Ms. Smyth Goes to Washington

My sister Megan had some time off from work, and she wanted to see DC, which I think is a fantastic idea (though I'm biased, since I mostly just want to see as much family as I can, all the time). This blogpost is my brief account of her visit. For her more-expertly-written account, see here, here, and here.

Saturday: Shonni and I picked Megan up from BWI airport, and we stopped in Bethesda, MD, on our way back for some food. We decided on a place that serves Indian food, but on our way walking there, we passed a burger joint (aptly named BGR: The Burger Joint) and some guys that were buying the signature dish, "The 9 Pounder". Wow!After eating our tasty Indian food, we stopped at a little park near Reagan National airport (DCA) to watch airplanes taking off and landing. Sadly, we got there a little late and the wind direction was wrong, so we didn't get to see too many planes.

Sunday: We went to church in the morning, and I enjoyed showing off my cute sister and introducing her to the fellas in my ward. And I must say, the guys didn't mind meeting Megan, but there was a definite sad face they'd get when they found out she was just in town for the weekend and it wasn't a permanent move she'd made. Sorry for getting your hopes up, guys! In the evening, we drove downtown to see a free performance in front of the US Capitol by the National Symphony Orchestra. Weather was finicky, and before the NSO had even played a song, there was a delay due to rain. Just before we were going to head back to the car, the skies cleared up a bit and the show continued. They played some songs we knew, some we knew well enough to sing along with, and some we didn't know but thoroughly enjoyed. They stopped for an intermission, and apparently the heavens didn't like that, because they started crying. Based on the dark skies, we determined that was the end of the show for us, and we made our way quickly back to the car, getting totally soaked in the process.Monday: For Megan's birthday, a group of us went down to an amusement park called King's Dominion. We spent almost the entire day down there, and we rode all the rides we wanted to since, to our great surprise on a holiday, the park wasn't totally packed. And we were even able to go on the rides we liked multiple times without a big wait in line.Now that is the way to spend a birthday! Happy birthday, sister!Tuesday: Unfortunately, I had to work some this day, so I dropped Megan off at the DC Temple so she could do an endowment session. When I picked her up a couple hours later, we checked out some exhibits in the visitors' center before going to pick up Shonni for more sightseeing. Next we headed to the National Mall to see some of the gardens, followed by the Pentagon Memorial and Marine Corps War Memorial, commonly called the Iwo Jima Memorial by us locals. For dinner, Shonni and I took Megan to Good Stuff Eatery, which we'd just been to recently but like enough to share with others. We highly recommend the toasted marshmallow shakes and village fries, just in case you're wondering.

Wednesday: Megan had to fly out pretty early, and I was sad to say goodbye, but I'm glad that she chose to come to DC with her time off and we got to spend the weekend together. From her multiple blogposts, I get the feeling she was happy to come, too. Love you, sister!