Monday, April 6 - Monticello

Paul, Barb and I drove to Charlottesville, Virginia to visit Monticello. Monticello was the primary home of Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd President of the United States. Monticello is beautiful and it was perfect on this spring day! Before we did the mansion tour, Barb and Paul met up with their youth pastor from Seattle! I am so glad that they were able to visit for a couple hours.

Monticello. The house is bigger than it looks, it is roughly 11,000 square feet with 43 rooms from the slave quarters (cellar) to the third floor and 5 privies. The house was originally built in 1769 and completed in 1809. There are 8 fireplaces and 2 stoves that heated the house. Currently there is about 60% of the original furnishings in the house.

 

 

  

  

 

 

After Monticello we drove into Charlottesville for dinner. We ended up at a fun pub across from the University of Virginia. Since I was in the "south", I had to have chicken fried steak! It was so good, like really good, as I may have it again when we go to Charlottesville in September to see BSU play the University of Virginia.

After dinner, we walked across the street to the campus where there were some cherry blossoms! Cherry Blossoms,  had not bloomed in DC, yet.

 On our way home we stopped at got gas, check out the price of gas! Paul was surprised! :)

What a fun day trip and Bumblebee did great for his first trip away from DC since his second heart transplant.

Sunday, April 5 Part 2

After sunrise service at Lincoln Memorial we went to Bob Evans for breakfast. Then we went home and took naps. On Sunday afternoon we went to the Tidal Basin area for a surprise gift I got for Paul and Barb for their 40th wedding anniversary, a boat ride to Georgetown on the Potomac.  

After the water taxi, we took the scariest taxi ride I have ever been on and had dinner at Old Ebbitt Grill. Happy 40th Anniversary to two amazing people!

After dinner we decided to walk the mall.

Our Easter photo:

At the Lincoln Memorial at dusk.

What a wonderful Easter Day we had. I had the privilege of spending it with people that mean a lot to me, people that are family by blood and family by choice.

Easter Sunrise Service, April 5

As I was preparing for guests, I read an article in the Washingtonian titled 50 things all DC residents should do. Number 4 was sunrise service at Lincoln Memorial. Yep, we woke up at 4:30am on Easter morning, leaving the house at 5am and getting to Lincoln Memorial at 5:30am. The service started at 6:30am. This was the 34th year of Capital Church hosting the event. Michael Tait for the Christian band, Newsboys, led worship. There was an estimated 7000 people that attended this year. It was pretty amazing to be worshiping the resurrection of Jesus Christ in our nations capital.