i'm back...

(ahhhh.)  hear that?  that's me, taking a nice deep breath after returning home from a much-needed vacation.

and no, i didn't go to a white-sand beach and lay around in the warm sun, reading a good book while kate and greg splashed in the water nearby.  that would only be a few-minutes drive for us from where we live anyway (don't be jealous.)

pictures from last summer

instead, i, by myself, headed north to visit a good friend in washington DC.  DC, as in, where there was lots and lots of snow on the ground.  i didn't even have the proper shoes to walk in something like that.  but the point of the trip was to spend time with my friend, christy, and to enjoy a few days relaxing and hanging out with no real itinerary or agenda to accomplish.  it was the first time since our journey with jonathan began that i felt like i've had a real break.  to not have to worry about anything except where we wanted to eat out for dinner.  it sure was nice to get away for a few days.

i should have known it would be cold there because the morning i arrived at the airport to leave, our flight was delayed a bit so our plane could de-ice.  how do you de-ice a plane in florida?  apparently you move it out of the shade and into the sun.  seriously.  so after a half-hour in the sun, the plane was ready to go.

christy's house- check out the snow.

it wasn't my first time in DC, so we didn't do the whole tourist-thing. but we did spend half a day on friday walking around some of the monuments as best we could since the sidewalks were covered in ice and snow. it was windy and freezing. we even had an obama sighting. well...ok, it was probably just michelle. we don't know for sure, but it was a police escorted motorcade of several SUVs coming from the white house as we stood watching on the hill at the national monument. and it sure does make my story more interesting to say we saw an obama. (i looked it up...the president was in vegas on business on friday and michelle was in DC.)

the white house in the distance

we spent the rest of the morning in the holocaust museum (amazing and awful) and popped into the smithsonian for a bathroom break and a cup of coffee before we caught the VRE to old town-alexandria for the rest of the day.

the virginia railway express...way better than the metro

on king street in old town, i was expecting to see a bunch of boutiques and cafes that i couldn't afford, so i was secretly excited to see a ross and other outlet stores in the middle of it all.  needless to say, we did a little shopping.  christy and i bought the exact same pair of shoes that could either be really cute or really ugly (the vote's still out.)

unfortunately for me, they look much cuter in a size 8 than they do in a 10. 

while i was there, we visited king street two more times as well, and had sushi and chicken satay for lunch one day, and then sandwiches on another day. 

some other random things about my trip included eating out mexican two nights in a row, hitting the gym for a serious workout because of the mexican food, girls night with some of christy's friends, movie night, another sushi lunch, and more shopping.

my five bowls of salsa.  heaven.

that's right.  i love my salsa.

anyway, all that said about my trip, the best part was spending time with christy.  she was a fabulous hostess and when we weren't out and about, we had the best time catching up.  she's one of those treasured friends that brings up jonathan before i do, asks me questions about him, and lets me talk freely and openly about him. and when we weren't talking about jonathan, we talked about how blessed we are and how great our God is, in spite of the difficulties we've both struggled with recently.   it is truly refreshing to be around someone so positive and encouraging. 

"As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend." ~Proverbs 27:17

 

speaking of encouragement, she also "encouraged" me to get a fabulous pair of casual boots to wear over jeans while i was there.  i needed them.  you know, for proper footwear in the snow.  now, i almost hope it stays cold enough a little longer here in florida so that i can wear them a few more times before i trade them in for flip-flops.