Another Awe-Inspiring Day

Today was another awe-inspiring day! We took a day off from the Metro and borrowed Matt and Shelly's car for a road trip to Mount Vernon - the beautiful home of our first president, George Washington. The drive to his estate via the George Washington Memorial Highway was gorgeous as I was once again reminded of the East and more specifically of Georgia where I served my mission so many years ago. A funny thing happened as we tried to take advantage of the system in purchasing two annual passes in hopes of transferring them to Matt and Shelly since we will not be returning before this time next year . . . the passes of course must include a photo - oh well, a nice $5 souvenir.

Following the well spent time we visited the gift shop and I found the Washington, D.C. shirt. I had been looking the whole trip and decided on one we found in Union Station until I saw the one at Mt. Vernon - anyway, we headed off to Hains Point and the Jefferson Memorial to finish off our day. Things didn't go quite as planned as we struggled to locate the extremely difficult to find Hains Point - after a couple U-turns we found it and located "The Awakening" statue . . . very weird. We proceeded to the FDR Memorial and as we neared the end we surprisingly noticed our battery died and I forgotten the extra . . . stupid me. We postponed our visit to Jefferson and headed home for a well deserved nap!!

The nap was very helpful as it provided the necessary energy for our much needed trip to the Washington D.C. Temple. What a beautiful, gorgeous House of the Lord!! It now is one of my favorite. It has seven, yes seven floors. Another unique part was that Emily and I sat together . . . something that doesn't happen in most other temples. We met a family from Suwanee, GA who helped take a picture of us in front of the temple. As per usual once I come across someone from Georgia, LDS or not, I freeze up and have a difficult time remembering where exactly I served/lived. Maybe it's because it occurred more than a decade ago - who knows.

We finished the night with a late dinner at Chili's in Alexandria.

P.S. I forgot to mention that mom called and reported back that her visit with Sage went well . . . our poor kitty is very lonely and we both our very excited to return home and give her much deserved loves. Hold on there Sagie . . . we coming home soon!!!!!!!!!!! Gotta go, we're off to Harper's Ferry, Antietam, and Gettysburg tomorrow!!!! Hallelujah, one of my dreams will soon come true!