Anniversary Weekend pt. 2

Well, it's been a few weeks, but here's part 2 of the Anniversary Weekend recap! Warning, there are a crap-ton of pictures. 

For the weeks preceding out trip, Kev kept telling me not to worry about Sunday because he had it all planned. I could try and guess what it was, but I probably wouldn't get it.

We woke up bright and early on Sunday and he finally told me, we were driving to Baltimore and going to the National Aquarium because he called and .... THEY HAD AN OCTOPUS! 

I might have mentioned it a few times (just a few), but over the last few years, I've been a little obsessed about seeing an octopus. 1. I love them and 2. All of my attempts to see one have been thwarted. One of the last times we went to DC and stopped at the national zoo, the invertebrate room had closed the day before, the Carolina aquarium had one hiding, and there have been other places that just didn't have one. Knowing my obsession, Kev hunted down an octopus for me. I was SO EXCITED.

We drove to Baltimore, got to the aquarium and we headed straight for the octopus!

SHE WAS SO LITTLE AND CUTE!

I literally have about 50 pictures of the octopus, but I'll spare you. 

OK, here's another

Then we walked around to look at more fish.

This was the Finding Nemo tank

I have 10 pictures of this fish and I swear it was trying to tell me something. Isn't there a Doctor Who episode where the fish tried to warn you about the aliens coming to invade or something? If not there should be.

SCUBA STEVE! I kept exclaiming that it was Scuba Steve but Kev hates Adam Sandler and he didn't get the reference.

Oh, did you think that I wouldn't make a second trip to see the octopus and hog a prime spot and not let little kids around me? If you guesses yes, you are correct.

Then I took even more pictures and she did all kinds of octopus things and it was perfect.

My fellow KDs will get this, but look, it's a chambered Nautilus! While it's still alive. :)

Kev loves the jellies

I could have spent all day there. It was definitely a great way to spend the morning and I finally got to see the octopus! We were getting pretty hungry and decided to Uber it over to a place that had the Baltimore famous pit beef sandwiches. Kev had a sandwich, I had a salad.

Mmmm Salad.

We'd left our car in the parking garage and took an Uber around the city. After lunch we headed over to the new Baltimore Casino, the Horseshoe. It was fine. I didn't win anything but it was kinda new and I don't know, there just wasn't much ambiance. I like my casinos a little seedy. We stayed there for a few hours and left.

OK, there were 2 casinos we wanted to check out and see if they were any good and might replace our annual trek to Atlantic City. You know, closer...

We stopped for dinner at Pappas, which is said to have the best crab cake around. It's one of Oprah's favorite things and OMG it was AMAZING.

It was totally a pile of heaven.

After dinner we headed over to Maryland Live Casino (damn, this makes it sound like we have a problem, I swear we don't) which is attached to Arundel Mills Mall. Let's take this in for a minute. The casino is attached to the MALL. Oh, AND there's a Medieval Times there as well. A mall, slot machines and jousting. It's like all of my favorite things. 

Now Maryland Live, totally seedy, busy as heck, lots of action and plenty of characters. It gets two thumbs up from me.

We weren't there too late and soon it was time to drive back to DC and the Jefferson.

The next morning we had more sightseeing to do, but first breakfast.

This was some sort of waffle egg sandwich goodness.

We went back to the National Archives and looked at the rest of the things that we didn't see the other day when we really only saw the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence. You weren't able to take any pictures inside, but it was a great museum. I highly recommend it. 

We killed some time there before going to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. That was the one place Kev really wanted to see.We wanted to see how the $ was made. Again, a quality experience. 

You can't take any pictures in there either, but I was able to grab a few in the hallway leading up to the entry. 

Money...

We had a later lunch and I made Kev go to Nando's. It's a Peruvian Chicken place and when I was in Edinburgh they LOVED Nando's. It was the one place they took me for team lunch.

I had another salad and it was yum.

