The Cousins Club: DC Chapter

This past weekend, my cousin Molly and sister Heather were nice enough to come visit me! They are two of the coolest people I know, so that's always a good time. They arrived around noon on Saturday afternoon. Eric and I met them at the airport and brought them back to our apartment for some lunch and initial catching up. Then, we really got the weekend started!

First, we went into DC to visit the Old Post Office Pavilion. They have live music inside on the weekends, which is always pretty fun. The best part, however, is the tower. You can go up to Observation Deck at the top of the tower and check out a GREAT view of DC. Plus, it's free, and not very well-known so it's not usually very crowded. From the top, you can see all kinds of neat landmarks: many of the monuments, the White House, the Capitol, some very cool rooftops and even some Virginia landmarks like the Pentagon and Air Force Memorial. On a good day, you can even make out our apartment!

Heather and Molly on the observation deck

One of the very cool rooftops you can see from the tower. Wouldn't you love to spend your lunch break up here?

After wandering around DC a for a while longer, we decided to head back to Virginia to do some shopping in Old Town Alexandria. My office is located in Old Town, and it is one of my favorite parts of living in DC. Along King Street, there are tons of restaurants and neat artsy and antique shops. King Street eventually dead-ends into the Potomac River, and down by the water there is a great little pavilion with lots of benches to sit and enjoy the view, and there are always a number of street performers and musicians out there. It's a great way to spend an afternoon. We went in some cool shops, and even saw a wedding party being escorted down the street by a bagpiper!

With Heather on King Street

I had wanted to take the girls out for dinner to celebrate their birthdays during their visit. Heather's birthday was at the end of March, but I wasn't able to make it home for it this year. Molly's birthday is coming up on May 15. So, we decided to grab some dinner on King Street. We went to Bertucci's for some delicious pizza and a bit of wine, which was great fun!

The ladies at Bertucci's

After dinner we headed back to my apartment, where we changed into our matching pajamas (a true Cousins Club tradition), cracked open a bottle of wine, and went through all my various wedding albums and scrapbooks. Then we turned in to rest up for another big day.

Reminiscing about the fun of my bachelorette party!

On Sunday, we decided to spend the afternoon at Arlington Cemetery. We visited the usual sites, including the Kennedy graves and the Robert E. Lee house. We also went searching for the grave of our great-uncle Bob, who was married to my grandmother's sister. He and my great Auntie Ayeliffe lived in Silver Spring, MD. Uncle Bob was in the Marine Corps in World War II, and worked for the FBI for many years. He passed away at the end of last year and was buried in Arlington Cemetery in January. After a fair amount of searching, we finally found him in a beautiful location - on a hill, just to the left of Bobby Kennedy's grave, right along the path to the Robert E. Lee House. It really made the visit to the cemetery a little more meaningful to be able to visit family there.

My great-uncle's grave is in the front. The Robert E. Lee house is barely visible over the top right of the hill.

We then headed over to the Tomb of the Unknowns, where we were just in time to catch the Changing of the Guard, which is always cool to watch. We also were able to see a Wreath Laying Ceremony, which I had never seen before. It was really nice - they removed the wreath that was in front of the tomb and placed in a row with many others on the ground in front of the tomb. Then several civilians, escorted by a guard, brought down a new wreath and placed it on the stand. A bugle player then played Taps, which is always so moving.

The Guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns

VIDEO: "Taps" during the Wreath Laying Ceremony

After that we checked out the Amphitheater, then decided to leave the cemetery and find a spot to sit and eat the sandwiches we had packed for lunch. We were so lucky with the weather. It was just gorgeous all weekend, so our picnic was very relaxing. Then we headed home, where we watched my wedding video (and thoroughly enjoyed watching the bad dancing that went on, largely on the part of our family), drank some wine, and had a delicious dinner prepared by Eric.

After dinner we headed into DC once again for the Eric & Meghan Nighttime Monument Tour. The monuments are so beautiful at night, and there really were hardly any other people out and about so it was very peaceful. Of course, Molly and Heather were also treated to a visit to our "proposal step" at the Lincoln Memorial. 

Waiting for the metro at Crystal City

At the Lincoln Memorial

After the monuments, we were pretty beat so we came home to relax. We looked back over all of our pictures from the weekend and then went to bed. Monday morning, we got up and went out to breakfast at a local diner before we had to head to the airport. We dropped Heather off at her terminal around 2:30 and then had 2 hours to kill before Molly's flight, so she and I had a glass of wine (are you noticing a trend?) at a cute little wine bar to kill some time. Then we explored some uncharted hallways of the airport before finally getting Molly to her terminal. And then we parted ways.

Thanks so much for visiting me, ladies! I had a wonderful time. Our next CC* reunion will have to be in Peoria. You guys are the best! Can't wait to see you again in July!

On a side note, if anyone is looking for a good way to remove red wine from carpet, I highly recommend OxyClean. OxyClean Salesman Guy may be yelling at you in the commercials, but believe me, he would not steer you wrong. It's good stuff. You know, just in case you hypothetically spill your wine all over the carpet. But I don't know anyone who would do such a thing. Really.