Welcome to our blog!

Hello and welcome to the Willoughby blog! Shawn convinced me to start this blog so that our friends and family back on the west side of the country (and the few of you on the east) could easily keep up with the various adventures and experiences we are having in North Carolina.  If you are reading this, you are either curious about what we are up to or just really bored. Maybe you're both. :-) Either way, this blog will just be about various experiences Shawn and I have around and in North Carolina, so thanks for following! 

As for this weekend, there isn't much to report because we have just been getting organized before school starts for me Tuesday, so instead of boring you with information on how we cleaned the computer room, I will talk about our recent trip to Washington, D.C.   

Last weekend Shawn and I took a trip to DC to visit a good friend. The drive up was a bit of a haul. Google maps guessed that from our house to her apartment it would be about 4.5 hours. Google maps was only about an hour wrong when you take into account the enormous amount of traffic that travels I-95. Although there was extra time added to the trip, it was still COMPLETELY worth it. We got to spend time with Cassie and see the city. Here is some info on our jam-packed Saturday… 

We started off with an amazing breakfast Cassie made and then headed out for DC. We got to travel on the metro, which is actually pretty cool. Cassie’s metro stop is really far underground, so you go down this huge escalator to reach it, and it really feels a little like the entrance to Space Mountain. Sadly, no shooting stars pass you as you ride the train. We rode all the way to Union Station (which wasn’t really that far) and then began to explore the area.

We went to the Capitol building, which is huge. 

We went to the Washington monument...also huge.

We then visited a Botanical garden that was amazing. You could walk through Hawaii, the jungle and the Southwest, to name a few of our favorites. Shawn really enjoyed the jungle because it was cool (but still very humid).

Luckily the weather was a bit overcast when we started the day and had a small breeze. By the afternoon though our feet were hurting and it had heated up.

We also visited the Air and Space Museum, and even though we spent an hour in there, we saw just a small portion of it. Shawn really enjoyed all the different airplane exhibits. After all these travels, we were hungry so we tried to find some food. After passing up a McDonald’s that sold $6 Big Macs, we headed for the American History Museum because it had a cafe. While there, we saw Julia Child’s kitchen and a great display on robots. After all this, we went to the Korean War Veteran's Memorial, the National World War II memorial and the Lincoln Monument. We then headed for the White House, which looks small after seeing that great big Capitol building. Sadly, the president was not out mowing the lawn that day. 

After checking out the White House we grabbed some Starbucks and headed for the nearest metro to head back to Cassie’s. DC was great, and I know we will be heading back because there is still so much more to see, including Cassie! 

I almost forgot to mention that while there, we found a place by Cassie's called the Willoughby. Of course we had to get a picture!