Finally got a couple minutes to recap!

Spent last week in DC.
Saturday we at in restaurant at the hotel – Meritage – had a fabulous wine with dinner – Relax Reisling from Schmitt Sohne Vinyards, love it!
Also had some great crab chowder…  slurp!

Sunday was a surprise celebration my sister and I planned to honor my parent’s 50th anniversary!
My sister found a great little restaurant in a great bed and breakfast out in the middle of nowhere.
Bleu Rock Inn
They printed the menus especially for our little celebration, and catered to us quite nicely!
Food was fabulous and the desert super duper yummy!

Monday and Tuesday we cruised the sites of DC. Monday was the big outdoor stuff – see thursday 13, Tuesday was International Spy Museum, Library of Congress and Union Station.

Wednesday hubby headed to the conference, get his learnin on!
When the tough start learning, the rest go shopping!
I met mom and my sister at the outlets and went to town!
I got 3 pairs of shoes, a new Christmas dress, tops, shorts, a jackets, a couple of new undies.  It was a really good haul for me and I got some great deals!  I miss shopping with the weemens!

Thursday was visiting with hoz’s sister, nephews and mom and dad. It was really a very nice time! I miss seeing them!  I hope to get to see them whenever I hit the DC area!  (footnote – hoz is my ex, for those of you not familiar with my life history!)

Friday was my day of relaxation!
9am pedicure,
10am massage,
11:30am lunch at PF Changs with Hubby,
12:30pm extra curricular activities,
1:20pm nap,
3pm wake from nap,

It was lovely!

That evening we hit the Arlington National Cemetery. We raced to make the 6pm Changing of the guard for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  We were a smidge late which made things even better – we were able to see the guards come out from under the amphitheater, then go in an see the whole ceremony. It was very touching for me. I had seen it when I was about 16 or so, on a trip there with my dad… 

Saturday we headed to a national park – Great Falls
Did a little bit of "hiking" along the edge of the river.
Next we headed to Tarara Winery out in Leesburg. It was supposed to be really cool cause they store all their barrels in a cave. Well, it might have been, but they were not giving tours…  so we really didn’t see much of the cave!  :(.  But the good news – found some fabulous wine and jelly!
We bought 2004 Wild River Red – nice and sweet, loved that one, and the 2004 Carval also very yummy!
They also made jelly from their wines, we got a couple of those too…  mmmmm.

We then headed to my sisters, got to see a bit of the country side – there was an accident blocking the road so we decided, time to explore! Some fabulous houses out there!

Sister also had a couple tasty wines
Dog Blue – gotta love the name, she sent hubby to the store to simply get a wine in a blue bottle!  It was rather tasty!
There was another one that was yummy too, but I can’t remember the name…  sigh…

Sunday we tried to sleep in…  I was up around 6am! Arg!  We went to La Madelene one last time – we/I had eaten there almost every day we were in DC!  I usually got the yogurt parfait (homemade granola) – sooo yummy!

Then we headed down the George Washington Memorial Highway – beautiful scenery.
We stopped at a Frank Lloyd  Wright house – Pop Leighey, and Woodlawn Plantation.
Neat, quiet and very pretty!

Drove by Mt Vernon (too many tourists so off we went), stopped at the marina (watched the airplanes take off from DCA, and saw turtle), then to the airport!

What a whirlwind visit!