Jackson Five!

Jackson celebrated his 5th birthday at Jordan lake this past Saturday. Hope you had a happy birthday Jax! :)

"Shamp-oozled"

Thursday, July 30:

After a busy day working with the little Hagens, I hopped into the passenger seat of my cute lil blue Prius, and we were off for a long weekend trip. We drove to Fredericksburg, VA, where we stayed that evening.

Friday, July 31:

We awoke early the next morning. I got in a quick "lap" swim in the tiny pool at our Hilton Garden Inn...the pool was about five strokes long, so after 20 minutes of sprint swimming back and forth I was a bit dizzy. :) After the silly swim, we packed our bags for the last hour of driving to DC. Somewhere during the packing process, my cell phone charger completely vanished. It was unknown at the time, so onward we went, stopping at McDonald's for breakfast on the way. On a side-note, while the Garden Inn is lovely, I much prefer our regular Hampton Inn stays, as breakfast is included, and icky McD's can be passed up.

Anyway, off we went to DC. We arrived at our hotel just north of China Town around 9:30 and left our luggage with the valet guys, as check-in time was 4:00. Off we went to explore the town, both in our new shoes that we had yet to break in properly.

We took the metro to L'Enfant Plaza and headed to the Holocaust Museum. We'd been to DC nearly two years before, and this was one place we didn't have time to see. Jordan believes that everyone should experience this museum, and I agree. So we walked in through security, but our entry wasn't as smooth as we'd hoped. We brought our camera bag all over the city, and it made it through the x-ray belt without a hiccup. Jordan, however, did not. I picked up our camera bag, and watched the guard pull Jordan aside for a one-on-one wand-waving metal detection session. Jordan insisted that I go ahead in since so many people were entering behind us. I was hesitant, but walked into the museum a bit and stood behind a column and out of the way, briefly distracted by what was in the museum store. Jordan joined me a moment later, explaining that it must've been his belt buckle.

We explored the museum for about four hours. Wow, no wonder my back hurts...poor posture while reading everything in the museum, not a good idea. We left the museum super hungry and grumpy. As his family always says, Jordan is one amazingly wonderful man to be around when he's well-rested and well-fed. The funny thing is, this was more true for me at this particular moment (minus the man part). I was going to eat, and it was going to be soon, or I was going to punch someone in the eardrum. To make matters worse, we exited the museum as it started raining, and hadn't planned on where to eat our late lunch. We walked back towards L'Enfant to look for food, and here began the downpour. We walked under a pedestrian bridge and into an entryway to a building I still can't recall to wait out the heavy rain.

Now let me tell you, few things make me irritable (besides insane hunger). But wet jean bottoms when I'm wearing sandals just drives me up the wall. Things were not looking good for a pleasant mood in my world. Here we are, stuck under this bridge, mad hungry, and without a plan of where to go next. That irked me as well. I hate not knowing where we're going and what we're doing. Had we had an iPhone, we could've Urban-Spooned a place, but we used the Garmin's pedestrian GPS to take us somewhere instead. And with the concrete pedestrian bridge above, we had to take the Garmin out into the rain to get a signal to point us in the direction of food. Finally we "whatever"-ed the situation, and decided to enjoy the rain and get some grub. What else could we do? I can only go so long without smiling around him. :) I jogged as Jordan walked quickly beside me (give me a break folks, I have short legs:).

We were directed to a Chinese place in L'Enfant plaza that we soon discovered was closed, along with every other grill or sandwich shop we passed. However, there was a light at the end of the plaza: McDonald's! As much as it makes me sick after eating it, it sounded like the best damn thing in the world as hungry as I was. I'd even forgotten that we'd eaten there for breakfast. All I could think of were fries, chicken nugget batter (yep, when I do eat them, I bite the crunchies off the chicken and that's about it), and a hot fudge sundae with nuts. Twenty minutes later, I was full of grease, but satiated. Woo! We laughed about our crazy morning and afternoon, and I apologized to Jordan for being such an A. :) On to the next stop!

Jordan's grandfather collects coins, and Jordan has become increasingly interested in them himself as of late. We'd planned to visit the Bureau of Engraving & Printing, but realized after leaving the Holocaust Museum that we wouldn't have enough time for it. So, we headed to the Air & Space Museum, because (one) Jordan is an airplane obsessor and we'd seen the other air & space museum on our last trip, and (two) because Jordan is obsessed with astronaut ice cream...you know, the freeze dried stuff that all museums carry! Well, I had to potty, and Jordan craved this astronaut treat. So, into the Air & Space we went. Before going in, Jordan fumbled around with the camera bag, and we all made it through security without an issue. Hmm...strange. ;) We briefly roamed, checking out the older planes in the museum. Vintage items always pique our interest. We then acquired the necessary freeze-dried dessert, and headed out to relax on the national mall.

