Jay and Carrie's Wedding in Washington DC

We went to Washington DC this past weekend for Jay's wedding as he married the love of his life, Carrie. We wanted to turn the opportunity into a vacation so we planned to go out a couple days early and see our nation's capitol.

Since I am a bit OCD, I had to make sure everything was organized and planned to the fullest in order to make sure we maximized our DC potential. Thus, spreadsheets were needed, as was a decent amount of "just humor him" by my trip mates.

THURSDAY

Savannah gets more shut-eye on the train to DC.

The trip started out with a red-eye that Savannah and I took to Baltimore. Savannah slept about 4 hours on the plane while I slept about 2 hours. When you are 6'5" and you get 2 hours of sleep on a plane, that's a win. We landed in Baltimore at about 7am Eastern and took the train into DC. Savannah slept even more on the train, which was packed with commuters going to work in DC.

When we arrived in DC at the famous Union Station it was abuzz with activity as business people ran around trying to get to work on time.

It was so busy it took us at least 10 minutes just to get out of the front drive once we got in a taxi. And it was like 100 degrees with humidity and the cab had no A/C. That's a fail.

The hotel didn't have our room ready so we checked our bags and headed out. After breakfast we decided to go to the Museum of Natural History, part of the Smithsonian. We knew the museum was several blocks away so I had this exchange with the front desk clerk:

Matty:   What is the best way to get to the Museum of Natural History?
Clerk:   Down 9th street right here.
Matty:   Right. So, is there a shuttle or something?
Clerk:   No. You walk.
Matty and Savannah:   *gulp*... Um yeah, we're from Phoenix. We drive to our next door neighbors.

That exchange was a clue to how our week would go...lot's of walking. By the end we were experts at this walking thing though. Keep reading to see how your heroes go overcome major odds and persevere. Ok we just learned to walk more. Sorry to ruin it for you.

A resident at the museum.

This museum (like most museums in DC) is HUGE with a capital huge. We were there for a couple hours and barely scratched the surface. The level of detail, cleanliness, and professionalism of the staff are all excellent.

We saw an IMAX 3D movie about flying dinosaurs and their progression as they evolved. We saw giant skeletons of whales. We saw the butterfly room with live butterflies. In general it was quite amazing.

I hope I can buy it someday.

We also went to the gem and jewelry room where the Hope Diamond is kept. One of the world's most famous diamonds, it has a long and storied history. It is a gorgeous, big blue stone set in a dazzling necklace. We found it interesting that the piece was donated to the museum.

After a few hours at the museum we were wiped so we headed back to the hotel to see if our room was ready and it was.

We were able to relax a bit and shower before the Lecces arrived (of the Rochester Lecces).

When Vinny and Sheila got there we immediately headed out to the US Capitol where we had a prearranged tour (see OCD planning above). On the way we stopped by the Supreme Court to see the aftermath of the Obamacare decision which was earlier in the day. We saw lots of camera crews from all the major stations still setup which was not as interesting as seeing Vinny boo the highest court in the land for their decision.

Did Michelangelo paint that?

The Capitol is very majestic in person. The tour started in the visitor's center which is underneath and looks like a modern hotel inside with marble floors and stone walls. It was gorgeous. The first stop was the rotunda which is awesome from the inside.

Apparently you can fit the Statue of Liberty inside the rotunda and have 30 feet to spare. What they don't tell you is that she is claustrophobic and it would be hell convincing her to get in there.

Sav with Chief Washakie of Wyoming

Our tour guide, we'll call him Clarence since I forgot his name and he looked like a Clarence, was excellent. His knowledge of the history was fascinating. In the Capitol there are 100 sculptures, with each state donating 2 of them. What was impressive was that Clarence asked the group where everyone was from and for all the states that were shouted out, he knew the 2 statues and the history of that person.

For Arizona we had John Greenway and some random old dude with spurs. Savannah posed with a Wyoming statue, Chief Washakie.

After the Capitol, we were hungry for a snack so we went looking for some food. We went the wrong way and wandered around the Capitol in the 104 degree heat and humidity for a while. This is not advisable. Eventually we found a hot dog stand, or maybe it was an oasis, still not sure.

"Did I leave the oven on? No, I'm ok. Or wait."

After a quick drink in the hotel bar, we headed out to visit Jay and Carrie at their place in Arlington. Since they are so close, we had planned to hit Arlington National Cemetery on the way (OCD strikes again). The most famous part of the cemtery is the Tomb of the Unknowns (or Tomb of the Unknown Soldier). It is a very respectful place and it is interesting that none of the visitors talked, even though there were no signs. It was just quiet and peaceful as we watched the guard go through his routine.

The routine is for him to face out for 21 seconds, then face in for 21 seconds, then walk 21 paces to the other side. He does this exactly for 30 minutes, and then the next dude comes in, called "changing of the guard" and it's kind of a big deal. The amazing thing to us was how precise they were. When the guards and the sergeant were walking, their heels would click together to stop at the exact moment. Not too hard you say, well they were facing away from each other. It was impressive and it was like they had practiced it once or twice. This was the last change of the day as the cemetery was closing so after the change, the sergeant basically yelled at us to leave. Ok he was just doing his job and saying it as nicely as sergeants can say something while yelling at perfect attention and staring straight ahead at no one in particular.

