The Harnation

My company covered my flight home for Thanksgiving and a flight for Christmas, which we chose to have Matt use to come up to Virginia for the holidays.

It was really nice to have him come up for the week between Christmas and New Years. He was finally able to see all of the places I'd been talking about for the previous month and a half.

 We spent our first Christmas away from family.  While it was sad to be apart from loved ones, I was so happy to be with Matt.  We cooked a real Christmas dinner and followed our tradition of a movie in the evening.  The movie theaters in Charlottesville are a lot smaller than at home, and we arrived early to make sure we could actually get tickets (after several years of sell outs back home).  We sat alone in an empty theater until just a few minutes before showtime, when it began to fill up a little more.  Maybe Christmas movie outings aren't quite the tradition in small college towns that they are where we live (?).


The next day, we loaded up the car, dropped the pups off at the kennel, and headed to D.C.

The drive was absolutely stunning.  I was glued to the window the entire trip.  Snow was falling and the countryside was dotted with beautiful old farms and pastures. 

Not far from Charlottesville, we pulled the car over and took photos at this beautifully picturesque old church.


It had a small cemetery on the property and sat surrounded by peaceful quiet, even though it was right on the main county road.


I loved the front doors so much that I'm considering harassing my fellow church building committee members to consider something similar.  Aren't they beautiful?


I can honestly say that that was the most beautiful drive I've ever taken.  I held my breath and sat completely enthralled with the beauty of the area.  I don't know how else to describe it other than beautiful.  It wasn't the striking beauty of the craggy cliffs on the California coastline or the stark, colorful beauty of the arid Southwest.  It was just simple countryside beauty.

However, as we got closer to D.C., the air grew colder and the weather steadily declined.

By the time we entered the city, it was a miserable day.



 We had a whirlwind few days and were able to see just about everything we wanted.  My favorite part was the tour of the US Capitol.  I don't think that Matt was nearly as enamored as I, but I just felt like I was truly someplace special.


One thing that Matt and I don't exactly share is my passion for politics.  I wouldn't describe him as uninformed or  indifferent, he just doesn't seem to get as animated about or interested in certain aspects of our political atmosphere (though that could probably be said about a lot of subjects - Matt is just more laid back and I am much more high strung!).

To me, the US Capitol represents so much more than one of our branches of government.  The American "experiment", as many of our founding fathers considered it, was one of the first attempts of a nation to successfully govern themselves.  There was no written instructions on how to construct such a government, and they kind of made it up as they went along.  It's amazing to see the results of their work, 235 years later, and how many other nations have tried to model their own governments after the Americans.

I was just in awe as we toured a small part of the building.


By the way, if you're planning a trip to DC., call your US Senator or Congressman well in advance to set up scheduled tours of the places of interest to your family.  Senator Sessions' office was wonderful and helped us book our tour of the Capitol (I wanted to tour the White House, but it is closed between Christmas and New Years). Some places let you schedule a tour the day you're there, but there are limited spaces for unscheduled tours.  If you know when you're going to be in town, and would like a certain tour, try to schedule it ahead of time (up to six months in advance).


Each of the 50 states has two statues that are on display within the Capitol.  Alabama just sent over a statue of Hellen Keller as a child, which was on display in the visitor's center just below the Capitol. 


After our tour, we walked down the National Lawn and hit up several of the memorials.


On our way to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, we stopped and watched as the President's helicopter landed and took off from the front lawn of the White House.



We had a great setup for exploring DC.  A good friend from college who lives just north of DuPont Circle was back home visiting family for the holidays, and graciously offered his gorgeous flat with views of the Capitol and Washington monument.  We were able to take the short walk to the DuPont metro and get off at any of the numerous metro stops near the tourist attractions.

We also had a chance to grab dinner in Georgetown with friends Pam and Rob, who adopted Charlie over a year ago.  What fun it was catching up with them and seeing photos of our first weimaraner foster!



All in all, we were able to walk by most of the major attractions and also spent time touring Ford's Theater, The Spy Museum (the only thing we went to that charged admission), the Jefferson/Lincoln/Washington/Vietnam War memorials, Air and Space Museum, Natural History museum, National Archives (which houses the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc.), US Capitol, Union Station, etc. 

By the end of it, my feet hurt!

So, I've been back "home" for almost two weeks now.  The funny thing is, I was calling Charlottesville "home" for a while there and was a little sad to leave.

Being completely on my own was a new/exciting/fun/terrifying/rewarding experience for me.  I've never lived by myself, let alone away from every. single. person. that I know.  To be quite honest, the first couple of weeks were rather miserable.  I tried to think about how much fun this was all going to be, and then I'd look out the window, see how pretty the changing leaves were, and then start tearing up because I remembered that I missed my husband.

I like to think of myself as pretty self-sufficient and capable, but deep down I can be a big baby!  I agreed to take the trip almost immediately when asked, but a week before I was supposed to leave, I begged Matt to help me find a way out.  I sobbed in the car, "I don't wanna gooooo!", but he made me go anyway.  I appreciate having a husband who helps me to keep my word and follow through when I don't always want to. 


However, once I was there long enough to figure out how to get around town and to get into the rhythm of things, I really enjoyed myself.  I loved the work I was doing, the people I was working around, and really fell in love with the area.  I found a wonderful church with beautiful music and excellent preaching.  I was able to do lots of sightseeing and even found some decent shopping.

Of course, it was a million times more fun when people came to visit, and I was blessed to have several visitors.

My parents came up before Christmas and spent several days with me.


They did some of the local stuff while I was at work one day.   Together, we toured the UVA Academical Village and took a day trip to Colonial Williamsburg.


 Williamsturburg was something I'd wanted to do for a while.  Unfortunately, the weather was miserably cold (which probably kept things crowd-free, but also turtned us into walking icicles).

One of the first buildings we explored was the "Presbyterian Meeting House".  Any denomination other than the Church of England was not formally recognized in the American colonies and therefore not allowed free worship.  The Presbyterians in Williamsburg were allowed a "meeting house" (not a church) and could only meet under fairly strict regulations.  Everyone was required to pay a tithe to the Church of England, regardless of membership.



If you've ever wondered why my sisters and I are all complete dorks, look no further...



This guy was my favorite.  I can't remember his official title, but he was hand crafting leather goods in the armory.  He actually answered my questions about the colonial characters.  They really do make their own outfits, wear custom-made leather shoes, and learn the crafts of their characters as they would have been performed back around ~1770.

I enjoyed Williamsburg, but I would recommend going when the weather is >30 degrees.  I think it gets pretty crowded in the summer, which would take away from some of the personal interactions with the colonial characters, but I've heard it's really pretty in the spring and fall.  I'd definitely recommend it to anyone with kids; I know I would have enjoyed it when I was younger.