We found a bench in the shade (the rain had gone, but the returning sun brought with it some humid air), and sat down. Actually, Jordan sat down first and scooted across, to make sure I had a dry place to seat myself. I love that man. :) Jordan finished munching, and humored me in taking a few photos of the two of us. It helps that he has longer arms than lil ol' me. :) After this, Jordan informed me that he had a treat for me as well. He pulled out a ring pop, still in the package! I asked if he bought it in the museum when I wasn't looking, and he answered no, he brought it from home. He said to me, "I promised you I'd get a huge rock." He put the huge strawberry "rock" on my finger, and asked if I would be his wifey. I was laughing and smiling, and very willing to be the wifey! He put the ring pop on my finger, and took a photo of me wearing it. He sat back down as I was tasting the lovely bauble, and pulled out a ring box. I then hear him say, "This one on the other hand, was a bit more expensive." He handed me the box, unopened, grinning as he did so. :) I said, "Are you serious, are you for real?" on repeat. I was too excited to open the box myself, so I made him do it. It was so beautiful, I could hardly find words to express my excitement. I kissed him and he put it on my finger. It fits so perfectly, and my finger already feels naked when without it. In a moment he asks, "So is that a yes?" Of course I had to reply, "Yeah...I guess so." :) And so I was "Shamp"-oozled! (Jordan's last name, and mine to-be, is Shamp, in case you aren't aware)

Oh-you may've figured out...the hinge on the ringbox set off the metal detector at the Holocaust Museum. Jordan later apologized for lying about it being his belt buckle, and told me that he'd asked the guard if he could step aside and show him what was in his pocket privately. To which the guard replied, "NO!" So as I rounded the column out of sight, Jordan quickly pulled it out and showed the guard, who said, "Oh, just hold it above your head. Congratulations." Ha! :) Then as we headed into the Air & Space Museum, Jordan snuck the ring box into the camera bag so it wasn't in his pocket, and it passed the x-ray belt inspection, and went right back into Jordan's pocket after he picked up the bag. It's a good thing I had a lot there to distract me!

After some photos on the mall, we headed to the National Gallery of Art's sculpture garden to hear some live jazz. Here we texted peeps (sorry for the texts instead of calls, that jazz was loud and phone battery was low), and enjoyed a huge cup of red wine sangria. Yum, delicious. Afterwards we made the long walk back to check into our hotel and change for dinner. We celebrated at Jaleo, an amazing Spanish tapas bar. Deliciousness all around!

I won't go into as much detail about the rest of the trip, as every moment was thrilling for us, but a lot for you to read I know. Here's a quick run-down of the remainder of the weekend.

Saturday, August 1st:

Early strength-training workout at the hotel. Discovery of the loss/vanishing of cell phone charger. Hotel breakfast. Museum of Natural History (fun!) to see mammals, gems (including the cursed Hope Diamond), and oceanic creatures. Lunch at the museum (yummy but pricey), another attempt at the Bureau of Engraving & Imprinting (closed on weekends, sigh), and a visit to the WWII memorial to get some additional photos for Jordie's grampa. Extended walk to the Lincoln Memorial, eating a red-white-and-blue rocket popsicle along the way. Walk back to China Town, stopping at Vapiano for an Italian dinner on the way. Despite the workers being less than thrilled about being there, the food was delicious and it was an interesting ordering process. We went in and were given two cards, and were told to view the menu, then go to the back and tell the chefs what we wanted and watch them cook it in front of us, and we put whatever we ordered there and at the bar on our card. We then found a table to enjoy our pasta, and had our cards rang up on our way out. Whew, were those folks ready to go home! We, however, were ready to try Red Velvet Cupcakery. Honestly, the best cupcake I've ever had. I had to try the traditional red velvet with whipped cream cheese icing (which tickles my throat like mad, but is well worth it). Oh, em, gee. Yes, I typed that. It was worth silly typings indeed. Then back to the hotel to relax in the hot tub and head to bed, Fred.

Sunday, August 2nd:

8:00am-ish-Awoken by flashing lights and sounds of the fire alarm going off. Thank goodness we weren't on the 13th floor, and made it easily down from the 2nd floor just in time to be told it was a false alarm. Oh well, we hadn't set an alarm, so it was kind of helpful. We got ready and packed our bags to check out of the hotel. Hotel breakfast, and a short car ride to Georgetown to do a bit of shopping. More rain this morning, and a frantic search for an open public bathroom at 10:30 (almost everything opened at noon on Sundays). Found one in the Georgetown shops (lovely, by the way), and then we headed to Barnes & Noble to relax til everything opened up. We looked at wedding magazines (me) and honeymoon possibilities in tropical destination magazines (Jordan). I bought mine, then we headed to lunch by the Potomac (Nick's Riverside Grill, not bad but yet again, okay service). I'd heard of Georgetown Cupcake previously, so we had it mapped out before we left the hotel. I tasted another red velvet cupcake here...the cake was just as good as Red Velvet Cucakery's, but the icing was a bit sweeter at Georgetown. I was a fan of the cream cheesier stuff at Red Velvet. :) Jordan enjoyed a mint chocolate cupcake, and said it was the best cupcake he'd ever had. He's not a cake person, and won't eat it unless it's super moist. We enjoyed the cakes with Izze drinks, and prepared to head home after visiting Georgetown Tobacco (where Jordan replenished his "victory ceegar" supply), and Anthropologie (where I looked for but did not find a cute ring-sized bowl to put by our sink, to hold my "rock" while it's not on my hand). Shopping complete, we left our expensive parking spot and hit the road full of traffic. Lots of phone calls along the way, as well as a bit of wedding talk to pass the time. And grocery list-making. But of course, that wasn't quite as fun as the previous subject. :)

Looking forward to our next DC trip! This was a perfect place for Jordan to ask that wonderful wifey question, as DC was our first real vacation spot nearly two years ago. I'll always be fond of that bench on the mall, and will keep the ring pop as long as the ants stay away! :)