We had so much fun on our trip! I am ready to go again!

We planned the trip so quickly that we never stopped to consider that this would be a great time to visit Virginia because the leaves are so beautiful this time of year. We don't get that around here. Our leaves just turn from green to brown and fall down. It was so exciting to see all the beautiful colors as we traveled north.

We stopped in Chapel Hill on Wednesday night and had a great time visiting with Greg and Julia. We ate at a cool place called Top of the Hill in downtown Chapel Hill. It was a beautiful night, and we got to eat outside on a deck overlooking downtown Chapel Hill. It is very beautiful there and the downtown is such a neat place. I hope to go back someday.

The next morning we headed to Alexandria, checked into the guest unit at Ben & Katie's apartment and then set off to figure out the Metro. The Metro was pretty cool. I think I enjoyed it more than anyone else who was riding on it because I didn't hear anybody else say "Wheeeeee!", lol.

We met Ben & Katie downtown and did a little touring around, which was fun even though it was dark. Then we headed to the arena for a very exciting Capitals game, which they won 3-2 with 11 seconds left in the game!

Friday, Vic did some work in the business center and then we headed into DC to eat lunch with Ben & Katie and one of Katie's co-workers. We ate at Ollie's Trolley, which was interesting and had an aroma that we're hoping was from the tuna sandwich they advertise on the menu. The fries were very, very good, though.

After lunch Katie and Ben had to return to their offices, and we walked and walked and walked all around the National Mall. We spent the most time in the Botanical gardens, which were absolutely beautiful. We also went in the Hirshhorn Museum. It was a little too, um, contemporary for us so we didn't stay there too long. I was disappointed that the Museum of American History was closed for renovation. I really wanted to go. Maybe next time.

Next we headed to the live Fast Money show, which was very cool. We walked in at just the right time since they had just started filling in empty VIP reserved seats with non-VIPs like us. So, we got a great seat about 12 rows back from the front. In fact, the people behind us were irritated because they had arrived four hours before we did and we got better seats!

It was really neat to see how a live show works and to see all the people we see on TV every day in person. They even took some questions after the show from the audience.

We met Katie and then headed back to VA to meet up with Ben for dinner at a great Thai place. We went out for coffee after that since the evening was getting a little chilly.

Saturday morning we went out for a great breakfast with Ben and Katie and then said goodbye to our fantastic hosts and headed off for a day in the Shenandoah National park.

The park was so beautiful! The leaves were amazing, and the weather was perfect. We drove through the park with our windows down and checked out lots of scenic overlooks. We also went for a short hike but didn't go to far since it was getting dark at that time. As we were leaving, the sun was setting and there were deer everywhere! We had to drive very slowly for the 21 miles it took us to get out of the park because they were all over the sides of the road. We stopped and took some pictures of some deer outside a ranger station. There was a whole mob of people photographing them. We were like deer Paparazzi. It was pretty funny. The ranger didn't think so, though, and she yelled down from the ranger station for us all to get away from the deer.

We spent last night in Richmond and drove home today. We were glad to see the kids and will be glad to be back in our own beds tonight, but it was such a fun trip! We are hoping to go back this summer and take the kids with us.

We don't have a whole lot of pictures, but there are some in our web album.