I found this swim suit and immediately fell in LOVE and was obsessed with it. After much contemplation I ordered it. That was over a month ago. After ordering it, I was told it was on backorder. The excitement wore off for a bit due to the lack of shipping (for a very long time). Until today, I was told it has been shipped. I got really excited all over again! I can't wait for it to be summer!

100 more days until July!

Civil War Battlefields

Today was Civil War battlefield day. We started in Gettysburg (my favorite), then Antietam and ended with Harpers Ferry.

Gettysburg

Here is the town. I have a deep love for this place. No matter what I see, this is always my favorite place.
Graves.

My dream home... It was just hanging out on the battlefield. Perhaps I had to venture through woods to get a shot of it.

More Battlefield

Pickets Charge.

Antietam

Bloody Lane.

Overlook tower.

The next little bit is of the town Harpers Ferry. I didn't get any pictures that fully captured this little town. It was a gem and one of the coolest little towns I have ever been to. We spent an hour or so just walking around town. It is right on the Shenandoah river. Most of the buildings are the originals and it used to be quite the place. The park Ranger compared it to Boston and Philadelphia back in the day.

It was full of history and witnessed a lot of the civil war. It switched between Confederates and Union possesion eight or so times.

Jumping picture with the bridge.

The local Church.

Older part of town. Most of the town looked similar to this. Really a quaint little place.

Some other highlights of the trip include discovering real thrift stores, eating tasty cakes (lots of them), good restaurants, talking to park rangers and witnessing my sister's mad parallel parking skills.

Mount Vernon

The Washington Estate. Front Side
Backside. I have a love (maybe obsession) for plantation houses! Being able to go to a real one was quite the event for me. This is a good one to go to. The inside was incredible (they don't let you take pictures inside or else I would have snapped some.)
The grounds of the house are huge. Washington had his own little village out there. There was stables, slave quarters, gardens, a dock,kitchens, laundry rooms, necessaries (that is what they called their outhouses. I got a kick out of it) and a lot of farm animals. It took us a few hours to see it all.

The dock on the Potomac.

Random bridge on one of the many trails.

Downtown D.C.

Here is my downtown D.C. experience. We spent two days down town. I didn't take any picutres of Monday. We spent that day inside the Smithsonians and the Holocaust museum. They were all amazing. My grandma does geneology and told me that my third great-grandpa's, John T. Slayden, confederate uniform was in the Smithsonians. I was able to find it! (well I am pretty sure it was the one. Some of the uniforms weren't labeled, but it was from his infantry) The Holocaust was really depressingly interesting. I have always had an interest in Holocaust survivors stories (don't judge) and really enjoyed hearing stories, seeing timelines, watching the videos and seeing artifacts.

My sister gave us of a tour of the monuments at night. I saw them during the day when I went on HT. They are so much prettier at night! I loved them!

Jefferson

We had a bit of a struggle getting to this one. I am glad we found the road to it. The building was awesome (I am in a roman class and this one was roman style. I was really excited about it. Roman symbols are all over D.C) and full of inspiring quotes from Jefferson.

Washington's reflection in the reflection pool.

Lincoln's reflection. I love how they face each other across the pool.

Lincoln's monument was my favorite. We started talking to the Park Ranger at the site and he was amazingly helpful. He filled us in on the symbolism behind the sculpture and building. He also talked about some myths. The main one is on the back of Lincoln's head, there is the profile of Robert E. Lee. We were able to see it. Also the statue is made out of equal amounts of material from both the North and South. The whole monument symbolizes unity and compassion. Most of you probably didn't care for an explanation of all of that, but I love the Lincoln Monument!

Tuesday daytime was spent touring more things. We did the National Archives, Supreme Court and Capitol. We walked a lot that day, but the weather was finally in our favor. (it rained monday too)

Supreme Court Building. It had really large pillars!
An important room inside the Supreme Court.

