Nations Capitol

 Tonight I'm typing our blog from Andrews AFB in our nations capitol.  We're here on a mini vacation while I am driving back towards Dover AFB, DE and Kristen is able to tag along with me.  It's been real nice.  I finished up my academic portion of MC-12 training on Wednesday and Kristen and I headed up here.  The days worked out perfect with a weekend and Presidents Day falling on a Sunday giving us a three day weekend and an impromptu vacation!

The Metro is confusing at first

Chipotle was packed!

We got here on Friday and went straight to the Metro (subway) to go into town.  We went straight to Chipoltle for some burritos.  I know I know...., we're ridiculous.

Us on the Metro

360 of the Washington DC Mall

The next morning we went back in to town and went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.  It was Kristen's first time there.  I've gone there every time I've visited DC in the past, but this was my first since getting my wings so it was kinda special to me.  I liked showing Kristen new things that she hasn't seen before.

 We stopped for lunch at Potbelly's and then had our first designer cupcake experience from a cupcake bakery.  No, that's not a typo, and yes they are $3.50 a piece!  Haha. Yea.....so...., $7 and two cupcakes later we headed over to Arlington Cemetery.

Coolest dude.  Ever.

We went to Arlington to visit my old Detachment Commander and hero, Lt. Col. Wendell Lee Collins grave.  It was really nice to finally see/visit his grave site.  It's my first time here since he's been buried.   There was a blue flower there and that's a Det.320 coin at his grave site.  It's really remarkable that the coin is still there.  A friend and fellow Det.320 dude put it on top of his grave over a year ago!  I'm now going to make it a point to visit the site every time I visit the area.  If you don't know Col. Collins came to our detachment my senior year.  He was the first pilot I really got to know in the Air Force.  Before him I kinda thought that everyone here was nerdy.  He made the Air Force cool to me and especially being a pilot in the Air Force cool.  He was instrumental in me getting into flight school in the Air Force (trust me, it was an on again off again sort of thing for me and pilot training for a while and I believe that he was the reason that I got in).  He had an awesome career as a jet pilot in the Air Force and then switched over to the dark side, helicopters, for a while where he was in Special Ops and did some really cool stuff.  He commissioned me.  Shorty thereafter I moved to Del Rio for pilot training and Col. Collins got his civilian ratings for instructor pilot.  He had been in the Air Force for a while and he was coming up on his retirement.  He decided that he was going to be a civilian instructor and work for a local college back at his home in North Carolina where his wife and two children were already living.  On 23 Aug 09 he was an instructor on a small home built plane for a guy who owned it and needed his bi-annual checkride given by the FAA.  He hired Col. Collins to go up with him early one day and give him a once over..., like a pretend checkride to get ready for the FAA checkride the next day.  There was never a real conclusion or reason given, but the plane went off the side of the runway before ever taking off running into trees nearby killing both of them inside of the plane.  It hit me really hard when I got the phone call.  I just talked to hm two days earlier.  I usually called him once a week just to catch up and BS with him.  He was my hero.  I keep the coin that he gave me on my commissioning day in my flight suit at all times.  I don't know if it's good luck or not but I did make it through pilot training with it.  He was was a big history buff so between being buried around all those famous generals and being buried right next to an Army Major who happened to be a helicopter pilot..,and I'm sure he loves his spot.  It ended up being my favorite part of the trip.

Then we took the official tour and saw the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider.  Those guys are pretty awesome.  Our country kicks ass!

That night we wanted Mexican food!  We saw this small Mexican restaurant while we were walking.  We looked at the menu from the window and decided that it looked descent and the prices seemed reasonable or even cheap.  It looked packed also so that was another good sign.  We walked in and put our name on the list.......an hour and fourty five minute wait they told us! Ha!..... But as we were walking away they told us that there is two empty seats at the sushi bar if we want to be seated right away. Wha?  A sushi bar in a Mexican restaurant?  That's where the weirdness started. Then the waiter came to our table and asked if we want sparkling or flat water?  Uhmmmmmm....OK.  I've never been in a restaurant like this before.  Kristen said flat and I asked for a tea (I didn't know if this was some kind if trick to make us pay for water when I really wanted a tea anyway).  Haha.  When we got down to reading the menu it was weird.  Pig pats on tacos, cow tongue in enchiladas and even some sort of gland on a burrito or something.  This place was weird.  Then for the best part........  The appetizers and entrees are supposed to be just 3 to four bites.  That's it!  So the prices we saw are just three to four bite prices!  Haha.  By this point we were all in though.  They got us.  We ordered four servings of chicken tacos (just 4 small tacos), two orders of chips and salsa and an order of queso and chorizo.  It was good food.  We probably burned off most of the calories laughing at ourselves and the situation on the Metro ride back.  Good times.

National Cathedral

$600,000.00 6' wide house

House from 1717 in Georgetown with no closets

Bahrain protest

Us in front of my bosses house

Washington Monument

WWII Memorial

Vietnam Memorial

Korean Memorial

View from up top the Lincoln Memorial at the no water reflecting pond

Lincoln himself

Where MLK stood

The next day we bought tickets on a guided trolley tour.  It took us everywhere.  We drove past our nations national cathedral towards Georgetown.  We got out at Georgetown and walked/toured/shopped for a few hours.  The price of realty of ridiculously expensive.  For instance..., the small light purple house with a pink door is six feet wide.  It just sold for $600,000.00!!! Wha?!  Crazy!  We also saw the oldest hose there still standing.  It was built in 1717!  The house didn't have any closets in it because the government used to tax closets!  Haha.  Now that's a crazy tax.  You start to understand why people were in arms and had the Boston Tea party on later years.  Haha, I love those quirky stories in history.  This protest was, I guess Bahrainians, with signs and a loud speaker in the White House backyard yelling that they wanted our president to back away from Bahrain and they wanted their two leaders to step down.  Free speech!  Awesomeness!!!

Next we walked to the Washington Monument, World war II Monument, "reflecting pond" (that was empty!), Vietnam Memorial Wall, Korean Memorial and finally Lincoln Memorial (and where Martin Luther King made his "I have a dream" speech)....Wow.  A lot of walking!

Ruby slippers

Stephen Colbert

11 brews on tap!

From there we went to the Smithsonian American History Museum.  Mostly to see the ruby slippers that Judy garland wore in the original Wizard of Oz' but we ended up seeing some other cool memorabilia and nostalgic items from our country's past including a painting of Stephen Colbert. We stayed there till close and then went to dinner.  Good times.  We ate dinner at a brewery.  We got work done on that beer!  I should have been thinking about my PT test on Wednesday though.  Tomorrow I'll start my diet.