(Collin Raye and I)
A couple of weeks ago, country singer Collin Raye stopped by the hospital. Most of the time, we have to ask if someone visiting will stop for a picture and then they take one photo with the entire staff, he actually stopped to talk to us and asked if he could take pictures with us, then each person got their own picture and he had individual conversations with all of us. What a nice guy!
Last Friday, I attended the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Nurse's Ball. I went with my friend Julie and her boyfriend Tim. It wasn't that exciting, unfortunately. It was held at the Hilton hotel which is just a couple of blocks from our apartment complex so we walked there. There weren't many people that we knew, most were higher ranking officers. There was one other person there that works on my unit, Rebekah, and we talked to our two bosses for a little while. We left after about two hours, below are a couple of pictures I took.
(Julie and I)
(The ballroom, it looks more crowded than it really was)
(Rebekah and I)
Last Saturday I took a trip down to DC to explore a few more places on my list. My first stop was the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the United States, Bill of Rights, and the Magna Carta. Unfortunately, cameras aren't allowed anywhere in the building so the only pictures I have are ones from their website, http://www.archives.gov/
(Outside, it's a beautiful building)
(Declaration of Independence, it's so old it can barely be read anymore)
(Constitution of the United States, also can't read this one very well)
(Bill of Rights)
(Some old photos in the archives, this one is 'Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima')
(Another famous WWII photo from Times Square, New York, celebrating the surrender of the Japanese on August 14, 1945)
(Rosie the Riveter)
After the National Archives I walked over to the Library of Congress. It's a beautiful building!
(The Library of Congress)
(This was parked out front of the Library of Congress, I just had a to take a picture of the Speaker lights!! :) I know a quality product when I see one!)
(The Library of Congress has some beautiful ceiling murals and statues)
(Wall mosaic inside the Library of Congress)
(The Library of Congress is currently exhibiting Thomas Jefferson's library, which, at the time it was donated in 1814, was the world's largest personally owned collection. Almost 6,500 books were sold by Jefferson for $23,950 after a fire set by the British destroyed the existing Library of Congress. Another fire on Christmas Eve of 1851 destroyed nearly 2/3 of Jefferson's collection and Congress has been attempting to replace the library ever since.)
(The US Supreme Court-I didn't go inside that day, just walked past it on my way to other things, next time though)
(Beautiful fountain I walked past on my way to Union Station)
I also stopped at the National Postal Museum. It was interesting, not terribly exciting though.
(These were part of the exhibits)
Last stop on my list for the day was Union Station. It's pretty much a big mall but it is also rented out for private events, such as this Red Bull event (in the picture below) and several inaugural events have also been held here.
Not a lot was open when I went but it's right on the Red Line, which is what I take to get home so after I looked around I hopped back on the metro and headed for home. It was a great day, and I was able to cross a few more things off my list!
Yesterday, my friend Julie and I decided to go for a hike on our day off. We were looking for a new place to visit that was dog friendly so she could bring her boxer-pitbull mix, Roxy. After a quick internet search I found Great Falls National Park, 14 miles away from our apt and on the Potomac River in Virginia. Absolutely stunning park!!
(the Great Falls from the Virginia side! The park is 800 acres, amazing!)
(Awesome river and I found climbing as well! Can't wait to go back!)
(More photos of our trek through the woods, Roxy sure had fun)
(Little waterfall)
That's all for this post, I included a lot of different events to cover May. I've switched back to day shift and don't have as much free time for blogging now...too busy enjoying the beautiful weather on my days off! Until next time...Cheers!
