We took a super quick 2 day trip up to the DC area to go to a dear friend's retirement ceremony. We left at 5:30 am on Tuesday to make the 5 hour drive up. We left so early so that we would be sure to not miss the ceremony at 2:30 if we happened to get stuck in traffic (not that that ever happens on I-95!?! LOL!) But we were really lucky and had a clean shot in so we arrived at 10:30 with a few hours to kill before we had to be anywhere.
After a wonderfully fattening brunch at IHOP, we decided to head over to the motel and see if we could check in early. As we were pulling in, I am looking at the shopping center directly behind our hotel that had a Michael's, Bed Bath & Beyond and several other really cool stores and I see a sign that says Recollections. Hey, isn't that the name of a scrapbook store?!?! You know that I am going to check this out!!!
Luckily, the hotel let us check in and I left the guys in the room (they needed a nap...it had been a really early morning! :D ) and went over to find myself in scrapbooking Nirvana! OMG!!! This is like a WalMart for scrapbookers!!! Huge store with absolutely everything that you have EVER wanted to see in real life, but never have!!! BUT I am on a road trip with the family and I just did a huge scrapbooking splurge the weekend before...Dilemna!!!
I ended up just doing a quick swing through the store, letting myself only look at things that really caught my eye quickly to curb my spending (I was moving FAST). There was soooo much there and I can guarantee you that I only say maybe 1/8th of it, but I spent enough and got some lovely goodies that I haven't been able to find anywhere else so it was a super-fun 30 minutes!!!We then went on over to the retirement ceremony for our friend. It was really nice, but it is always so emotional when someone leaves the Air Force. As we get closer and closer to that transition, it becomes more and more evident how difficult it is really going to be. His ceremony was fantastic though. He had friends there from every step of his career which is such a testimony of what a wonderful family they really are. We are lucky to count them among our friends.
That evening we went to a dinner party celebrating the retirement. What a fun bunch!!! We were talking about it yesterday on the way home about how quiet and sedate the ceremony was, but the party was a complete contrast...definitely a bunch of characters which made it so much fun!!!
Yesterday we were simply supposed to be driving home, but decided that we should take advantage of being in the area with nothing to do and a short day ahead of us and decided to spend the morning at Mount Vernon, George Washington's home. It was amazing. It's hard to believe that we were standing in the same places that he once stood. Well worth the trip and the extremely sore feet (we were supposed to only be driving so I had brought 2 pairs of shoes...one pair had 4" heels, the other 3" and we easily walked 3-5 miles yesterday...OUCH!)
smiles,
christi
7 comments:
Sounds like a great trip Christi. You scored on the Recollections thing! :) Glad you had such a nice time!
Welcome home -- I missed you! Glad it was a good trip.
Love ya,
MOM
I missed you.
It's great to hear form you I was wondering what you were up to. I am so jealous of your trip to recollections. I heard from many people this is an amazing store but have never been. Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip...Washington DC is probably my favorite city in the US and Mt. Vernon is amazing. I have always been a US history buff so Washington DC, Williamsberg, and Moticello are all high on my east coast to-do lists.
Thank you so much for the pictures, I recently read the book and was trying to imagine how it actually looks...thanks for giving shape and color to my imaginations.
Gorgeous pics! Wow! The scrapping stuff looks wonderful!! Looks like you scored good!
ohh..that recollections paper looks yummy! Sounds like fun.
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