Virginia is for Lovers

They weren't lying when they made that phrase up.  What a beautiful place!  We spent the rest of the week with Colby's brother and his family.
We went up to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's Estate, then to a tavern from the 1700's where we stuffed ourselves plump.

Colby's parents flew out and we went to James town,

York Town where the British Surrendered,

Yes, we need to work on a summer tan

Then to Maymont park, a house with a gynormous yard donated by a family when they died, and the point of the trip... watching Nate graduate.

Congrats Nate and Rebecca for enduring these last 4 years, you did it!

Thanks again for letting us come and stay.  We had so much fun!

We're excited you'll only be 7hrs away

Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn

As promised a post all about our hotels.
The first night in Virginia we made plans to go to DC.  Nate was nice to help us a find a killer deal on a hotel in Arlington.  A nice area right next to DC.  Not only was it in a nice area, but it was a 4 star recently remodeled Hyatt.  Nicer than I've ever been in.  And added bonuses, it was within walking distance to the metro, and had parking.  So we were staying in this nice hotel that would usually cost us hundreds of dollars a night, for a measley $60 a night.  Pretty darn good considering it's DC.

a small gimpse of the hotel

So after staying there 2 nights enjoying a nice new clean bed and shower we left for Philly.  As mentioned before, we searched the surrounding cities till late at night for hotels.  Finally coming upon Motel Providence in what I felt was a safe neighborhood.  Colby protested saying he could find somewhere nicer, but I was tired, hungry and ready to stop worrying about whether or not we'd have a place to stay that night.  So Colby went in, then being Colby goes in the room to check it out, make sure everything is okay.  Then comes back to the car to tell me that when he went in to ask if they had any rooms.  The man looks at him like 'Did you see this place?,' and replies with a, "Yeah," like 'that's a stupid question.'  When Colby checks out the room the man first tells him to never turn off this switch or else it will turn out the power to the whole wall.  So after checking it out Colby of course flips off that switch.  Which the man then frantically turns it back on saying, "No, no don't turn off that switch!"  Colby said the man was a little off and socially awkward, the kind of people Colby loves the most:).  So when the guy told Colby the price, Colby says no way and offers him $65, which of course he took, pretty sure there are 50+ rooms and we were one of about 6 people staying there that night.  

Colby wouldn't let us put our bags in the room while we went to eat, and he said he was going to stay up all night watching our car to make sure no one broke into it:).  As we were eating Colby kept apologizing that I had to stay there, then would have sudden outbursts of laughs about where we were about to stay.  I would just keep reassuring him that I have stayed in my fair share of dumpy hotels.  And he'd say, "Not like this."

We went back to the motel and as Colby promised we walked in and were met by a overwhelming smell of mildew.   But trying to show him it was okay, I just turned on the AC and tell him that should take care of it.  Then I see the chair...

 a pink/orange vomit colored, velvet delight, full of black spots and you can't really see it, but the stuffing stringing off the bottom.  Then I check out the bathroom...

 

A yummy peach colored tiled bathroom filled with black mildew in the cracks and corners.  Check out the corner of the tub.  

The decorations were beautiful, the plain mirror adorned the wall, fluffy dust lined the chair, and tables and the bed spreads were elaborate.  We were a little nervous to look in the closet.  Scared a body might be hidden in there.

I know you are looking at this picture thinking that this actually does look like a nice place it just might need a little updating, but be not deceived.  This picture does it no justice and you can't see the carpet pulling away from the floor and wall.  No, it really was okay, and I'm sure we could have stayed in much worse, but going from a 4 star to probably a place the government doesn't even know about, due to the fact we didn't have to pay taxes on it, was quit an adjustment.  And it really was okay considering I just wanted a place to sleep.  So I kept reassuring Colby it wasn't that bad, cause it really wasn't, but he later pointed out I didn't even take my shoes off to get into my jammies and then later wouldn't put my feet all the way to the bottom of the bed in the sheets:). The famous untouchable wall switch with a trusty lock on the door

Hehe we laughed and laughed making jokes about it all night long.  But we did later have to admit the guy was trying.  We had cable, the toilet was clean, and the sheets were pretty white and seemed clean when we got right down to it.  What more could we ask for?!  Every couple has to stay in that one memorable hotel.
The next morning we took our bags out to the car when another man working the front desk runs out speaking hardly any English worriedly asks, "Did you shut the door with the key card in it?!"  Obviously this was the only card to the room as evidenced by the many, many slide marks on the card.  Colby tells him no, he was planning to give it to him when we checked out.  The man looks at him like, 'Check out?  What does that mean?'  So Colby gave him the card right there in the parking lot.  And we left, but of course not without first taking pictures of the motel.

So I suggest, if you are ever in Philly, please come stay in Middleton at the Motel Providence, replicating the outside of a jail cell. They have one non smoking room where we stayed right next to the front office.  You will not be disappointed:).

Gettysburg

After getting a little claustrophobic in Philly, we decided to go on to Gettysburg before returning to Virginia.

We shared the roads with these

We saw the river where Joseph Smith was baptized according to Colby.

We even saw a few "Beware of Aggressive Drivers" signs along the way.

