Roel got home to NY on US Thanksgiving evening after his performance that same day in Detroit for the half time show. I had a nice Thanksgiving meal ready for his return home. The show went very well and Roel looked great! Congrats babe, I’m very proud.
The next afternoon we left with two teammates to a volleyball tournament near Washington DC (actually in Maryland at the University of Maryland). Our team was called New York Nobody. We finished in 2nd out of 16 teams. Our team was comprised of 5 middles, 1 setter and a libero. It is extremely rare to have a surplus of good middles. I ended up playing outside/power and thanks to Roel’s amazing setting I got uprated to ‘A’ (we were playing BB level). This means that I can’t play in any BB tournaments anymore. The odd thing about it is that I have never played outside hitter in a tournament since...I can’t even remember.
After the tournament we had about an extra day and a half and we relocated to downtown DC because Roel had some stores to visit for work on Monday and Tuesday. DC is a beautiful city. On Monday afternoon Roel took me on a surprise segway tour! It was a lot of fun. The segways were as much fun as the tour! haha We cruised by the Whitehouse, many national buildings, offices and museums, Washington & Linclon Memorials, etc.
On our own we also visited Ford’s Theatre where Lincoln was shot and the house across the street where he died hours later. It felt a little eerie in the actually room he died. We also took time to go to the Lincoln Memorial at night (as recommended by everyone). The lighting is dramatic and majestic.
I learned that the Smithsonian is actually a collection of 19 FREE museums. There are so many free things to do. I would highly recommend it as a vacation destination with anyone who has an affinity for history and museums. I spent one morning at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum while Roel was at work. It was a fantastic museum and far exceeded any expectations I had. Did you know that the pink triangle began its life of representing gay people by the Nazis using it as a label on garments/prison uniforms? I didn’t.
We took the train from Union Station in DC back to New York on Tuesday afternoon. A great time! I hope we get to go back because I want to see so much more of DC. National Geographic has headquarters there with a museum which I didn’t get a chance to check out.
A big shout out to my parents who celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary on Nov 30! CONGRATUALTIONS!!
