In what is now becoming somewhat of a tradition, we took a trip over my birthday weekend. This time, instead of going to Southern California, we visited Washington D.C.

En route to D.C. we stopped in Richmond, VA and checked out Belle Isle, a park in the middle of the James River in downtown Richmond. We enjoyed boulder hopping from one side of the James to the other. Scott was fascinated by the old abandoned hydroelectric station on one of the shores and we spent some time checking it out, although it put off some serious murder vibes and I wouldn’t have wanted to be snooping around there after dark.

Scott’s longtime friend Rich, who he used to work with at AllState, has an apartment in Arlington, ideally situated just across the Potomac and only 10 minutes or so from the National Mall, and we were lucky enough to stay with him and visit. From the balcony of his apartment you can see the Washington Monument. Rich is a fascinating character who takes his job as amateur tour guide very seriously, giving any professional tour guide a run for their money. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Rich and the best moment of the trip was him singing Happy Birthday to me. Rich used to be a member of an elite all men’s choir and has the voice of an angel so it was incredibly special.

We did all the typical D.C. things and the highlights were:

• Waiting in line on my birthday to get our hands on hard to get day-of tickets to go up into the Washington Monument, only to find out that the employee whose job it is to open up the ticket booth/gift shop for the Monument forgot his keys and watch him skedaddle in somewhat of a panic back to his house to get his keys, in what would be, at best, a 90 minute long roundtrip. We were equal parts irritated and amused but made the best of it and enjoyed a 3.5 mile long run around the Washington Mall.
• Visiting:
  • The newly remodeled and just now opened back up Air & Space Museum.
  • The Botanical Gardens. Neither of us had been before and the warm and humid greenhouses felt wonderful on a chilly day.
  • Natural History. Janna loves learning about animals and reading every. single. placard.
• The only thing that rivaled being serenaded by Rich was Rich’s nighttime Monument tour. He knows his stuff and knows that city like the back of his hand, and there is something magical about Washington D.C. at night.

Worth mentioning… The only buzzkill of the whole trip was listening to Rich recount his experiences of January 6, 2021, the day of the Insurrection, which he told us while we stood looking at the illuminated Capitol Building, which is now surrounded by ballards and security fencing, which didn’t exist until recently. His story brought chills.