We got to Gettysburg, a small, old, little town at about 5.  Just enough time to see the movie at the visitors center and buy a CD guided car tour of Gettysburg.  Big mistake.  SO BORING!  Haha so basically we listened, but the most we got out of 2 and 1/2 hr+ thing was that every battle he talked about was "the bloodiest of all the battles."  Our favorite part?  The last stop on the little tour.  Not just because it was over, but because it had music, made it a little more interesting.  Why they didn't add it in the whole time, we'll never know.  So, if anyone is ever planning to go to Gettysburg, just know we have a self guided tour CD and save yourself about 36 bucks.  

It was beautiful though, so it was worth driving around, even though we had to listen to a dry narration the whole time.

I am terrified of hights, so I grabbed these rails, white knuckled, shaking the whole way down

The whole place was filled with these little monuments

It was well after dark after we finished, so we made our way back to Virginia arriving back at about 2 o'clock in the morning, ending our little road trip.

In West Phillidelphia Born and Raised

On a whim we decided we'd go to Philly.  See where Colby lived for 2 years.  So without a plan or a hotel we were off.  What beautiful drive!  Seriously just miles and miles of green farm land and thick, thick trees.  When we got into Philly we just hung out, walking around, driving in and out of the ghetto's (Colby wasn't lien when he said he lived in the ghetto), and learning about "Carking lots" (seriously some park ranger truly believes that is what a parking lot is called, it took him a few times saying it before I finally realized he really was saying that, poor guy:)).  Well it began to get late and still no hotel, all were either way over priced, and we're way to cheap even when we are desperate, only had smoking rooms, or had just barely booked all their rooms.  So it was 9 o'clock and we had no place to sleep.  So finally we came upon the Providence Motel.  I believe the hotels we stayed in deserve a post of their own.

The next morning we spent at Liberty Bell,

Touring Independence Hall,

The room where they signed the Declaration of Independence

And walking around the city.  What a neat place! 

 Pen's TowerPlaying games outside of some office building

Washington DC

After flying all night on a red eye into Virginia on the 12th, then sleeping the day away, Colby and I woke up the next day to go on a little road trip.  First we hit Washington DC.  

We had reservations to take a tour of the capitol building.  But after going the wrong way on the metro...

then getting off at the wrong stop after going the right way (thanks to the lady in the elevator who gave us those directions), running around asking the crossing guards for directions to the capitol who had no clue where it was (if you are a policeman working for the government, shouldn't you know where the capitol building is?),  then waiting in line for security, we missed our tour by about 40 min, and the last tour by about 10.
So, we walked the tunnel over to the library of congress. 

All the architecture was beautiful!  Please excuse all the pics of me, Colby wouldn't let me have the camera

Then took pictures outside the capitol

Well tried to anyway.  We're glad we went all the way to DC to have a picture in front of a gold X-terra and a bunch of black cars!
We then made the very LONG walk down to the Holocaust museum... to be told we missed the last tour by 10 minutes.   Oh well, at least we could enjoy all the monuments nearby.  Those thankfully don't have time limits

We then made the trek over to Arlington cemetery.  Guess what?... Yup you guessed it... they closed 10 minutes before.  Darn the luck.  So after a long day of tromping around from one end of DC to other, we crashed.
The next day we were much more successful.  It hit us, we had metro tickets, and they stopped every so often.  So instead of wasting time walking everywhere, we could actually use our metro cards!  Brilliant.  We started the day out bright and early to wait in line to get tickets to everything we wanted to hit that day.  Splitting up I was able to get tickets for the Washington monument, Colby for the Holocaust museum, then later met Colby for a capitol tour and Colby even scored some tickets to see where money is made.  These people hold millions of dollars in their hands everyday like it is no big deal!

sporting our stylish tour head phones

look at that, even Brigham Young made it to our nation's capitol

Colby pretty excited to see a...

Exact replica of the Lady of Liberty?  (Not the statue of liberty)  She stands this tall on top of the capitol

We tried for capitol picture #2....

  This time we got a little bit more, but the lady taking it decided the ground was better than getting the whole top of the building:) 

We then got to go up the Washington Monument

Right before going up the elevators.  I've decided George Washington is my favorite president

 finally, a full picture of the capitol!  Too bad we're not in it

Lastly we went to the Holocaust museum.   I don't know why, call me demented, but the Holocaust, and Hitler are so interesting to me.   I guess it boggles my mind how one person could gain so much power and cause so many to become corrupt and be so cruel.  Anyway, it's a self guided tour and I was eating it up, reading EVERY word.  Well, that is until a man comes in and says to hurry because there is only 30 min left before closing and we're not even HALF way, we had 3 more floors!!!  So to say the least I had to book it through the rest, briefly glancing, getting a brief idea of each floor.  If I could, I would have spent a half day there.

We had successfully made it to everything we wanted to, and wanted to go just get a peek of the White House.  Well it started pouring, and I mean POURing!  And crazy lightning.

So we stopped to listen to Colby talk with Michelle and Barrak to wait for the storm to roll over

Then decided to brave the storm 

 Such a pretty place, love old houses!

The next morning we went to Arlington Cemetery before leaving for Philly.  It was such a neat place.  Colby kept saying what a cool feeling there was there.  I'm so grateful for all the sacrifice given so I could live in this beautiful free land.