Magical Mystery Tour

The second annual Magical Mystery Tour has come and gone! If you recall, my friends and I have started taking a "mystery" trip each year, with one person being the planner. We decide on a weekend, budget, and planner, and unless you're the planner you just send your money in and wait for the secret of the location to be discovered! It is awesome. Last year we went to Charleston, South Carolina, and I was not the planner. I just showed up at the airport with my confirmation number, and was told by the unsuspecting ticket agent where my destination was. It was very fun. This year, however, I was the planner!! Talk about pressure. Last year was the perfect trip, and I had such a hard time deciding where to take us! At some point, however, it was discovered that Bryan's parents were going to be in San Antonio the weekend I would be on the trip, thus leaving their 5 bedroom house in Washington DC vacant!!! They offered it up, and I jumped on it! So Washington DC we went! Since all 5 of us had been to DC previously, we didn't have the pressure of seeing any of the usual sights (no monuments for us!). We could pick and choose to do whatever we had either missed the first time around, or wished we had spent more time at. Here is what we ended up cramming into a long weekend - after arriving at Dulles, dinner at Carolina Brothers BBQ (Charlyce's in-laws restaurant...awesome!!), followed by cookies and talking and Teen Witch (our favorite high school movie). My favorite night of the trip! The next morning we got up early and hit the road! We went to Mount Vernon (gorgeous) for the morning, then took the Metro downtown. We spent a couple of hours at the Holocaust Museum (amazing) and then cabbed it over to the Kennedy Center for a show. Pretty fun. Then we walked to Georgetown to find some food and fun. We ate at Mr. Smith's and really enjoyed the food and surroundings. Then we hit the piano bar in the front of the restaurant for some good people watching (and mocking) and singing along to the piano tunes. Finally we headed back for the Metro and for home. I would just like to say that I walked all over town in heels for about 15 hours!! We were all beat and ready for bed when we rolled back to the house in the wee morning hours. The next day we took a road trip to Charlottesville, Virginia. We first went to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. It was a beautiful drive, with lots of Fall foliage, and we had a great day together. We headed into Charlottesville, to the outdoor mall near the U of V campus, but were so starved that all we cared about was finding a place with some good grub. We did Mexican, and then headed back up for our 2 hour drive home. We ate pie and watched Girl's Just Want to Have Fun (another fav) before crashing at some insane hour of the night. What an awesome bunch of girls!! I just love them and love these trips that help us all keep our sanity.