Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh surprised us. A LOT.

I'm not entirely sure what we were expecting,

something flat and well, boring perhaps?

Instead we found this beautiful city filled

with rolling hills, gorgeous bridges, and a wonderful

view every which way we looked.

We were going to the Pittsburgh area mainly to visit 

some friends, which somehow between all the catching up and

laughing about this and that I didn't get ANY pictures of them :P,

and decided to stop in Pittsburgh since we were so close.

We went on the Duquesne Incline which was beautiful and also a little scary,

its been running since 1877!

We also wandered around The Strip which was such fun.

Pittsburgh Popcorn is so good and I could have spent

the whole day in Roxanne's Dried Flowers.

Such a beautiful city full of surprises.

My camera battery was dying, as in any minute about to die,

so every picture we turned on the camera, prayed the setting would be right,

 snapped the picture suuuuper quick, and then turned the camera off.

So I didn't see any of the pictures we took until after we got home.

A fun surprise, but next time I think we'll pack the charger (;

And thats all of The Great Roadtrip!

Wish we could do it all over again (;

Washington D.C.

The Capitol Building

Union Station

our napping spot (:
touring wears you out! 

Air and Space Museum

Did you know the Wright brothers were some of the first photographers??

 

It poured down rain one afternoon,

that's what this face is all about (:

Metro Stop

(I kept calling it the "L", such a Chicagoan :P)

The White House

Washington Monument

World War II Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

Vietnam War Memorial

Korean War Memorial

 Martin Luther King Monument

Jefferson Memorial

Shake Shack (:

Eastern Market

The Pentagon

Arlington Cemetery 

Whew! Kudos to you if you made it through all that (:

D.C. is so full of history and an acknowledgement that we did not make
ourselves, we have built upon what what our forefathers built.
And you can see this in the people,
they seem to carry themselves with a pride
of knowing they are carrying out history.
Very proud and strong people.
(In chatting and getting to know people, several asked us
"So, um, what IS Chicago known for?"
Oh you know, its just the 2nd largest city in America :P)

Some of our favorite things to see were the Eastern Market,
Historic Capitol Hill (which of course I don't have ANY pictures of :P),
The American History Smithsonian, The Lincoln Memorial,

ok...
 maybe everything was our favorite (:

There was such a weight of honor in all we saw.
The Capitol.
The Pentagon.
All the memorials.
The Lincoln Memorial.
Arlington Cemetery.

A remembering of the millions of people who have made
us who we are.
Who have defined "American".

As much as we enjoyed traipsing around, exploring this and that,
eating good food (shake shack, sweet green, willard's bbq... ugh so good!)
there was always that weight of the importance of what
we were seeing and acknowledging the part
of our lives this city, and the history this city has made, has played.



I had such a hard time putting this post together.
We saw SO much and I feel that there is so much
that deserves to be said, not to mention a gazillion pictures (:
But a post with a 136 pictures and a novel to go with it
just would not be helpful or enjoyable,
so here you go.

Still a ton of pictures and words, but much smaller than you might have gotten (:


xoxo,
lyss