FEBRUARY: PRESIDENTS' DAY - WASHINGTON DC

Since we’ve been pretty busy, we didn’t have time to plan a weekend away for February. So, we decided to do a “getaway” in our own city, Washington, D.C. We set out early on Saturday and took the metro downtown. We had reserved a hotel room for the night at Hotel Monaco. Hotel Monaco is a boutique hotel located in Washington’s Penn Quarter. The hotel occupies what was once Washington, D.C.'s General Post Office, built in 1839 by Robert Mills, the same architect to design the Washington Monument. For all guests, they host a complimentary wine tasting and if you request, they will provide a goldfish for the room. We arrived early at the hotel and requested the goldfish, but were very disappointed as the goldfish never arrived! We would like input from anyone who has stayed there and actually received their goldfish. The hotel’s architecture is very interesting. It has the skeleton of a neoclassical building and fits right in with the traditional style of Washington, D.C. However, once inside the décor and art are very modern. The lounge is named Poste which is a reference to the fact this was a post office and it sits in a glass enclosed atrium.

The front entrance of Hotel Monaco

After checking into our hotel and having awesome brick oven pizza for lunch at Ella’s, we headed over to the National Portrait Gallery for their President’s Day events. We were able to get our pictures taken with the Washington Nationals Racing Presidents and then viewed Stephen Colbert’s portrait. For those of you who watch his show, you may know the story there. We finally found it located between the bathrooms and above the water fountain!

Michele hanging out with George

Michele hanging out with Colbert

We then made our way over to the National Museum of Natural History for the Butterfly Exhibit. The exhibit is a 1200 square foot tropical setting and interactive experience where you can stroll among live butterflies and exotic plants. There are over 400 butterflies representing 30 different species. We ordered our tickets in advance and we’re glad we did. The line to the butterfly exhibit was over an hour and a half long. The tour was worth it, the exhibit is lined with tropical plants covered with many different butterflies. They swarm all around you and even land on your clothes! It was great to explore the National Museum of Natural History again; we had not been there for a while so it was fun to see the dinosaurs, minerals and gems, including The Hope Diamond.

A few of the beautiful butterflies at the exhibit

We were craving a good steak for dinner, so we ended the day at Ruth’s Chris. Afterwards, we walked around the city some more before returning to our hotel for a “night cap” at Poste. We then changed into the luxurious robes that the hotel provides and watched a movie while enjoying some Valentine’s chocolates!

After sleeping in on Sunday, we made our way downstairs to enjoy coffee and the paper lounging in front of the fireplace on the comfy couches in the hotel lounge. We ventured over to Poste again to enjoy breakfast, including their pommes frites, which are delicious!

Before we left the city, we took the metro over to The Navy Yard to check out the new Nationals stadium. The Navy Yard is being revitalized as old warehouses are being converted to condos and lofts. We can remember that this is what the Chinatown/Gallery Place district looked like 10 years ago. Due to the construction; we couldn’t get very close to the stadium. A police officer would not let us walk around the construction site, therefore our only pictures were off the upper-level bleachers. From what we could see, it looks fantastic and we are very excited for Opening Day next month!

Darren posing in front of the Navy memorial

A view of the new stadium still under construction

JANUARY: MLK WEEKEND - CANAAN VALLEY

This was our first weekend away from NOVA in 2008. We crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains and traveled to Canaan Valley in Tucker, West Virginia. Canaan Valley sets 3000 feet above sea level in the Allegheny Mountains. It is the highest valley along the eastern seaboard. During the winter months Canaan gets a tremendous amount of snowfall, making it ideal for skiing. There are two downhill ski resorts in the Valley (Canaan Valley and Timberline) as well as a cross-country ski resort at White Grass.

Since it was Martin Luther King weekend, we decided to rent a cabin for the three-day holiday. We found the perfect cabin at Golden Anchor cabins. We stayed in the Honeymoon Classic cabin, which was a simple one bedroom, one bath cabin overlooking the Dolly Sods wilderness. In addition the cabin had an outdoor hot tub and a roaring fireplace. It was the perfect setting for a relaxing weekend away!


Our Cabin "The Honeymoon Classic"


Golden Anchor Restaurant

On day one, we went to Blackwater Falls State Park. At the park, we tried out our new snowshoes. We did a nice five-mile hike along the canyon ridge, which provided wintry views of the Blackwater river and the lodge at Blackwater Falls. The snowshoes enabled us to travel deep into the forest along pristine snow covered trails. In the evening, we ventured out to the Golden Anchor restaurant located within walking distance from our cabin. And we ended our perfect day relaxing in the hot tub under the starry skies.


Darren trying out the "shoes" at Blackwater


Michele overlooking the Blackwater River

On day two, we decided to go cross-country skiing at White Grass. It was a very cold day, the temperature barely got above 0 degrees! We weren’t even able to get many pictures, because our camera stopped working due to the frigid temperatures. We did have a great workout though, skiing on the three-mile trail. We accidentally took the easy trail up and ended up on a black trail going down. It was definitely challenging! Again, we ended our day warming up in the hot tub. Since it was the NFL championships, we made a great pot of chili and enjoyed the games lounging in front of the fireplace.




Out in the Hot Tub, right as the temps were reaching the Zero Degree mark

On day three, we had to say goodbye to our lovely cabin and decided to take the scenic route home. We drove through Davis, Thomas and passed the windmill farm along the way. The windmills reminded us of Palm Springs, minus the desert, the golf courses, the spas and everything else that is great about Palm Springs!