A "bucket list" trip to our nation's capital!

The commencement ceremony for Sean's Master's degree from American Military University will be held in Washington DC. He worked so hard on it for so long that we had to attend! I'd been saving up my American Airlines miles for quite a while with no particular trip in mind, and we still had most of our Holiday Inn points from 2018, so we decided to go for it! Sean's mom, Lynn, had also been asking us to take her to Washington DC for several years (she said it was her "bucket list" trip), so she will be joining us. I haven't been to DC since 1989, and Sean hasn't been since 2004.

Admittedly, I am usually a very careful trip planner, but with my busy work schedule, the model horse show I co-hosted with friends in April, and life in general, I didn't do my normal amount of planning for this trip. We both requested White House tour tickets from our Congressman and Senator back in February (which we have been granted!), and I did reserve Capitol tour tickets a month ago, but most of the planning was done this past weekend. Fortunately, both Sean and I were able to spend most of the day on Sunday before the trip doing planning, and now we have a good itinerary put together. The weather may not be very cooperative, so we are bringing rain ponchos and umbrellas, and we will make the best of it! Our hotel is a Holiday Inn in Alexandria, Virginia right on the Metro line, so we will be using the Metro extensively. No car for us this trip!

Lynn is starting her journey first bright and early at 6:15 AM. She's flying from Del Rio to DFW, then we will meet up with her and we will all fly together from DFW to Washington Reagan. We arrive in the early afternoon, which should give us plenty of time to use the Metro to get to the hotel, get checked in, make a supply run, and then head out for the evening. We are hoping that the weather cooperates so we can attend the US Army's "Twilight Tattoo" program at Joint Base Meyer-Henderson. (They do hold it indoors if the weather is bad, but it's not nearly as good since there won't be any marching or cannon fire!) Keep your fingers crossed for us, and I will make a post tomorrow evening with an update.