The crew.

Then we went to Jay's house and we got to meet his lovely bride Carrie for the first time. We loved her as she is really fun and it is good to see Jay so happy. We also met up with Cyrus and it was wonderful to eat pizza and relax. They have a top floor apartment with a big balcony so we hung out on the porch and shot the breeze. It was great to catch up.

After hanging out for a while, we headed back to hotel to get some sleep and prepare for our next day, which would be our busiest sightseeing day of the trip, code-named Operation Dominate DC.

FRIDAY
The next day we went hard. On this day Greg Pronti and his fiancee Abby joined us to make a happy sixsome. We first had to move hotels (since the wedding special rate only applied for Friday and Saturday nights). So we walked from hotel 1 to hotel 2.

Then we walked to (with my one-word comments on each in order to save column space for advertisers):

From the Lincoln Memorial.

• the White House (white)
• then Washington Monument (tall)
• then the World War II Memorial (grand)
• then the Vietnam Memorial (reflective)
• then the Lincoln Memorial (shady)
• then the Refreshment stand (ahhh)
• then the Korean War Memorial (troops)
• then the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial (ingenious)
• then the FDR Memorial (quotes)
• then the Thomas Jefferson Memorial (round)

It was quite a tour and we took a nice break in the Jefferson Memorial before heading back out. So far we had walked almost 5 miles with all that. Our next stop was the Air and Space Museum and as the heat was intensifying, that was the toughest walk, especially since it was 1.3 miles itself (this looks easy on Google maps on my laptop, its only a couple inches there).

We found Amelia Earhart.

As soon as we crossed the threshold of the museum the wonderful cold of the air conditioning wrapped us up like a mother wraps a child in a towel after getting out of the pool. It was delightful. We were famished so we headed to the food court and crushed some McDonald's. In fact Vinny ate two sandwiches before anyone else ate one.

We then got gifts for the kids (including pilot's goggles for Hayden which Savannah tried on) and toured the museum. Savannah and Sheila were excited to hear that they had a place for people to sleep. They called it the Planetarium. While the rest of us watched a show where Liam Neeson told us about the Earth's climate, Sav and Sheila passed out. The severely reclined chairs combined with the dark and a medium boring show helped too.

After Air and Space we headed over to the Holocaust Museum, one of most sought after museums in the city. It was powerful to go through and quite emotional. It is highly recommended that you go once, but you may not go back because of the intensity.

After that we headed back to the hotel (in a cab this time) and our total logged miles was north of 7. Oh yeah, this day where we walked all over the city, it was none other than the hottest June day in the history of Washington DC. Of course it was. What's crazier is that the heat was not the most astonishing weather story of the day. More on that later.

After a snack and a drink in the bar we headed out for dinner with the entire Cornell crew at Old Ebbitt Grill which is a DC staple apparently. It was good to see everyone and dinner was good (although it was hot in there).

Hey ladies.

After dinner we headed over to Hill Country BBQ to meet up with Jay and Carrie and their families following their rehearsal dinner. You know a place has great food when you walk in immediately after eating a full dinner and you feel like you want to eat some more food there. This was a place like that. While DC is not known for their BBQ this place was modeled like an authentic Texas BBQ joint and it smelled fantastic. Alas, we actually were full so we didn't eat (although we did have some dessert of course, you should know us by now).

A country band named Hellbound Glory started to play so we all grabbed a seat and listened. To properly envision the lead singer of the band, imagine a 30 year old Bruce Springsteen, who sounded like a combination of Springsteen and Dillon just after an all night bender. On either side of him was a sit down lap steel guitar player and a stand up old school bass player. Despite all that, they were pretty good and a fun watch.

When they had a set break after an hour or so, one of our peeps said that we better go now because the storm is a comin'. Even thought Pronti's cell phone said 7 mph winds, everyone else's had weather alerts galore. There was talk to go to another bar quickly, but being the old married guy that I am I quickly squashed that talk and said we needed to get back to the hotel. As soon as we were outside and saw Katrina's little sister blowing everything sideways, the hotel was an easy answer. Luckily a cab pulled up and no sooner did we get  in than the rains came. And it was biblical rainage. So bad we made the guy fit 6 of us in the little cab even though he said he would get a ticket. We told him we'd make sure to tip him well. As we drove we saw the unlucky ones in outside being nearly blown over.

We made it back to the hotel safely until we got out of the cab and Sheila almost died as a car nearly backed into her...jerk. Just being in the open for 2 seconds while we got out of the cab and under the hotel awning was enough to soak us.

Eeney, meeney, meiney, mo.

