doing DC: botanical gardens at Christmas

When thinking of things to do in DC at Christmas, there's several that tops the list. Ice skating on the mall, the big lit Christmas trees at the White House and Capitol, theater performances...the list goes on. One place that doesn't immediately make that list, but totally should, is the National Botanical Gardens. 

My friend and I were in search of refuge from the rain on Saturday when we happened upon the gardens. She had never been inside before, so we popped in to dry off and were totally blown away at the displays inside. Each of the big name monuments was recreated using plants. It was like a mix between a gingerbread display and the Rose parade in Pasadena. 

More than 70 plants were used in the recreations, while there were five commonly used materials - pine cone scales, willows, screw pods, grapevine tendrils and acorn caps. They covered an acrylic-based foam with resin window cutouts and obviously took a LOT of time to create. They note that the Capitol took over 600 hours. Let's just break that down for a second....that's 25 days. That's almost a month. For one of these. Are you ready to be awed? 

 The White House

 Lincoln Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

 Smithsonian Castle

 Washington Monument

 Botanical Gardens

 Capitol Building

 Library of Congress - Jefferson Building

 Supreme Court

Isn't that view breathtaking? It made me want to watch Frosty the Snowman...even though this would be the last place he should be. Karen on the other hand - boy that girl was a wreck! 

*All photos taken by me with my trusty iPhone

my best friend ELF weekend in dc

You may be asking "What exactly is this ELF in DC weekend you were instagraming, Sarah?" Well I shall tell you! You know when Buddy calls his dad and has a whole list of things to do? 

Etsy

"Ahhhhhhh now I know what you're talking about!" You're saying. I knew I only had one weekend in DC before going home for a well deserved Christmas holiday, so my very best friend that I've known since middle school came up to visit and we did a DC Christmas ELF in the city weekend. So we didn't make snow angels, eat a whole roll of Tollhouse cookie dough, or snuggle we did live life the Buddy way. 

We saw some Christmas trees...

 I refuse to show the White House tree because it was even more pathetic than the Capitol tree.

We saw some statues with buildings all decorated.

 Took our typical George selfie.

Saw the monuments recreated using plants

 Another view of the Capitol tree

 Ice skated at the sculpture garden...

And finally....saw Santa on the Mall before getting on the metro. 

I think Buddy would have been proud. 

*All photos besides the first taken by me with my trusty iPhone

that time I saw Prince William in D.C.

I don't know if you know this or not, but I'm kind of a huge Royal Family aficionado. And by "kind of a huge fan" I mean "really really big, basically obsessed" fan. In the fifth grade, we had to read a biography on someone of our own choice and do a life time-line on a jar for a presentation. I was so obsessed with young Prince Wills that I talked my teacher into letting me do my report on him. She didn't want anyone under 40. I feel like that was a real accomplishment for me to persuade her that the life of a teenage Prince with a recently deceased mother had enough to write a decent life timeline on. Not to mention the fact that I was pretty sure we were going to get married so I needed to do my background check on him.

Anyway, we all know how that one turned out. The marriage part, not the book report. I aced that baby.

Who was up at 3am to watch the wedding on all ten channels it was airing on?? Me. I mean, I was basically there in my eyes. I slept on an air mattress in my living room.....basically the same as camping out for a solid week on the streets of London if you ask me.

(Sorry Laura and Jeannette for showing off the photo....but for being up for five hours already, I feel like we look pretty good)

Who was live streaming a wall when it was announced Kate had gone into labor? This girl right here.

So, it was basically only natural that the minute I heard Prince William was making a stop in DC while on his three-day tour of New York in December, I immediately freaked out, jumped around yelling for a few solid minutes and then began devising my plan on how I was going to see him.

(Note, all of the above actually happened in that order last month. I am not ashamed.)

Last week, after it became clear that the only way to get into the World Bank is to know someone that works at the World Bank, I frantically started asking around for anyone that might know someone who works there. In return, it turns out that quite a few people know someone, but for all various reasons, mostly being a time issue, I didn't actually get inside the Bank today.

But I would not be stopped. Oh no. Failure was not an option.

So, I found myself standing outside of the Bank today at 9:30am. Totally alone. I mean, totally alone. Since it was only 30 degrees outside, I popped over to Starbucks across the street and wait for a while until it was closer to "go time" which was 11am. 

Totally alone. Not deterred! 

Around 10:15am I made my way back over where there were now roughly eight people or so waiting. So, I grabbed my front row spot. And the waiting commenced.

We waited and waited, and waited some more. Then around 11am, when Will was supposed to show up, the police and Secret Service guys started checking out a red SUV that was parked on the street and evacuated us. Apparently I experienced my first ever, "this could actually be a bomb" threat today.

By 11:30 everyone was getting extremely cold and hungry and tired of waiting and being pushed back, but then, magically, they determined there was no bomb and closed up the car - did I mention they legit broke into the car?? I wonder if they have a sticker for that like the TSA do with bag checks.....

Obviously, I ran back to my original spot - wasn't NOBODY getting in my way!

Then, that's when this happened...

The super blacked out window was him. He waved. We saw it. And then started freaking out.

I'm going to be honest, this exact picture is NOT mine. But, technically, that would have been the picture I would have gotten had the person who took this one not stuck their arm right in front of me - over me basically, to get it. So, thanks whoever you were for putting it on instagram so I could regram it. I never actually figured out who the original picture taker was, but as you can see, we got a great view! 

This one, and all the other ones though are totally mine. Hey Prince William!!

And basically 15 seconds after he showed up, he was inside and I ran back to Starbucks to start thawing. Although it's hard to see, my finger tips were super red from taking the pictures, as well as my face and my legs, even though they were all covered! I didn't get warm again until I took a nice half hour bath in scalding water. That was after I fell asleep on the metro headed back. What can I say? The cold and excitement really zapped all my energy!

But It. Was. Totally. Worth. It. Every second of waiting was worth it. Because one day, I'm going to be able to tell my children and my children's children that I stood less than 50 feet away from the King of England.

*all pictures - except the one - taken by me with my trusty iPhone