middle East or some place). This place was beautiful and FULL of history. I have an informational pamphlet on it somewhere at my apartment. It's intriguing - the people who stay there including the President of Turkey (I think that is what the bellhop said). Anyway, it was expensive...and as the Controller of the company, it hurt my stomach. ha ha
Anywho, we got to the hotel shortly after 1pm, checked in, and met up with the rest of the crew in the lobby at 1:30ish. We headed to our first leg of our venture - a private tour of the Capitol! My co-workers husband is an executive for Chrysler so he is high up in the corporate world food chain. The eight of us met with our tour guide at the Veterans of Foreign Wars building (I think that was the name of it; my memory is fuzzy due to everything we saw that day). We began in a Senate building (Dirksen, maybe?) where we got a idea of how building is set up and how much staff each senator gets depending on size of the state...at least that is the gist of what I heard. I was pretty tired so I hope I retained some correct info. We also saw models of the Capitol, what was proposed versus the final, along with some basic history of the building. We headed through a corridor and rode the little train to the Capitol building. It was amazing to see the old Supreme Court room, the former senate chamber and we were able to sit in galley on the House side where the President gives the State of Union address. I think what made the tour so great was our tour guide Steven. He knew his history, was very enthusiastic, and we could tell he loved doing this for a living and had been doing so for many years. If we had some young prospect I think it would have been a different experience.
We decided to enjoy the almost spring-like late afternoon and hit another site after the Capitol. We grabbed a cab and headed to the WWII memorial. Aside from the Capitol, that is about the only thing I hadn't seen yet in D.C. They did an excellent job on the design and I got some great pics of it and the surrouding monuments.
We walked back to our hotel to get ready for the next event - dinner and cocktails! I must say I looked very sharp in my new suit and straight hair. I think the waiter was flirting with me right in front of my b/f! ha not really but he was entertaining though. We had a pre-dinner cocktail at the hotel then headed to The Oval Room where we had a pseudo-private room for the eight of us. Dinner was okay. We had small, raw scallops for our first course, the salad was very good, and I had the duck. And of course dessert - pumpkin cheesecake. It was the best food item all night! We headed back to the hotel and had a night cap before crashing in the gigantic, extremely comfortable beds. I hadn't had too much to drink as I hadn't eaten much all day so I held off on too much wine as my stomach would've hated me all weekend (it did anyway but why make it worse). I had about 4 glasses of wine all night, so I felt good and ready to nap.
The next day we visited the Aquarium which wasn't very big but it was interesting. Then we headed to the Renwich gallery where we saw some interesting art: quilts, sculptures, paintings, and carvings. We left D.C. and headed to Donna's as we were all heading to Southside to watch the Packers spank the Seahawks!
What a blast the game and the whole night was! We had a great turn out, so I got to see my VA friends and even an old friend from NY! After the game, our tables were being moved so the band-of-the-evening could set up. So we headed to another favorite spot - Chadwick's for another beverage and munchies.
We headed home the next morning. I couldn't wait to get home but I was sad to leave as I always am...and it seems to get worse each time. Who knows - some day I very well could be a resident again. And that would finally get many people to stop saying "you need to move down here." It's nice to be wanted though. ha ha
Next trip: Feb. 28 for Bon Jovi and St. Pat's Day bar crawl in Old Town! yeah!!
Leg up!!
posted by Kathie @ 2:42 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home