The Capitol Building. It was really big and really pretty. Lady Freedom it on the top.

We did a tour. They really don't let you see much.... I think that it for security reasons. They were a lot of men with very large guns every where. I wanted to snap one of them, but opted not to for very good reasons. What we did see was really cool. Big bucks went into this building.

Random ceiling. If you look closely enough you can spot George Washington. All of the important buildings have really extravagent ceilings.

All of this has left me feeling really Patriotic.

Philadelphia

I have to first explain our adventure to Philly. My sister is the one who drove and she has a GPS (we call her carol) Carol gets lost every once in a while. It turns out she got lost in Cherry Hill, New Jersey (one of the most dangerous cities in the US) It was a bit concerning, but we made it out alive :) Me in Cherry Hill (don't mind the travel hair action I have going on)
Philadelphia from the bridge.

The Liberty Bell!

Katie's and Brookes first taxi ride.

Independence Hall!

It was a bit cold and we were still in our church clothes...

Inside the hall. This was the room that the Declaration was signed (it was actually finished July 2nd not fourth. A random fun fact) and the Constitution was written. I was giddy with excitement being in the room. There was such a powerful feeling there. A sacred spot.

Our founding fathers had great taste in decore. Oh how I love colorful wood!

Another shot from inside the Hall.

Us and George Washington. There are statues all over the place in these parts.

I ran the Rocky stairs! It is on my bucketlist and something that was a must do while I was in Philly (who knows if I will ever make it back). We all ran up all the flights of the stairs (suprisingly). Don't mind my cheerleader looking pose at the top slash my pj bottoms. I did the circle run at the top. We all gave a shout out to Adriane while we were up there.

The statue itself.

The current city hall. I loved this building. Ridiculously pretty. It had statues of some of the Founding Fathers on top. Delightful!

Another main event was Pat's (one of the best philly cheese steak joints around). It was in a random part of town and was super crowded (a sign that it must be good)

Here is the sandwhich in all of its GLORY. The cheese is called cheesewiz and the locales have a special way of ordering (we were given the inside scoop of how to order which was nice) It was one of the most delicious sandwhiches I have ever tasted! Totally worth going out of our way for. Just thinking about it makes me a bit hungry!

Yay for philly! It was so amazing to go there. I have definitely have picked the right major. I love U.S. History!

I am officially back in Virginia. Ready to take on the D.C. area!

Boston

It was quite the trip to get to Boston. We passed through so many states, but sadly it was dark so we didn't get to witness much. I however did get to see the NYC skyline. Oh how I love that city!
We didn't get into Boston until late. We got a decent start on the day. My favorite part of traveling is the food. We ate so much yummy stuff! We started off in a local bagel shop by our hotel.

Boston's historical district begins in Boston Commons on the Freedom Trail. This was the location of the Boston Massacre. Boston Commons was so pretty.

The freedom Trail was marked with bricks and these little markers.

Old Cemetary. A lot of the founding fathers were barried here.

John Hancocks Grave. The original and the new one.

Democratic donkey. The gold thing on the ground has foot prints and says stand in opposition. Really random...

City Hall. Boston Tea party was planned here. The Declaration of Independence was read from the balcany of this church on July 18th 1776. A lot the Revolutionary meeting happened here.

Boston clam chowder from Quincy market. So delicious and fresh!

Boston skyline.

Mike's bakery in Little Italy. That was my pick. Definitely a good choice. I have come to the conclusion Utah does not have enough good bakeries. Though it is probably a good thing.......

Our trip ended at Harvard (perfect place to end). It poured (more like monsooned) the whole day. ( I think some places flooded this weekend back east) It rain like I have never seen or experience before. We were troopers though and saw all we could get to. We didn't get to see the whole trail or walk around much towards the end of the day. I was so glad I got to see what I did! Boston is amazing. I fell in LOVE and will be returning (perhaps I want live in cambrige someday) when the weather is better.