sisters are awesome

A couple of weeks ago, we had our annual Sisters' Weekend. It was so much fun! This year we all met and stayed at my place. Friday night, Julie and I did a bit of shopping but neither of us were REALLY in the mood (I got some soccer socks and we both got some perfume at VS), so we just stopped and ate at Johnny Rockets instead.


If you've never been, it's pretty good. It is a 50's-style diner with totally American food. Hamburgers, sodas, french fries, chili-cheese fries, Milkshakes, Malts, etc. They even have little jukeboxes at each table so you can listen to whatever oldies song strikes your fancy. The BEST part about Johnny Rockets however (in my humble opinion), is the fact that you can switch out the meat on ANY hamburger to be turkey burger, boca burger, veggie burger, etc. This was awesome news to my non-beef-eating self! I also was able to add a vanilla flavor shot to my Dr. Pepper! Mmmmm. So many fun and yummy options.


After dinner, we headed to the grocery store for some breakfast items and ice cream. Then we got back to my place and plopped down on my insanely-comfortable (not kidding) couchbed and watched '27 Dresses'. Julie and I had gone to see this movie in the theater not long after Steve (her husband, my bro-in-law... keep up!) and I lost our jobs. I had a couple of free movie passes that I had received for my birthday and we both needed a de-stresser. This was a perfect fix! We laughed a lot and had a really good time. We both wondered later if we would think the movie was really that good if we had seen it under different circumstances. So Friday night was our test. I think it passed! We still had a good time watching the movie snuggled under blankets and eating our ice cream.

Saturday morning rolled around and Julie and I lazily ate some breakfast and waited for Tami to show up with her truck and dressers for me! We didn't wait long, but then were anxious to get in to the city to do some sight-seeing. So even though it was raining, we left the dressers in the back of the truck (they were wrapped in shrink-wrap stuff) and the 3 of us headed in to DC for some fun. We grabbed a quick and light lunch, then made our way to the International Spy Museum.

This was surprisingly fun! I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be very interesting and entertaining. When you first get in there, you choose an identity to take on. You have about 3 minutes to memorize your name, occupation, age, place of birth, where you're traveling, why you're traveling there, how long you will be there, etc. Then throughout the museum, you get more information about yourself and your mission, get tested on what you remember, and finally see if your mission was successful and if you were suspicious along the way. Totally fun. We spent a good 2 hours there.

Across the street from the Spy Museum is the National Portrait Gallery.

I had been here once with Jordan, but we were quickly bored and we left. However, I heard afterward that the 3rd floor had the good stuff, so Tami, Julie and I headed up 2 flights of stairs to check it out. Boy oh boy, we were not disappointed! Included in the interesting and modern art work, we found this:

WHA - !? We were all confused and then we couldn't stop laughing. We took some close-ups. I think they deserve the LARGE PHOTO format:

HAhahahahahhaaa! We certainly had a good time taking pictures of this crazy ugly lady.

So after we had our fun and laughs at this lady's expense, we headed back to my place so we could move the party to The Melting Pot! YUM. By the time we got back to my humble abode, we had *just* enough time to unload the wet, slippery, shrink-wrapped dressers from the back of Tami's truck up the stairs to my living room. They sure were heavy and awkward in the pouring rain! Luckily, my down-stairs neighbor was exiting his place as soon as we were entering the building so he graciously helped us up the stairs with both big pieces of furniture. I still need to get him a thank-you treat for his help. As soon as our labors were finished, we scurried to the restaurant to meet our reservation commitment. The fun and laughs continued for almost 3.5 hours while we ate, talked, took pictures and savored every moment.

We were all SO stuffed and exhausted after our marathon day and dinner. So we spent the rest of Saturday night in our PJs under blankets watching another movie. We soon drifted off to sleep.

Sunday morning came around and we had a scrumptious breakfast of french toast! Then we headed to the Pentagon Memorial which has such a humbling feel to it; much like Arlington Cemetery and the Vietnam and Korean War Memorials. I had read up on all the symbolism of everything at the Pentagon Memorial, so we were all able to appreciate everything that we saw on a deeper level. Naturally, we thought back to where we were the day of the September 11th attacks and shared some tears as all the feelings came rushing back to us. It is a really neat memorial.

For more pictures of the Pentagon Memorial the weekend of its dedication, click HERE

Up next was the American History Museum. This has been closed for renovations for a couple of years, but is one of my favorites. It just reopened in November 2008, so none of us had been to it in years, and were excited to see the changes.

Some of it was awesome and some of it we were a bit disappointed by. But it is still one of my favorite museums. They now have the Star Spangled Banner on display. This flag is almost 200 years old and the last time I was at this museum, there was an exhibit showing how they were restructuring and preserving it. It was neat to see it in all of its glory. It is HUGE! Another favorite is the exhibit displaying the First Lady's dresses. I was also very interested in the Americans At War exhibit. There are also little cool things like Dorothy's ruby red slippers, Kermit the Frog puppet, Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves, and lots of other fun things.

I think the best part of DC is that the mass majority of museums, monuments and memorials are absolutely free. I never tire of being a tourist in my own city. There is always something to do, something to see, and I still have not seen or done it all. It's fun when I have people come to visit because it gives me an excuse to see all the awesome sights again, and maybe even something I haven't seen yet.

Sisters Weekend was so much fun. I love my sisters. We laughed so hard and really enjoyed each other's company. As of yesterday, Tami has officially moved to Germany. I am so sad to have her live so far away from me now, but SO excited that I get to visit her in Germany! :) I hope we don't have to wait for too many years before we can have another sisters weekend. Maybe next time at Tami's house!