Happiness is spending time with my SISTER!

I had the opportunity to fly up and see Kalina at the end of May and tour Maryland & the Washington, DC area for a few days. Washington, DC was amazing and I needed more time to really see everything, for sure! The Smithsonian Museums are fantastic!

It was nice to see Kalina and Ollie Bollie, my nephew dog. I love that little puppy! Isn't he just so cute!

We spent about four hours one afternoon at The Arlington National Cemetery, it was a very humbling experience. The cemetery receives about 4 million visitors annually and has right at 375,000 souls laid to rest there and an average of 28 funerals per day. We elected to ride the tour bus through the cemetery, it is about 1100 acres total, however not every part is accessible. You can only tour about 200 acres of the cemetery. Pictures don't really do the cemetery justice. I had no idea that it was nothing but rolling hills. I don't think even the best trained ironman could walk the whole facility without passing out! I couldn't for sure, I was about 28 weeks when I made the trip, so the guided tour was well worth the $7. Plus my sweet sister smuggled some grapes and a peanut butter sandwich in, which was against the rules, but it was nice to have a snack in the middle of the day! She took care of me and made sure I was fed and well hydrated :) We also got to see the Eternal Flame of the Kennedy graves, Mast of the USS Maine, Space shuttle Challenger Memorial, the Arlington House and the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier.

We didn't get to make a tour of the Holocaust Museum. Every time we went the tours were booked and we didn't have time to make it back by the museum to try again. That is really the only thing I still wanted to do but it will have to wait until next time.

The National Zoo was really neat. It was right in the middle of town. The weather was nasty the afternoon we planned to go so most of the animals were inside out of the rain. We took the time to relax and have a snack and do a little shopping for Miss B. She got a baby panda and a book from the National Zoo! One day we will take her back to visit the Panda Habitat.

We toured DC on the double decker buses. It was nice to ride to the destination and get off and just pick the bus back up when you were done. The transportation there is incredible. It took me a while to get the hang of it. We went by car, bus, monorail, foot...we did it all.