Snowed In - Part 2

Instead of experiencing the second weekend snowstorm on the East Coast in Richmond....We ended up in the eye of the storm...Washington DC.

My mom and her "Girls Night Out" group had plans to spend the weekend in DC touring around and staying at my Grandpa's house. They arrived Thursday afternoon and I took a train up early Friday morning to join them. I made it up there in time and then we took the metro into downtown to see what we could before the snowstorm hit. We first went to the Smithsonian and saw the Julia Child exhibit and then the First Ladies exhibit.

I love the blue KitchenAid

Then we made our way to the Capitol. There we made friends (It may have been flirting) with some of the officers outside the capitol and instead of having to go around to the other side to the Visitor's entrance. We went up the stairs (you know, the ones that the president walks down when he is inaugurated), through the secret elevators through Nancy Pelosi's wing, and then into the dome. We all felt pretty special!

Then our next stop was the National Gallery of Art, first for lunch, then for art. Unforunately, it was around 2 and by this point, the federal government decided to shut down. Lucky us, I knew of a great restaurant (one I try to visit everytime I'm in DC, it's so good, props to Darien and Eric for showing Aaron and I this place in July). I got directions to the nearest one from a helpful government employee and we hopped on the subway to Busboys and Poets. I dream about their Mediterranean Burger!!

Finally, we headed back to Grandpa's to hunker down for the rest of the weekend. We lost power on early Saturday morning and it came back on about 12 hours later. We built a fire in the fireplace in the meantime, we played games, watched movies, and survived the storm. I even wandered out in thigh-high snow to take some pictures. The freshly fallen snow was BEAUTIFUL! I probably took too many pictures but I loved it. 

Sunday we came up for air and shoveled the driveway and I climbed up on a ladder and scraped off grandpa's satellite dish so we could watch the superbowl! We also walked down to the grocery store to pick up a few things. We ate SO well while we were there; probably better than anyone else snowed in.  We had some great cooks among us!

Aaron had National Dental Student Lobby Day(s) in DC on Monday and Tuesday. So on Sunday he rode up with a friend so that I could have the car when I took the train back on Monday. Unfortunately, all transportation out of DC was canceled. My mom and her friends flights were canceled on Monday and they got on another flight on Tuesday. My train was canceled too so I was stranded at least another night. Richmond didn't get hit quite as bad so they didn't cancel school again; I missed class. Mom and friends made it out OK on Tuesday (one of the last flights out before the next storm came) and then I had Aaron and ride/friend come pick me up at grandpa's house. I wouldn't have been able to get out on a train until maybe Friday so it was really lucky that Aaron was there too and could rescue me!

 (Our ride wanted to stop and take a picture of the temple)

The second snowstorm threw us for another loop when it hit early Wednesday morning. I distinctly remember the weatherman saying the night before that it wasn't going to be bad, he didn't even think it was going to turn into snow! How wrong he was. There were 200+ accidents in the Richmond area Wednesday morning with white-out conditions. So schools, work, the government decided to cancel everything for the rest of the day around 9am. The snow stopped at 1030am, and the sun was out by 2 or 3. My class was canceled, Aaron came home early, and we had another lazy snow day.

Hopefully that's the last of the snow adventures here. We like to ski and board on snow, but we're really sick of the way the east/south handles it. It has been a little too much for us!