Yes, I love alliteration.

Anyway, last weekend one of our good friends got married in Washington DC, so we decided to pop up for a visit to our Nation’s Capital for the festivities.

We drove Saturday morning and made a pit stop in Richmond, VA, the half-way point of the drive. We took advantage of the scenery for some photo ops:

Cobblestone streets

Old train station

Picnic lunch on a bench, in the shade, looking at the capital. Perfect.

We’re still working on using the camera timer.

After the horrible drive between Richmond and DC (who has ever heard of weekend traffic and being stopped bumper to bumper in the middle of NO WHERE) we checked into the Westin Hotel for their grand opening weekend. If you’ve ever heard of travelzoo, then you know how amazing it is. Travelzoo is a weekly email with the top 20 travel deals from various sites and vendors. I look at it every week and have used it thrice, each time finding great success. I found this brand new, hotel suite for $70:

As we were getting ready for the wedding, there was a knock at our door. We were greeted by a staff member with this:

a complimentary cheese plate with a congratulatory note. We didn’t know what to think of the note and didn’t think twice about it because we were running late to the reception. The next morning the woman at the front desk congradulated us again on being their newly wed couple. We often joke that anytime we stay in a hotel we’re going to tell them it’s our honeymoon…did I slip? Believe it or not, I checked the reservation, we didn’t do that this time, I think the guy at check-in was just really nice.

The reception was held at the Bethesda North Marriott and began with an hor’dourve hour for mingling. We were able to catch up with some good friends with haven’t seen in a while. After the hour, the doors were opened to the beautiful ballroom where guests were ushered to find their places; we were sitting at the “Cubs” table, Meghan’s husband Dan is a baseball fan, with Aaron Smyth, Kaitlyn Whitenight, Jaclyn Pope, Marlayne Pope, Kate Fujikawa and Kristi Williams.

The dinner was fabulous and the bride and groom were glowing; the night was perfect from beginning to end.

Our first time dancing the Hora, a traditional Jewish dance performed at weddings.

I had never seen the Washington DC temple, so after the reception we went by to see it lit up. Sadly, they’re doing some landscaping so not all of the lights were on but I still got a feel for how truly majestic it it.

The next morning, we went to the Arlington National Cemetary. When we went to DC back in September, Steven had to work but I got to see almost all of the sites, everything but Arlington. The Cemetary is humbling place with somber feelings of honor and love for our country.

Before heading home, we stopped by Joe & Britt Cramer’s condo. They recently moved to DC for Joe to attend GW Law School. It was so fun seeing their condo and being able to catch up with them.

All-in-all, we had a fabulous weekend and are loving the opportunities we’ve been able to have on the East Coast.