On our way back we stopped at this place and bought these things. It was layers of meringue and whipped cream and chocolate shavings. It was pretty but I just don't like whipped cream. annnd chocolate gives me a stomachache, so there's that.

Still pretty.

We got back and Jefferson judged us a little, for what, I don't know. Glass Houses Thomas, Glass houses...

Just a little.

That evening we headed over to Georgetown to do a little shopping and have dinner. We ended up at John Strongbow's tavern, which has something called Medieval Madness with a live dinner show. But not on Monday.

Instead I had some cider

And a pretzel.

It was fine, I'm sure it would have been more fun if the Madness was going on. Out waiter was on the struggle bus. I assume he was still coming off the weekend's Medieval festivities.

We headed back to the hotel for dessert. The hotel bar had a cupcake flight. 

Yaaasss

The aftermath. I really hate icing. 

I needed to walk off the cupcakes and since it was our last night, we walked over to the White House for one last look.

one last selfie.

Peace out Hamilton

We got back to the room to this sweet note.

And the bed was turned down, 

I could get used to this

 Soon it was Tuesday and it was time to go home. We first had to stop at Tyson's Corner Mall to return my bracelet. I was really unhappy that a Tiffany bracelet tarnished in one day. When I showed them what happened they weren't very concerned and thought it was no big deal. Yea, no. I'm going to return it and get something else.

We had breakfast at Founding Farmers.

Yum.

Double Yum.

We walked around Tyson's Corner and I got my replacement bracelet at Bloomingdale's.

And that concluded or anniversary weekend! It was pretty awesome and a great way to spend our 10th anniversary! Thanks for making it through the 8000 picutes!

Linking up with BLoved Boston!, Still Being Molly   AND

Anniversary Weekend pt. 1

I'm just gonna warn you now, there's a LOT of pictures in this post. Like a hella lot.

Kev and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on August 27th, (I can't believe it's been 10 years!) and we were trying to think of where to go to celebrate. We thought about the beach, but I don't do well just sitting somewhere for 3 days. I need to move around. I can do one full day at the beach and maybe another half, but I just don't care about the water. There, I said it. I don't care about the beach. Then we thought about Canada, but the flights were really expensive. I kept mentioning Williamsburg VA, but then I realized I'd just been listening to a lot of Hamilton and I wanted to see something historical. When we thought about what we wanted to do, a trip to Washington DC met all of our criteria! Endless stuff to look at, founding fathers, food and booze. Win!

I left Raleigh and flew into Reagan International where Kevin picked me up. It was odd, I've never had trouble finding where my baggage was being off-loaded but I wandered around for a while looking for it. Finally, I saw my bag off to the side, not on the conveyor belt, like it had been sitting there for hours. I landed, maybe 15 minutes prior. It was all very odd.

Anyways, Kev found me and we headed to our first hotel. Before he decided to go up before me and visit his family, we'd planned on driving up Friday and staying halfway, now we were in DC for an extra day and our "special" hotel was booked Saturday - Monday. We stayed at a Kimpton hotel, which is always fun and quirky and they allow pets, so there are dogs everywhere. We stayed in one in Pittsburgh last time and there was a giant dog bed in the room.

I was pretty hungry and we decided on sushi for dinner. I stink, and I don't remember the name of the place, but it was fancy AF sushi. I love me some bogo or discounted rolls, and this was not that, but it was some of the freshest and most delicious sushi I'd ever eaten.

I started with a saki-tini which was pineapple flavored and yum

I went with the an assortment platter and Kev got a similar one. It was plenty of food for me, but Kev though that he'd need to spend $100 before getting full. After we left, we went to Georgetown and stopped at Good Stuff Eatery where Kev got a burger and some fries. It was a progressive dinner. 

Across the street was Georgetown Cupcake which got mixed reviews from my Facebook friends. A lot of people said it wasn't worth the hype. The were good but not really line out the door around the block good. 

