First Night and Morning in Virgina Beach

On Thursday, September 21, Karen and I drove to Virginia Beach. It was a nice little retreat away from reality. The drive to Virginia Beach is about 4 hours from DC with traffic. We got into Virginia Beach a little bit before 11pm. After checking into the hotel we walked for a little bit along the boardwalk. It was so peaceful at night, listening to the ocean. I had only been to Virginia Beach one other time and it was for about an hour, so I was excited to explore another beach - because I absolutely love the ocean.

A few hours later we woke up to watch the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean. I love it!

 

Mark Does DC

The weekend of September 15 - 18, Karen brought her boyfriend, Mark to DC to show him around as he had never been here before. They arrived on Friday evening and I meet up with them on Saturday evening in Old Town Alexandria for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Mai Thai. Before I meet up with them, I walked around the street fair that Old Town does every year.

After a lovely dinner outside in Old Town we took Mark to the Pentagon Memorial. This is one of my favorite memorials and I really enjoy it at night.

Karen rented an Airbnb around Union Station in DC so I stayed with them for the weekend. On Sunday morning we went over to Lincoln's Waffle House and had one of the best waffles in all of DC.

Afterwards we rode bicycles around the National Mall. I haven't posted photos of DC's most famous monuments in awhile, so here are some.

It was a long warm day on the National Mall - but thankfully the bikes made it so much easier. For dinner we went to our other favorite restaurant - Matchbox in Chinatown and then we rode the bikes back to the Airbnb with a stop at the US Capitol.

On Monday, I went to work and Karen and Mark did some things around DC. On Monday evening, Mark left to go back to Wisconsin and Karen transitioned into a hotel for a conference. I stayed at the hotel with Karen and had a one block commute for the week (it was amazing!). On Monday evening Karen and I walked to DuPont and had dinner at Shake Shack and then we went back to the hotel and were able to Skype with Kimberley and Marcus because it was Kimberley's birthday in New Zealand. It was so great to see them and talk to them.

On Tuesday evening Karen had to attend some gatherings so I walked to District Taco and then chilled at the hotel. On Wednesday evening Karen and I went back to Matchbox. It was a nice fun week in DC and really now makes me want to live in DC - having a easier commute sure was nice.

Holiday - Northern Ireland - September 3

The end of the trip :( the week flew by so fast. It was amazing how natural it felt to be back in Northern Ireland. I had only been there one other time, but I remembered it as if I had been there many times before. It was probably because I was with people I consider family. We were able to do so many things in the week I was there, and very few of the things were things I had on my previous trip in 2011. 

I feel so blessed to not only have another opportunity to go to Northern Ireland, but to also go with the McKeown's. They are amazing people and I am so thankful they are in my life. 

We had to leave the apartment in Newcastle at 3:00am. I flew out of Dublin about an hour before the McKeown's. In Dublin you go through customs there, so when I landed in the US I landed in a regularly terminal and not an international. My flight was pretty uneventful. It was about an hour longer coming back to the US than going over there - but it was still just under 7 hours. I slept a little and watched a lot of Suits. I absolutely love that I only had one flight and no connections. It is easier for me to fly to Europe than Idaho! 

When I landed in Newark, I didn't want to wait 7 hours for my train to DC so I changed my ticket and was able to get into Baltimore by the time I would have left Newark. Tuf picked me up in Baltimore and then drove home. I was able to eat dinner, watch a show with Tuf, unpack and take a shower and then I was asleep by 8pm. I woke up about 5am on Monday morning (Labor Day) and was able to have a chill day before going to work on Tuesday.

Holiday - Northern Ireland - 2 September

Our last day in Northern Ireland. The week went by so fast! 

We started the day by having Ivor drive us to Murlough Beach so we could see the seals and walk along the beach back to the condo. 

I sat in the passenger seat which is so weird considering everything is backwards.

The tide was still pretty far in so we weren't able to see the seals all that well. While we were going to possibly go swimming the Irish Sea is cold - like mid 60's. I wasn't wading across that to see the seals. Pretty cool to see seals in Northern Ireland, who would have thought?

So beautiful, walking along the Irish Sea while looking at the Mourne Mountain range. Ireland is obviously one of the most beautiful places on earth and I feel extremely blessed to have had another opportunity to visit.

 

I love this girlie! 

And what vacation would not be complete without some jumping pictures!

After walking the 3ish mile walks along the Irish Sea we made it back to the condo. We had lunch at Maud's (our last chicken pot pie) and then we did some shopping at the local stores and made our way to the Newcastle sign to take some photos (like we had done the last time I was there).

Next up we helped clean up the condo and then had dinner back at Maud's - this time our nutella/banana crepe and Kay joined us. After a healthy dinner we played one last game of Phase 10 and then it was off to bed for about 3 hours as we had to leave super early for Dublin.

One last look at the beautiful Irish Sea from the condo.