We grabbed a seat in the bar and watched the storm tear DC apart. It looked like an ultra major monsoon like we see in Phoenix complete with an awesome lightning show and blown over trees.We found out later that this type of storm is called a "derecho" and this is how it moved across the US and slammed into DC.

Of course we wouldn't pass up an opportunity to grab dessert while in the bar so I ordered a bunch of mini desserts for everyone which were super yummy and fun to share.

And alas our fun, hot, long, interesting, grueling, crazy, tiring, derecho day came to an end.

SATURDAY
Saturday was game day for Jay and Carrie. We woke up and the sun shone brightly. It was as if the storm never happened...except for the fact that several million people across the eastern seaboard were without power and many giant old trees had been uprooted. But other than that, nothing happened.

Speaking of  'nothing happened', that is one of the themes for our next stop: the International Spy Museum. Lucky for us, the Spy Museum was right across the street from our hotel. Unlucky for my soon to be formerly loyal friends, I apparently didn't think we had walked enough yet. So I basically forced everyone to do their Spy in the City game. This is a scavenger hunt that goes through the streets of DC while you get clues on a handheld GPS device. We divided into 3 teams of 2 (couples were the teams) and headed out. Savannah and I got an early lead and never looked back. It was fun and it wasn't as bad as we had thought it was going to be (energy wise) as it was only an hour and fairly close to the museum.

Savannah and I got back several minutes before the others but apparently we missed something along the way as their scores were higher (ridiculous - it was probably programmed by a KGB operative to make sure that no more awesome spies get recruited for the good guys here in 'Merica).

We're watching you.

After the spy scavenger hunt we went through the museum. It was really cool and just like all the other museums, extremely well thought out and interesting. They had every piece of spy history and gadget that you could think of. Plus it talked about tactics that are used so we were really able to dive into the spy mind. It was also really interactive with lots of little things to play with and a couple cool things to do, like crawl through the air duct and spy down on the museum patrons through the vents.

After the Spy Museum we had a nice lunch at the Pi Pizzeria and we met Scooter's new lady, Tracy. She is adorable and we love her, just like all the other new Aces ladies.

Then it was time to get ready for the big event so we went back to the hotel.

Not a bad backdrop.

The wedding was at the Newseum (a museum for News, yuk yuk yuk). Since it was so hot (yes the heat returned after the crazy storm) everything was inside...except for the ceremony which was on the roof of the Newseum. The good news is that it has some great views of the Smithsonian and the Capitol. The bad news is we almost passed out. But it was relatively quick (even though it felt like 3 hours) and we went back inside for cocktail hour.

It was good to really spend time with all of our peeps. We talked about everything and nothing as we sipped on drinks and ate appetizers.

It was also good to see all the ladies congregate together while us guys had man talk. The lady Aces have their own group of good friends already and it is good to see.

This view is surely capitol.

The reception was wonderful too and again, the view of the Capitol was spectacular just beyond the dance floor. 

They also had a photo booth where you could dress up in funny hats and boas and get your picture taken so of course we had all kinds of fun with that.

When it got hot inside after dancing, you could go outside on the patio for a nice fresh breath of 98 degree heat.

Congratulating our brother.

It was also good to get all 8 Aces together again. Whenever we get together, there is no catchup period, no small talk about this or that, it is right into good times. I always feel as if no time has passed at all and we simply go from being together to being together with no separation.

Of course the way to celebrate friends like that is with tequila shots so that's exactly what we did.

We continued to dance the night away and we stayed all the way until they kicked us out. Very sad but good times were had by all.

Partying like rockstars.

The party needed to keep going so we were headed to a bar down the street. When we came outside the Newseum, there was a limo on the curb. Scooter bargained with the guy and got him down to $35 for a ride of 5 blocks to the bar. There were 10 of us so we made it happen. 

We were sad when the ride ended as it was a rockin' good time in the limo.

Legends in our own minds.

We continued the night in the bar, which sadly had no food as many of us were super hungry again. Nonetheless, we were able to enjoy the last of the evening and soak up our friends for one last night as we would all be leaving the next day.

We even tried to recreate legendary pictures from our college years which worked with limited success.

And so it was on another fantastic day in the books.

SUNDAY
Sunday was departure day. It was low key as we bought some gifts for the girls and had breakfast with the entire crew one last time. We said our goodbyes one last time and realized that we would all be getting together again soon for another Aces wedding: Greg and Abby in Charlotte. We are very excited for them and we look forward to more good times.

Our fun/crazy trip would not be complete without the story of our Town Car driver, a crazy Italian we'll call Antonio since we do not want to remember his real name and incite flashbacks. Antonio"drove" us to BWI airport. A better word would be "weaved" as we didn't stay in the same lane for more than 4 seconds while tearing up the interstate at dangerous speeds. Savannah decided to just sleep so that she wouldn't have to see the semi coming. I am not that strong.

But we made it safe and sound and no other issues happened as we got home to our adorable little ones. It was a fantastic trip that will live on in our minds and on these pages. Congrats to Jay and Carrie, or as their new Brangelina name: Jarrie.

See more photos of our extravaganza here:

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