As an aside--when we were in the cathedral, I thought to ask if it's possible to get married there, just for kicks. Turns out, it is, sort of. Apparently, 60 to 90 couples per week inquire about getting married there, and there are only 30 weddings there per year. You have to have some sort of affiliation with the cathedral, such as having attended one of their secondary schools, or working there, or being a relative of a member of Congress. And even then, it's $20,000. For a forty minute ceremony. But don't worry, the kind lady informed me when she saw my shocked expression, the price includes flowers. Oh, well, in THAT case.
On Saturday our two families took an open-top bus tour of DC, which I had been wanting to do since April. The informative narration was annoying, but the photo opportunities were great. I see most of this stuff all the time, but I'm always too busy doing whatever to actually take pictures, even if I happen to have my camera with me.
On Sunday, Torsten's parents took us to Baltimore's Inner Harbor for the afternoon. Labor Day weekend, as it turns out, is not such a good time to head to such a touristy destination. But we had great weather, and we didn't stay that long, so it was still nice. By the end of the weekend, though, Torsten and I were both exhausted. Our parents left today, though, so we have spent the day relaxing, sleeping in, at the gym, cooking, etc.--all our normal domestic stuff that totally fell by the wayside while Torsten's parents were in town.
Overall, though, the visit with the parents went great--better than could have been expected. They'll be back for two days next week, but hopefully it'll be a bit lower-stress than this past week was. But we had a good time, and I even have some photos to share.
Torsten and me with his parents:
A bird in the fountain at the base of the Peace Monument:
One of our favourite Thai restaurants:
Part of a war statue:
The Washington Monument and its reflection:
The National Museum of the American Indian:
A nicely-shaped building whose name I don't remember:
oooh, i've never done the open-top bus tour, in all the times i've brought visitors around town! maybe i'll try that next time, although walking the monuments never seems to get old. i especially like it at night..
ReplyDeleteOh, Thaipoon! The National Museum of the American Indian! The National Gallery!!
ReplyDeleteOh, you make me miss DC so much! I am so glad you hear your time with (all) the parents went well. Yah! Your happy family is taking shape!
Alice--The open-top bus tour has only been around since earlier this year, I think. The website says it replaced one of the trolley tours. It's a good thing to do once, especially if you have a visitor who's not a big fan of walking, but in general I would definitely not give up walking the monuments. I would not want to do the open-top bus tour more than once.
ReplyDeleteArtemisia--I keep forgetting that you used to live in DC. Sorry to make you miss it. On the other hand, you have so much great stuff going on for you now, so I don't feel that bad.