The third week of January Anthony had an audition at the University of Maryland for their Doctorate of Music program. Can you believe in May he will have a masters? I decided to use up some of my PTO and take a road trip with Anthony to Maryland and take a little time in Washington DC.
The trip to College Park, MD (where the U of M is) is a 20 hour drive from Norman, OK. 20 hours we decided to do in one straight shot... miserable but totally fun.
We started in Oklahoma then went into Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia then Maryland.
We arrived in St. Louis around midnight and caught the Gateway Arch in the dark (totally blurry because Anthony was asleep and I was trying to take photos, listen to the GPS while driving and trying not to die all at once. I do not recommend it)
Luckily, we'd been to St. Louis a few weeks previous and I had gotten a few decent shots.
Next we made it into Indiana, then Kentucky, both new states for me.
Next we made it into West Virginia which was a fun state, mostly because Anthony and I sang John Denver's Country Roads at the top of our lungs after we swapped drivers. We drove through Charleston which was surprisingly small and had a warning to boil all water.
We also passed a bunch of these crosses and looked them up here. A fellow named Bernard Coffindaffer became Christian and earned 3 million dollars to build 352 sets of crosses across the US, though the large majarity are in WV as this is where he lived.
Next was Maryland, another new state for me. One of the first cities we passed into was called Friendsville, I liked Maryland already :)
Then we saw a lighthouse and I liked Maryland even better. 
The sign next to this scaffolding looking thing in the photo below says, "Noah's Ark Being Rebuilt Here" The website says, "Noah' Ark is being buit as a sign to the world of God's love and the soon return of Jesus."
I think a better sign of God's love was my first sight of the Washington DC LDS temple.
We spent Friday evening at the hotel, enjoying the glorious space of a king bed, and time to spend together will few distractions. Saturday was Anthony's audition. He looked gorgeous and said he felt good about the songs and monologue he performed.
Sunday we took the metro into Washington DC. We'd both been before but never together.
Because of Pres. Obama's scheduled Inauguration many of the DC streets were shut down, which was glorious as we walked down the middle of Constitution as there was no traffic.
Our first stop was Ford's Theater, where President Abraham Lincoln was shot then the Petersen house across the street where he died.
Of course we stopped off by the White House. The gate in front was PACKED with people and it took us a good 15 minutes to work to the front of the cluster to get a decent photo.
We saw various other monuments and buildings, including the FBI building.
There were TONS of toilets set up for the Inauguration but all the doors were zip tied in preparation for the big day. I couldn't help but wonder, you'd think they'd leave at least one open for all the people coming in the day before. Oh well, I wouldn't have used one anyway, Anthony claimed them all.
We spent the late afternoon at the Washington monument, which was gated off like many of the other monuments.
We viewed the WWII memorial, then the Lincoln Memorial which had the highest concentration of people we'd seen all day.
As the following day was Martin Luther King Jr. Day I spent a little extra time on the spot his speech in 1963 was given in an effort to end racism in the US.
We sat on the steps of the Lincoln memorial watching the crowds while the memorial lights turned on. It was a wonderful several minutes to spend with my husband, reflecting on history and the freedoms we enjoy today.
We headed home at 3:00 the next morning, not my finest hour I must admit. We took a different route on the drive home, from Maryland into Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas (all states I'd never been to) then back home to Oklahoma.
There were two stray cats at a rest stop in Arkansas that Anthony fed and watered from our supply. He's got such a good heart.
Anthony now wants to live in Maryland, but we've got to wait to see what offer the University extends as well as other doctorate programs he's auditioned/auditioning for. We'll see what happens.
So, after 40 hours in the car and seven new states with my husband I can confidently say I still like him.
