Congressional Cemetery

Congressional Cemetery has been on my list of places to visit for quite some time. A couple of Saturdays ago I finally made it to the cemetery in Washington D.C.! 

I invited three of my friends and one of them was able to join me on this field trip. One Saturday morning, Diana and I caught the metro and rode to the stop closest to the cemetery. 

The cemetery was beautiful!

There were flowers blooming in the cemetery!

Our first stop was the grave of Cokie Roberts. She was an American journalist and author. She helped NPR to become the news station that it is today.  She also wrote multiple books one of the books being Founding Mothers. 

I must admit, I hadn’t heard of her before this but after what Diana told me about her and what I read about her later she sounds like she was an awesome lady.

I loved the blooming trees and flowers in the cemetery!

The next grave we visited was Belva Ann Lockwood, a lawyer and suffragist. You can read the two pictures below to learn more about Belva Ann Lockwood. 

She was also an awesome lady!

This trail in the cemetery was the September 11th Memorial Path. 

Our next stop was the grave of John Philip Sousa. He composed some pretty awesome music!

You can read the picture below to learn a little more about John Philip Sousa. 

I liked this mosaic!

Our next stop was Thomas Peter Lantos. Lantos was the only Holocaust survivor elected to the U.S. Congress.

“The veneer of civilization is paper thin. We are its guardians and we can never sleep.” - Tom Lantos

Look at the pretty flowering trees!

I loved the blooming trees!

A memorial dedicated to the victims of the U.S. Arsenal Explosion June 17, 1864.

The grave of Mathew Brady, one of the earliest and most famous photographers in U.S. history. 

There was a memorial dedicated to Mathew Brady at the cemetery.

Brady is most famous for taking photos during the Civil War and bringing the reality of war to the people who weren’t on the front lines. 

He also photographed a bunch of famous people, like Abraham Lincoln, U.S. Grant, Walt Whitman, John Philip Sousa, Belva Ann Lockwood etc. 

You can read more about Mathew Brady if you zoom in on the picture above. 

One last picture of the memorial of Mathew Brady. 

I enjoyed walking around Congressional Cemetery! It was beautiful and I liked learning about some interesting people in history.

A painted chair dedicated to those people who have lost children at any age or any time. 

After we finished walking around the cemetery, we got back on the metro and I headed to a bakery I wanted to try and Diana headed to a protest on the mall. 

I got to the bakery not too long before it closed for the day so they didn’t have the items left that I wanted to try. But I still bought something!

I bought a crème puff and a sfogliatelle. The crème puff was delicious and I would happily eat one of theirs again. I had never had a sfogliatelle before and it was decent but I didn’t love it. 

Overall it was a great morning at the cemetery and then the bakery! Thanks, Diana, for joining me on my Saturday morning adventure. 

Storage Unit

Back in 2021, my lease was ending and I needed to find a new place to live. Various options of trying to find a new place to live with roommates fell through so I made the decision to put most of my stuff in a storage unit and drive to different family members homes and work remotely from wherever they lived. Read more about that decision here. 

Although I have been back in Virginia for a couple of years now, I’ve had to keep paying for my storage unit and leave most of my stuff there. Probably two or three times a year the price of my storage unit would go up, but usually not too much, so I was okay with it. But recently I received an email informing me the price of my unit would go up by $70/month. No way was I going to accept that much of an increase in the rent. 

The increase in the rent has been my motivation to try and get all of my stuff out of the storage unit before the price increase takes effect. So recently, I’ve been going through all of my stuff and throwing away things and donating things. I’m going to make it work to not have a storage unit. 

Can I tell you, though, how hard it’s been to get rid of stuff?! It’s really hard to convince myself that I should actually purge my things. I, of course, am still keeping quite a bit but I have thrown away/donated a bit too. 

Since this post is mostly for me below are some items I found amongst my boxes that I may or may not have thrown away/donated but took a picture because I wanted to remember. 

It’s kind of funny some of the stuff I had decided to keep through the years, like this cheese advertisement. It is a pretty great ad but I have now thrown it away. 

I found this old t-shirt from the temple walk I did while I was in the YSA ward in 2013. Our YSA ward was asked to help the youth of the stake with their temple walk by helping at some of the pit stops or walking with and encouraging the youth. I ended up walking the whole way with some of the youth. I believe the walk was 14 miles total. It was tiring but awesome!

I used to wear this t-shirt but it no longer fit me and it was stained so I took a picture and threw it away. 

I bought these sandals in Taiwan. I used to wear them all of the time, but I haven’t worn them in years. I knew I wasn’t going to wear them anymore so I donated them or threw them away.

I had been keeping my Missionary Daily Planners from my mission. I had a really hard time convincing myself to throw these away, but I finally did. I had been moving them around with me for so many years and I just didn’t think it was worth it anymore. 

I still went back and forth even after I threw them away (the trash was still in the house) but I ultimately decided to just throw them away. Now that they’ve been gone for couple of weeks, I don’t think about it anymore.

I received this bear from one of my students in Taiwan as a parting gift. This is one of the many things I kept. This bear is too cute to give up. :)

Getting rid of stuff is really hard but I feel like I should do it every so often. I may have more posts in the future about emptying my storage unit, but we’ll see.  🤷

Cherry Blossoms

The cherry blossoms were in peak bloom this last weekend. My brother, Tim, had never seen the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin in bloom before so we decided to go on a little field trip early on Saturday morning. 

Since I had been to the cherry blossoms before I knew that we needed to get there as early as possible. Neither of us wanted to drive (because I knew that would be a crazy thing to do) so we got on the first train of the day at 7:00 Saturday morning. The closer we got to the city, the more crowded the train got.

I’m glad we left as early as we could. It was already pretty crowded by the time we got to the Tidal Basin but I heard that it got even more and more crowded as the day continued. 

We made it to the Tidal Basin and walked around the whole thing. It was beautiful! The cherry blossoms were in peak bloom!

 

I really like the pink cherry blossoms!

Look at all of those people already there at 8:00 on Saturday morning!

The pictures don’t really do it justice. It’s really hard to capture how cool it actually is. 

Martin Luther King Jr Memorial!

There were quite a few people getting professional photos taken around the Tidal Basin. I loved this lady’s dress so I had to take a picture. 

(Also I didn’t notice until later the couple on the left edge of the picture being all cutesy). 😂

A magnolia tree at the FDR Memorial!

I liked this quote at the FDR Memorial!

I liked the contrasting colors at the George Mason memorial!

The Jefferson Memorial!

After we finished walking around the Tidal Basin, we walked to a French bakery at Dupont Circle (a little over 2 miles away). We walked passed the Washington Monument on the way (where the beginning of a kite festival was happening). 

We made it to the bakery, Un je ne sais quoi. There was a line out the door but it wasn’t too long so we decided to wait. 

I sometimes daydream about food that I’ve eaten and loved. Recently I’ve been thinking about the delicious croissants I ate on my European trip last year. So did some research on the best place to buy croissants in the Washington D.C. area. This French bakery kept on coming up. 

Since Tim and I were in D.C., we decided to try it out. It did not disappoint.

We got multiple items and shared. 

I think my two favorite items were the Butter Croissant and Sugar Brioche. 

It was a good Saturday morning field trip and I’m glad I was able to enjoy the cherry blossoms and the nice spring day!