Ma & Pa & Me!

Mom and Dad came to visit me in Washington, DC, for the first time since I moved here! Hurray! I finally talked them into it, and 2 weeks ago, they made their way to see me and my 'hood.

I pulled out the stops for them, too, during their visit. While they were here, we:

• ate thai food at Mai Thai, in trendy Dupont Circle
• walked around the Capitol, as I gave them a tour according to the knowledge I remembered from when my friend Berkley was in town a couple weeks before (it wasn't much...)
• walked 22 floors of stairs to the top of the Capitol Dome - it's an awesome view of DC from up there!
• ate at Good Stuf, a delicious and popular burger joint in stuffy Capitol Hill
• toured the Library of Congress and the Botanical Gardens (they did - I had to work...)
• ate at some place in Crystal City, which was good, but obviously not amazing if I already forgot the name of it...but my butternut squash ravioli was delicious.
• explored Eastern Market, where I got a cute green pashmina scarf - I only get my scarves there these days.
• roamed the grounds of the White House, in an orderly, designated walkway sort of roaming, for the White House Fall Garden Tour.
• spent Saturday night apart as I went to Stake Conference for church, and they relaxed from 2 crazy days I had just put them through.
• drove around the National Arboretum and wished it stayed open past 5pm.
• Ate at a pizzeria in fashionable Old Town/Del Ray.
• Slurped up some delicious Wisconsin-style Frozen Custard at Dairy Godmother.
• Said a sad farewell, as I returned to my normal life and ma & pa made headed off to Williamsburg.

All in all, it was a fabulously exhausting 4 days with the parents, and I'm so glad they finally visited!

As usual, dad took most of the pictures (though he got a cold halfway through the trip, and he didn't take his usual amount of one thousand photos, so...you know it was a bad cold.) At any rate, you're going to have to make due with the few random pictures from my phone and blackberry below:

The view of the Dome's interior, halfway up the stairs to the top.

The people below - so small!!!

The painting - the Apotheosis of George Washington - from directly next to/below it. It's giant, y'all.

Mom at the top of the Dome! She was such a trooper up the many narrow, dizzying stairs - way to make it! I love your hair!

Another view from the top of the Dome - the building on the left: the Library of Congress; on the right: my old office building. The space in the center? That's where I played with my old chief of staff's bulldog puppy last summer...memories...

 Don't they look so happy to be on the metro? With me?!

 Mom and Dad and the White House. You wouldn't even know that half the people in the world were walking the grounds with us at the same time.

Live music at Eastern Market. These guys were good, and played for a long time. I love street music.

Okay, that's all I've got for you. Thanks for coming to visit Mom and Dad!