I Love to See the Temple

While we were in DC we decided to also travel up to the temple. The Washington DC temple is my favorite temple. It's not the biggest temple but it seems twice as big as the Salt Lake temple since its not around anything. It's beautiful! I'm so happy we were able to go see it.

Last day in DC

Well I'm finally continuing my posts on our trip to Washington DC. While we were there we also visited some of the monuments. We started with the Lincoln Memorial which most of you know is my favorite monument in DC. If I could only visit one, it would be this one.

After visiting this one we visited the Vietnam Memorial but I didn't get any pictures of this one. Then we walked to the other side of the Lincoln Memorial to see the Korean Memorial. This one is difference, neat and kind of creepy at the same time. There are 19 statues in the bushes and 3 of them appear to be coming out of the woods symbolizing not knowing how many soldiers could be hiding in the forest. They are surrounded by bushes to symbolize the rough terrain of the country. No matter where you stand around this monument, at least one soldier is always staring at you.

After this Mike and I walked around Potamac River Park and found the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial.

The Potomac River

We had a lot of fun in DC. Its still one of my favorite places, I just wish we could have spent more time there. I still haven't seen everything that is in the city so I guess we'll just have to go back :) I just love how busy the city is and all the different people and of course the history. It was also nice that it was cooler this time so it was more enjoyable to walk around the city.

Fun at the Washington Monument

We decided to have a little fun at the Washington Monument...It had been a long day :)

Enjoy!

Busy day in Washington DC

After leaving Asheville, we headed up the coast to Washington DC or in other words, one of my favorite places to visit in the country (and in the world at least until I see more of the world). I love Virginia so I was beyond excited to tour the state and see DC again.

Our first stop was the National Air and Space Museum. Mike and I were there a year ago but since we've been they have changed the space shuttle's so this time we got to see the Discovery which has actually been in space. We were pretty excited and seeing Mike in this museum is like seeing a little kid on Christmas morning :)

The Enola Gay

The view of the Kingfisher that those one the ground would see.

Grandpa Epperson's airplane that he flew off of the USS Salt Lake City. The Kingfisher.

Space shuttle Discovery fresh off of its last flight to outer space.

Shuttle with "authentic battle damage"

Th business end of the shuttle

At the air and space museum standing in front of Grandpa's airplane.

We were staying Crystal City which is just two train stops away from the pentagon and just 6 train stops from the mall. So once we got settled into our beautiful apartment that Uncle Randy arranged for us to stay at (Thank you so much!) we headed to the train and down to the mall. We decided to start at one end and work our way towards the other. So we begin at the capital building.

After we finished at the Capital, we continued our walk down the mall. While we were passing the National Gallery of Art, we found the sculpture garden. Their were some interesting and weird things but our favorite was this house that followed you and looked like it was moving when you walked past it. Unless you stood behind it you couldn't tell how it was leaning or positioned. (Sorry for my terrible explanation and the pictures really don't show it either...we tried a video but it wasn't the same as the trick on the eyes)

After this we went to the Museum of Natural History. This is my favorite museum in DC. I love the dinosaurs! Mike loves the geology section of the museum and explaining all of the rocks and gems to me.

This greets you as you walk into the museum

This is 22,000 carats!!!!

We made a quick stop by the American History Museum to see Kermit the Frog :)

We got another surprise at the museum. We found the sunstone from the original Nauvoo LDS temple.

It was a great day! We didn't get to do everything we wanted (their just isn't enough time in the day) but it was still fun :)

Visit to Biltmore

This past week Mike's parents visited us in Spartanburg. We did a little tour around Greenville and the surrounding area and then we left. We had a crazy, week long trip planned for their visit and our first stop was Asheville, NC to visit the Biltmore House.

I hadn't been there since I was 12 and mike's family had never been there so I was so excited for them to see it! The Biltmore House is the largest in America. It is beautiful and amazing to see! It was built in the 1800's and opened on Christmas Eve 1895. The house covers 4 acres of living space and has 250 rooms. We spent a little over 2 hours touring the inside of the house and we didn't even get to see everything! Then we spent a while walking around the beautiful gardens and the stables that are now shops. Unfortunately you can't take any pictures of the inside of the house but the outside is gorgeous and we could take pictures of it to are hearts content.

Those windows behind me are the grand staircase. Its spiral and goes up to the fourth floor. I want one!

These used to be the stables but they are now little shops which are really cute. 

We had a really good time visiting but Mike and I agree that we never need something this huge. Although I wouldn't mind having the library someday and Mike would love to have the banquet hall in our house with the pipe organ playing. Those two rooms and the staircase might be nice :)

Since we can't take pictures of the inside of the house ourselves, I went online to google and got some pictures of our favorite parts of the house for you guys to see :)

Mike's favorite: Their is a pipe organ above on the other side of the room.

My favorite: This library reminds me of Beauty and the Beast :)