Tourists for the day

Thursday was the perfect day. The kind of day that you want to live over and over again. Jake and I decided to be spontaneous while we had the time. We were both eager to see the sites around our new home. We decided to do a day trip up to DC. We got in the car Thursday morning and headed that direction. We saw the sign for the metro station and decided it was a good idea. We bought a day pass for the metro and studied the metro map. Fortunately, I have had some experience with metros before and was able to get us around. We first hopped off near George Washington University. The first place we saw was Whole Foods, so of course we had to stop. It was by far the most amazing Whole Foods I have ever seen. It might sound weird, but I thought it was truly beautiful. The food displays were set up very neatly and appealing. They had a coffee shop, bakery, and cafe on the top floor, and a grocery store on the bottom floor. I wanted to stay forever. Next, we headed down toward the Lincoln memorial. I had already seen this area during my last visit, but it is something definitely worth seeing more than once. We walked around past the Vietnam War memorial, past the reflection pool, then to the WWII memorial. We then headed toward the White House. We were confused as to why they were building all sorts of things around the White House, until we realized the inauguration parade is coming up. We then went to a small tavern for lunch. We had amazing sandwiches and french fries. After, we hopped back on the metro and explored Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan. We held hands, walked, enjoyed the sights, talked, and laughed. There is so much to see in DC. We enjoyed all of the historical sights as well as the simple sights such as interesting looking restaurants. At this point, we were exhausted, but we decided to stop in Old Town Alexandria on our way back. We LOVED it. It is very similar to Charleston. Old sidewalks and buildings, charm, cute stores and restaurants, historic sights. Jake and I have already been back since then and plan on going back often.

WWII memorial. First time using the panoramic feature on my iphone. 

The Capitol Building from the harbor in Alexandria

King Street

Such a perfect day. Now, it is time to go back to the real world. Jake goes back to work tomorrow and I start my new job. I guess we can't be spontaneous tourists every day. 

Until next time,

J and M

the big move

Saying goodbye to Lexington was hard. Way harder than I imagined. In my opinion, Lexington is the perfect city. It is not too big or too small. You can be in the middle of the hustle and bustle of a city, then 20 minutes later be in the beautiful countryside. It is home to the UK wildcats. Everyone bleeds blue, not just the college students. UK basketball is such an exciting community to be a part of. Lexington is also the horse capital of the world. Do I ride horses? No. But I do love dressing up and going to Keeneland during the spring and fall meets. I also love the Kentucky derby. Lexington has the perfect hometown feel. There are many people who have lived there all of their life. Lexington has the perfect amount of southern charm. I used to tell people that Kentucky is not southern, especially compared to the other southern states and after spending time in Charleston. Now, I do believe that Lexington does have some aspects of southern culture. People like their tea sweet, pearls, fried chicken, Bourbon, football, country music, saying y'all, and southern hospitality. I wouldn't change a thing about Lexington. Jake and I would even like to go back some day and raise our family there.

I could probably go on forever about Lexington, but that is not the reason for this post. This post is to document a very important event in our life, our big move to Virginia. Jake got to come back the weekend before Christmas. His 8 hour drive home took him 11 because of the blizzards in West Virginia. When he got home, I had already packed up our entire apartment. We rented a Uhaul trailer and attached it to his truck. With his mom and stepdad's help, we loaded up the trailer, the bed of Jake's truck, the cab of his truck, and my car with everything we own. There is always something weird about seeing all of your worldly belongings packed together in one place. We spent the 23rd with his dad and stepmom and then Christmas Eve with his mom and stepdad. It was a short little Christmas, but it was good to spend uninterrupted time with family. Christmas day, we woke up, ate Christmas breakfast, and then hit the road. Luckily, the weather was perfect and there was no traffic. We made it to Virginia in about 8 hours. Of course, nothing was open when we got in, so we ate Chinese in our hotel room. What an eventful first Christmas together. 

Little did I know, the fun had not even begun. We woke up the next morning to snow on the ground and rain/sleet/snow falling from the sky. Just our luck. We headed on over to our apartment complex and got our keys and found our apartment. The bright spot of the day was that our apartment is better than we were even expecting. It is clean, huge(especially coming from 400ish square feet), and homey. I left Lexie in the apartment while I went to help Jake park the trailer. I came back, after standing in the pouring rain for 10 minutes without any sort of rain gear, to bright green diarrhea all over my brand new white carpet. Tears began pouring from my eyes as I looked at my green carpet in horror. Then, the maintenance man came to do a walk through of the apartment. I was crying, there was poop all over the carpet, and the poor maintenance man had no idea what was going on. I, of course, had yelled at Lexie, but then started to feel really bad for her. I can imagine how overwhelmed she was feeling. She had just driven 16 hours to SC and back, then watched her whole apartment get packed up,  drove 8 more hours, stayed in a hotel, and is now living in a weird place. So I had to forgive her. Forgiving her was a bit easier after I was able to get most of it out of the carpet. 

Luckily, Jake had to go on base to check-in and brought back a couple of marines to help with the job. I got to stay inside and put things away while the boys brought everything in. It took me pretty much the whole day, but we were able to get everything unpacked and start settling in. It is always fun being in a new place and being able to start fresh and organize things how you want them. We are loving our new apartment so far. It is our little piece of "home" in this new place. 

Rainy day. At least we have a nice view

Little family ready for the move

Lexie is now used to the new place and Jake and I feel settled in. We are excited for this adventure, even though we know we will miss home and all of the people there. But, there is so much to do around here, we plan on making the most of it.

Until next time,

J and M