Saturday morning after having a less than stellar continental breakfast (too many people & not enough space...yikes!) we set out for the US National Arboretum which is kind of like a haven in the middle of the big city. You go through the gates and it is almost like the hustle and bustle of the city outside the walls just completely disappear - it's pretty amazing!
The azaleas are in bloom at the National Arboretum and there is an entire section dedicated just to the gorgeous flowers that come in more shades than I imagined. There is an entire azalea road/pathway that is dedicated to the beautiful blooms and we started our wandering there.
The pathway wound in and through a fairly dense forested area and the paths went up and down, with the bright blossoms lining the sides of the walkway and stretching up into the trees. To say it was a breathtaking sight would be an understatement - the flowers were amazing. I mean - that's why I took so many picture, you know?
Of course, with such lovely flowers to pose around...I couldn't resist snapping a few selfies with all the blooms. The weather on Saturday was cooler but still managed to be humid - thank goodness for all the cloud cover or the wandering around the Arboretum could have been a sweaty mess! Especially in those jeans (although I was thankful for them later in the day!)
We moved on from the Azalea Walk to the Grass Roots exhibit which was on the way to the Visitor's Center and Gift Shop. We snapped a few pictures of the flowers outside the Visitor's center - including one called the War Axe, which made me think of Avengers: Infinity War, which I won't explain for spoiler reasons.
We made our way toward the Capitol Columns and there is a lovely little garden with a fountain and arbors along the way. I didn't realize that I took so many pictures from that vantage point - but then again, of course I did. It was absolutely beautiful! We weren't the only ones that thought it was lovely - walking through the arbors, the sound (and sight) of the bumblebees was a constant presence. Eek!
The US Capitol Columns are a monument at the Arboretum that feature twenty-two Corinthian style columns that were originally a part of the US Capitol, put in place in 1828. The columns were removed during a renovation in 1958 and moved to the US National Arboretum in September of 1984 (a month before I was born)! Twenty-two of the original twenty-four are on display at the monument and the other two are along the azalea walk (we missed them!) as they are both cracked in half with no base or capital.
Something in DC is always being renovated and the Capitol Columns aren't immune. They were wrapped in orange tape around the bottom and sadly the reflecting pool wasn't filled for this visit. I still love the pictures I snapped and that just means another trip is in order once they are completely renovated! Our final stop at the Arboretum was the Asian Valley exhibits to see the willows, camellias and a few other beautiful blooms.
After our morning and early afternoon spent exploring the flowers, we drove over to the Washington Navy Yard to park for the Nationals game and made a pit stop at Yards Park for an afternoon snack from Ice Cream Jubilee - one of our favorite spots. I got a waffle cone with a scoop of Honey Lemon Lavender (a personal favorite) and a scoop of a new flavor, Strawberry Tres Leches! It has bites of tres leches cake mixed in and it was to die for! Granted - I've never had anything less than awesome at Ice Cream Jubilee!
After the game, we made our way along the waterfront river walk and through the Navy Yard to where our car was parked - and of course, I snapped some pictures along the way. We made the drive home stopping at Foster's for dinner and I was so glad to see my wiggly little dog once we got home!
Sunday morning dawned brisk and bit gloomy - there was rain in the forecast and we had tickets to pick tulips in Haymarket. The tickets were rain or shine...but no one really wants to pick flower in a field in the rain, you know? We checked and rechecked the forecast and decided we'd be better off going sooner rather than later, so we headed for Haymarket and arrived under cloudy skies to a field filled with tulips in all the colors of the rainbow!
Holland in Haymarket is done each year by Burnside Farms and we've been to pick tulips before. The weather has been crazy wonky this year (I think I've mentioned it a time or three...or four...) and apparently they lost a whole field of tulips. The choices this year seemed a bit more limited than the first time we picked but there were still plenty of lovely blooms to choose from - tulips were $1 and daffodils were $.50.
We selected our blooms in about thirty minutes - there were people everywhere with kids, trying to get them to smile and pose just right in between the rows of tulips. Most of the little creatures just weren't having it...which made it funny to see the parents jumping through hoops to get the perfect shot! We gathered up our blooms as some rain drops started to fall and headed for the check out!
En route for the house, we stopped in Marshall to have a late lunch at the Red Truck Rural Bakery - voted one of the 13 best bakery destinations by Conde Nast Traveler, among many other accolades. The bakery has shops in Marshall and Warrenton and let me tell you, Marshall is such a small town - but often small towns can hold the best little surprises! I had some delicious chicken tortilla soup and a sausage jalapeno muffin and finished off the meal with an insanely moist cupcake that I split with my Mamma. It was such a fun little stop - good food and all the charm of a small town!
And by the way - the cookie was delicious! Weekends always end too quickly, especially when they're filled with so much wonderful adventuring!
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