Dear Mom,: A Colonial Weekend

I have been in D.C. for five weeks. Five weeks. Had this been Spain, I would be coming home tonight. For some reason it seems like Spain was so much longer than these last five weeks have felt . . . but maybe that's just because I know that I still have 2/3 of the way to go. Whatever the case, it seems like a long time and a short time all wrapped up in a I-still-feel-like-this-is-unreal package. It's great.

This weekend I continually had this overwhelming feeling of love for the world. Like it was going to burst right out of me. It is really hard for me to put into words, but I imagine other people feel like this too so . . . hopefully you understand.

Full of excitement.

Brimming with joy.

Giddy with love for the beauty of the earth.

You know, normal stuff.

To start off, let's just say that I am in love with Monticello. The architecture, the draperies, the library, the gardens, everything. So wonderful. So beautiful. We spent a good few hours wandering around, and we would have stayed longer if we hadn't been so hungry. But we went to a really cool authentic colonial tavern for a late lunch and ate our little hearts out. And then we looked around the area, went to some colonial shops, and then made our way to Williamsburg for the night. (Where we may or may not have had ice cream from dinner.)

Amanda and I have been searching for these for weeks.
So when we saw them we just had to get them.

A lady who worked at the store came up to me and told me that I needed to get this shirt.

It was a rainy day in Williamsburg, but that seemed to make it all the better. I loved learning about everything, but my favorite part was walking around the canal by the Governor's Mansion and getting hot chocolate. We spent our entire day wandering around there and then stopped by Steak n' Shake for dinner on our way back up.