Awesome Vacation... I wish I was on one right now...

This really is getting ridiculous. I am so, SO behind on posting on my blog. I had great plans to post multiple updates about our recent trip to Virginia and Washington DC, complete with tons of pictures and funny stories. Unfortunately, the whole homework thing has gotten worse. Like, way worse. So, instead I will post a short and not all that awesome post with very few pictures...

We really did have a great trip, though. It was so much fun to get to hang out with friends and see so many essential American sights.

Late Wednesday night, we got into Charlottesville, Virginia, current hometown of our awesome friends, Tarl and Joy. Because of work commitments (crazy responsible people!), Tarl and Joy were unavailable for fun things on Thursday. So Matt and I headed out alone - off to explore history!

We spent the day visiting the historical triangle: Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, and Yorktown.

Jamestown gravesite.

In Colonial Williamsburg.

Yorktown. A field where something exciting once happened. History has a lot of such fields.

It was really great to stay with Tarl and Joy because we got to spend a lot of time visiting and catching up in the evenings. And we bonded with their dog, Newman.

Aside from the terror that he'd eat me if I left my room in the middle of the night, I thought Newman was pretty cool.

Friday morning, we headed out to the local disc golf course with Tarl.

Disc golfing in Virginia is fun. Everything is super green and pretty... and humid.

As often is the case at disc golf courses with water, a disc was thrown into the pond. As is also often the case, Matt and Tarl were determined to get it out.

Fishing for discs.

Sadly, immediately after they retrieved the disc, a much nicer and more expensive disc was thrown into a much larger pond. This one was not found.

We were also able to check out the University of Virginia campus, where Tarl is getting his Ph.D. in fancy, shmancy chemical engineer stuff (something about protein separation to make medications safer... I think...).

On the UVA campus, outside the rotunda.

Pretty flowers on the UVA campus.

After another fun night of chatting and eating cheesecake, we all packed up and headed to DC on Saturday morning. We spent the day visiting museums and walking a lot. We checked out the American History, National History, and Air and Space museums, and the National Archives.

At the National Museum of American History.

Tarl and Joy.

On our second day in DC, we hopped on and off the tourmobile of awesomeness, and saw all of the cool DC sights.

The Capital.

Good ol' TJ (Thomas Jefferson to most, TJ to his good buddies in Charlottesville).

Arlington Cemetery. Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Arlington Cemetery.

Vietnam Memorial.

World War II Memorial and Washington Monument.

We were sad to see Tarl and Joy head back to Charlottesville, but we were glad we had gotten to spend some time with them.

On Monday morning, we took a short train ride to Baltimore, Maryland. We managed to find a few fun things to occupy our time.

Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

U.S.S. Constellation.

At the Baltimore Aquarium. Jellyfish.

Fort McHenry.

Of course, I couldn't go to Baltimore without hunting down Charm City Cakes, the bakery where Ace of Cakes is filmed.

Awesome.

Before our flight on Tuesday, we went to the National zoo for a very short time. We were able to see some elephants and really cool pandas. And then, it was time to head home.

Since I didn't have the time to share all of the pictures from the trip, you can check them out here.

It really was a fantastic vacation, and much needed amid the craziness of the rest of the summer. We're glad that we had the opportunity to see great friends, and excited to experience DC again with Matt's folks next year.