In Between Wedding and Reception Sight Seeing

A quick side note about back east: there were deer everywhere, and we saw baby deer all over, and they all came in pairs, and they seemed to understand not to go out on the highways because they would just eat the grass right next to the road, and we didn't see any dead ones like out here.

Two cute, baby spotted deer near the temple

Anyway, in between DeAnna's temple wedding and the reception that night Kristen and I had time to go do a little more sight seeing. Really, we were hungry because we didn't want to be late to the temple (turns out we could have been and it would have been fine, see previous post). Then with the wedding starting late, and then going longer than I've ever been too, we were starving for lunch. Not to mention the weird time zone thing, being hungry was an understatement. So we went looking for a place to eat. Turns out, we couldn't really find anything, and we actually wanted fast. Then we drove by the National Zoo (the entrance is unlike any zoo I've ever seen, off a semi-busy road, no parking in front). I said hey, lets go there, they've got to have food. The National Zoo is also part of the Smithsonian, which are all free, so the zoo was free! We parked on the street, walked in, and found a place to eat among the panda attraction. Pizza never tasted so good.

Look, a real Panda!

Eating his bamboo

A little elephant that made the blog because he was cute :)

Kristen and Kendra

We walked around for a bit, then we decided to go to the Arlington National Cemetary. That is an awe inspiring place. I know some history of it, and got to share it with Kristen, that it was once Robert E. Lee's plantation, and after the Civil War, it was taken and made into the cemetery to remind him of what had happened evermore. Any service man or women can be buried there now.

A sea of white headstones

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
We were able to witness a changing of the guard as well

The Kennedy's headstones and the eternal flame

I am so grateful for the freedoms that have been preserved be the sacrifice of the men and women buried there. It was such a feeling of peace there. A beautiful place.

After Arlington, (and walking around in I swear 90% humidity and 90+ degrees), we headed back to go to the reception. It was such a full day, we made the most of each minute.