Dear Daughters: The Marine Corps Marathon

One month has passed since our trip to D.C. and my memory is slightly fading. Problem is I can't find the time to share these fading details. The trip was one to remember and I hope to do it justice in writing but this will be my abridged version of our trip....well, at least that's my plan....we'll see how this goes. ;)

Back in March we signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon 10K race and the Marine in our house started a countdown to October immediately. Such an iconic and historic race made the trip up north very meaningful. The government shutdown that occurred in early to mid October had us feeling like luck wasn't on our side. I started researching ways to spend our time at places that wouldn't be affected by the shutdown. My list was pretty short. I was sad. But ol' Congress got their act together (sort of) at the last minute and my excitement for my first D.C. trip was ramping back up. We flew out on a Thursday morning, had a smooth direct flight and arrived at our hotel around 2:00. Naptime!! Only kidding. But we wanted to. Our bellies needed some good food so we took a suggestion from Jai and found this dandy of a place right down the street.....

Old Ebbitt Grill

We had plans to find the marathon expo that night to pick up our packets and wasted no time hopping on the Metro. Well, sort of. We may have spent a bit of time trying to figure out where the heck we were headed and what direction to go. I am by no means big city savvy and it had been several years since Riley had been to D.C. so he needed a refresher.....

Perplexed?

Frustrated?

Finally!

Found it!

Loved the organization!

We've got to hand it to the Brooks store at the expo....they placed a huge spread of gear at the entrance which sucked everybody in and made us all spend tons and tons of time and money on things we thought we definitely needed. Hence these new running shoes we both found....

Hence us waiting in a line of a million other people for 80 minutes (I really wish I was kidding) just to buy said running goodies. About $400 later we were ready to actually enter the rest of the expo. Ha!! Well played Brooks, well played. The race shirts were fantastic and so was the rest of the evening. It consisted of walking back to the hotel, picking up munchies along the way, buying a movie and curling up for the night. A couple of crazy cats let me tell ya. We spent Friday sight seeing at The White House.....

The Capitol.....

The Library of Congress....

The Museum of Natural History....

The National Monument (under construction)....

WWII Memorial....

Then my "tour guide" FINALLY let me rest my feet on a bench for three whole minutes. Whew!!

Probably pointing towards the Lincoln Memorial noting how far away it is

Back on our feet and ready to see more. The Korean War Memorial...

And finally the Lincoln Memorial....

We worked up a huge appetite after the six plus hours of walking that day so we easily settled on this place...

We were bummed that they had a very long wait but found this yummy place around the corner instead. Crab cake sandwiches and giant stuffed tator tots hit. the. spot. ;)

Friday night looked much like the previous one: movie in bed. Actually two movies. Absolute heaven for my aching feet and my movie-loving soul. Saturday was spent at a couple of the Smithsonian museums (memory is fading, see), Georgetown and Arlington Cemetery.....

We hopped off the Metro and jogged to the cemetery just in time to hike it as fast as we could to the back of the grounds to see the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. It was perfect timing to see an amazing ceremony. Hands down our favorite stop during our trip.....

Another day with a lot of miles logged. By the time we made it back to the hotel it was time for an early bird dinner. We decided to kick our feet up for a bit instead of eating at 5:00. About an hour later we were starving but still tossing around ideas about where to eat our pre-race meal. Important decisions. ;) Instead of something light or card loading up on Italian food we settled on a place called Georgia Browns where we dined on southern comfort food and sweet sweet dessert....oh yes, the dessert. We were borderline miserable when we rolled out of there and walked back to the hotel. We got our race gear all ready and I watched as Riley changed his race day outfit at least five times. Once he'd finally settled on the perfect choice we watched yet another movie before falling asleep.

Sunday morning was a brisk and chilly morning filled with excitement...and more outfit changing by this man....

The starting line was a short walk away from our hotel and right in front of the National Monument....

This guy was stoked!

For once I wasn't one bit nervous at the starting line. All smiles...

The race kicked off around 8:10 and we crossed the finish line about 56 minutes later. Not a fabulous time by any means but we had a good time. I was thankful and very, very impressed that Riley (Mr. Speed Demon) had the patience to run with me the entire race. We passed the National Mall, downtown D.C. and over Crystal City bridge into Arlington where we crossed the finish line holding hands at the Iwo Jima Memorial.

Marines handed out medals at the finish line

Iwo Jima Memorial

The post race celebration was like none other. They had various attractions spread out through the streets of Rosslyn. I talked Riley into waiting in line to get a massage with me. He enjoyed the coffee and free post-race beer. We stuck around for a couple of hours and grabbed a bite to eat before hiking up to the finish line to see some of the full marathoners cross. Oh yeah, and Brooks got us again when we found another booth with finisher's shirts and hats at the finish line. Riley is a sucker for t-shirts and hats....a hoarder if you will.

I begged for a segway tour to save our tired legs for the rest of Sunday but we settled for lots of rest breaks along our walk that day. We went to the Air and Space Museum and finished the day with some shopping downtown and dinner at Woodward Table. Delicious!

Monday was another almost full day before our flight left that evening. We were quite honestly worn out from walking and took it easy all day. Riley wanted to see the Iwo Jima Memorial up close since we didn't get a lot of time at the finish line on Sunday.

We tossed around the idea of taking a cab to Mount Vernon but instead chose to just explore downtown for the rest of the afternoon. We made it home around 3:00 a.m. thankful for a fantastic trip together....but even more thankful for sleeping in our own bed. I have left out so so so many details and wish I had time to share them all but I'd still be typing coming Christmas. We will definitely be back in the future. Ooh rah!

You may be wondering where we left our little munchkin while we were away.......let me tell ya, the chick had a vacation of her own complete with being extremely spoiled by our families. She spent the first 1/3 of her time at Nanny and Papa's house, was picked up by Aunt B for a day, moved on to Gman and Meg's for another day and then back to Nanny's for the last day on her vacation. I can say with pretty good certainty that she did not miss us one bit. Ok, maybe just a bit...but not a lot. She was busy at the park with Aunt B....