The were pretty

I had the butterscotch waffle cone cupcake and it was gooooood. 

The next morning I woke up ready for a day of sight seeing. Even though we said we weren't exchanging presents, Kev had a surprise waiting for me.

He'd gotten me a super cute bracelet. I actually wore it that day while walking around and it tarnished. This is not my first piece of Tiffany silver and it should not tarnish, especially in one day. We brought it back on the way home and they really concerned about it and I wasn't confident that it wouldn't happen again, when I was miles away from a Tiffany Store, so I opted to return it. (I ended up with a David Yurman bracelet instead). Tiffany fail. I have pieces for 10+ years without any tarnish. 

Anyways, on to the sightseeing!

Andrew Jackson on a horse!

The White House!

We tried to get tickets to the White House tour, which you need to request in advance and get a letter from your Congressman (I kid you not). We were denied because "there are too many kids having tours and they're more important". (I'm paraphrasing) Damn future leaders of the country wanting to see the White House. 

More White House

Everyone give it up for America's favorite fighting Frenchmen! #Lafayette

If you want to go on the tour of the Treasury, you have to request that in advance too. Which we didn't. Instead, I have to take a far away shot of the Hamilton statue.

He's there.

For the day we decided to get tickets for the hop on hop off tour buses and go see the major monuments, I'd never been to any of them before. 

The Capitol

Washington Monument was up first. Unfortunately the elevator was broken and you couldn't go up to the top.

The view to the Lincoln Memorial was AMAZING

The Jefferson Memorial from the bus.

Coming up the stairs.

Sometimes it makes me wonder why I even bring the thunder. #Jefferson

Oh, hey, look at that. Founding Fathers say that you can come to this country and not be persecuted for their religious beliefs. Huh, it's still timely today, isn't it. 

Gorgeous view

Peace out Jefferson

A tour of all things Hamilton, but not actually seeing Hamilton wouldn't be complete without a little Arron Burr. But just a little Burr.

Yea, Hamilton just kept talking trash about Burr for years until he finally challenged him.

After we got our fill of Jefferson, it was back on the bus and over to the Lincoln Memorial

The outside

The view from the other side was pretty sweet too.

What Up Abe?

We still had some time, so we stopped at the Archives and saw the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Deceleration of Independence. You can't take pictures inside the archives, but it was pretty awesome to be able to see the documents in person.

Finally we got back to the hotel. We'd moved from the Kimpton to ... The Jefferson. Yep! A historical hotel full of nothing but Jefferson. The place was amazing and the service impeccable. When we got back from sightseeing, this was waiting for us.

They gave us non-chocolate strawberries because of my soy allergy. 

I took a nap and then it was time to get ready for our anniversary dinner. We had reservations at the Prime Rib which is a pretty schmancy, jacket-required restaurant. When I tell you it was full of nothing but old mobsters, I'm not exaggerating, and I'm known to exaggerate. I LOVE OLD MOBSTERS. Like, so much. It was perfect. 

The cocktail napkin

We sat at the bar for a bit and had a drink and listened to the live music, which was a pianist and a bass player, both old and awesome. The bartender (who you could tell had heard some stories in his day) made me what might be the strongest cosmo of my life. And he made extra in the shaker. When I was halfway through he topped me off. Soon the table was ready and I stumbled to the table.

Soon came cosmo #2 which was rimmed in crushed ice. 

Pretty

We were eating at the Prime Rib. We had Prime Rib. Kev had some sort of potato and I wanted corn, because I hadn't had corn in a while. I remember it being really good. Then I think we shared a piece of cheesecake. I'll be honest, I was pretty tipsy at that point. 

We soon made it back to the hotel. I think we took and Uber, it was a long day and everything was kind of a blur at the end. 

That was our official anniversary! It was a pretty awesome day and a great way to celebrate 10 years of marriage!

Linking up with Amanda - Meet @ the Barre! AND