Joe & Anne's visit

Well, today is Sunday and we've said farewell to our Aussie visitors. We had such a wonderful week with Joe & Anne! We saw so much of the city (even some things that neither Jeremy nor I had seen) and are now thoroughly exhausted! Here's the lowdown of our week:

Tuesday night
We ate a big roast turkey dinner - turkey, stuffing w/sausage, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, carrots, asparagus & gravy. Mmm mmmm mmmm.

Wednesday
Jeremy had to work, so I took Joe and Anne into the city on my own. After searching and searching for a parking spot at the train station, we finally made it into DC about lunchtime. Then it was time to eat at Cosi, where Joe & Anne had quite the experience ordering - they definitely weren't ready to deal with a busy lunch at a sandwich shop!! Then it was off to the Museum of Natural History and then the Air & Space Museum.

Oh, and the most exciting part about Wednesday - it snowed!! Joe & Anne got to witness white fluffy snowflakes! What a lot of fun they had...and I thought I was a big kid in the snow!?

For dinner we decided to order real delicious American pizza (sorry Eagle Boys, you don't even come close!) which was yummy!

Thursday
We woke Thursday to a beautiful (but cold) day with lots of sunshine, so we decided to make the most of it and hit as many monuments as we could. We saw -

• Arlington National Cemetary
• Iwo Jima Memorial
• The White House
• the Korean War Memorial
• the Lincoln Memorial
• the Reflecting Pool
• the World War II Memorial
• a tiny memorial for George Mason
• the Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Phew!! Somewhere in between all that we took them to our favorite Americanized-Mexican joint, Chipotle. Then, after a loooooong day in the city, we headed home to eat lasagna (made with rice pasta for Joe), garlic bread and salad.

Friday

We had an early morning Friday, which was slightly impeded by a layer of ice that had formed overnight. Joe & Anne were delighted to watch Jeremy scrape the ice off the car - that sure doesn't happen often in Toowoomba!

Then it was back to the city to go up to the top of the Washington Monument. Unfortunately it was an overcast day, so the view wasn't all that spectacular, but it was still a fun time. After that it was off to a much less fun time at the Holocaust Museum, which turned out to be a horrifying, sickening, and incredibly humbling experience. I definitely won't ever forget what I saw there, although I don't think I need to return any time soon.

After that sombering hour and a half, we headed to one of our favorite breweries, Gordon Biersch, for lunch and a beer. The minute we pulled into the parking spot we got a call from Greg and Colleen saying that they had arrived in the city, so they decided to come join us for lunch which was really great! I hadn't seen them for years, so it was a nice suprise to get to catch up with them.

After lunch we headed across the street to the Spy Museum, which is always a fun time. After all that we decided to take Joe and Anne to one of the big ol' malls close by. We were all pretty exhausted, and the shopping didn't last very long, so we decided to head home for the night.

Saturday

We slept in a little on Saturday, then headed out to find a bookstore (for Annie of course!), a CD store (for Joe), and a couple of other things. Then we drove into Georgetown for a little more shopping and then to go see the National Cathedral (an awe-inspiring sight!).

On Saturday Joe and Anne kindly shouted us to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Sequoia, as an early birthday treat. To our delight we discovered that the restaurant still had their "Restaurant Week" special running, so we got a delicious 3-course meal for $30! Bargain!! Dinner was absolutely wonderful, and of course the company was even better!! Thanks so much, Joe and Anne, for a wonderful, wonderful time!

It was so great to spend so much time with them, and I hope they had a fantastic time exploring our great city! We sure had a great time being tour guides for a week - what a fun job!

Here are some pics to entice all you other Aussies to come visit us!

Joe & Anne's visit