Military Bowl (Part 2)

December 26-27th

On the 26th, Jed was able to take most of the day to relax and do whatever. There was a museum just down the street that we really wanted to go and check out called the Newseum. Tom, Derley and Brian joined us in our trip to the museum.

We could spent days in this museum, it was fantastic! I would definitely recommend it to anyone. So great. Some of the highlights for me were, the Berlin Wall display, the indescribable exhibits of September 11th and the heartbreaking feelings we felt when seeing April 16th information throughout the museum.

Truck full of bullet holes while traveling in "enemy territory"

Multicultural exhibit 

Berlin Wall Sign

Part of the Berlin Wall

It was truly amazing the see the artifacts they had in the museum, many were pretty surreal.

Very top of one of the World Trade Center Buildings

Front Page Newspapers for all over the world on September 12

Cameras from a journalist who lost his life while covering September 11th

We left the museum in the afternoon to meet up with my family where they got into town. They meet us at the National Trees so we could walk around the area for the afternoon.

It was great to get to see them before game day and explore the city a little before they needed to headed to there hotel for the evening.

That night Jed and I found a South African restaurant called Nando's that we checked out before meeting up with a group of friends then headed across the street from out hotel to the DC Improv. One of our friends just so happened to be performing that evening and we were able to go at catch the act.

Laura did a fantastic job and it was so fun to see her and watch her performance.
After the show, Nolan, Tyroid, Viceroy, Juan, Jed and I headed out to get a late night snack or two.

We found Julia's Empanadas before headed down to Krispy Kreme for hot doughnuts. Did you know some of the students had never experienced hot doughnuts! We had to fix that pronto!

The 27th was game day and it started EARLY. Derley and I joined a group super early to go put pom poms out in the stands of the stadium. We had a great time being there early and watching everything start to happen for the game. And the pom pom's looked great.

 Once we finished with all the pom poms it was time to wander through all the pregame festivities. We meet up with my family and explored the group tailgating area.

Before long, it was time to head into the stadium for the game. The game was great! The Military Bowl did a great job putting on this bowl game and game time was no exception. And it didn't hurt that we won the game 33-17.

Only 8 more months until the next season!

Military Bowl (Part 1)

December 23-25th

For Virginia Tech's 22nd Consecutive bowl game, the team headed to Annapolis to play in the Military Bowl. Since the team was being hosted in Washington DC for most of the week, on the 23rd, we all hopped on the team buses and headed north.

We spent our time on the 23rd mostly getting everything set up and decorating for Christmas in our hotel room.

After practice rooms were set up, interviews shot, edited and posted, we have the evening to enjoy the perfect location of our hotel. Megan, Brian, Jed and I headed out to explore and ended up at Buffalo Billiards to relax and watch football before all the craziness.

It was a very foggy night so the walk back was really cool. We couldn't help but walk by the White House, Blair House and the National Christmas tree(s) before getting back to the hotel.

Eisenhower Executive Office

Blair House

Eisenhower Executive Office

Unfortunately, we were too late to see the National Trees lit up but being that today was the last day of Hanukkah, the manorah was still lit for us to enjoy.

Christmas Eve was a "regular" work day for Jed. After team breakfast, he headed off to the Capitol for a tour with the team. A lot of the Capitol is under construction but I am sure it was a cool experience.

Capital Rotunda under construction

After the Capital, it was time for practice. Because the weather wasn't great, they had the opportunity to practice in the Washington Redskins indoor practice facility.

While he was off working, I had the opportunity to join other athletic wives from Tech as well as Cincinnati for a meet & greet luncheon at The Hamilton as well as enjoy A Capital Christmas at the Kennedy Center.

That evening a group of us went out walking to see the National Christmas Trees. Thankfully we made it out there in time to see them all lit up.

After our evening walk, we had our Video White Elephant Gift Exchange. We all had a great time laughing and being silly. I absolutely love having the change to do this with everyone.

On Christmas morning, we got up had breakfast with our football family before they left for practice.

After practice, Jed and I went out walking in DC and planned on heading to the Capital for some photo ops. On our way, we found the National Theatre. On a whim, we went in to see if any shows were playing that evening. Much to our surprise Pippen was preforming that evening and they were having a lottery for $25 tickets that evening at 5:30.

We continued our walk to the Capital building while discussing if we could make Christmas dinner, lottery & Pippen all fit that evening.

White House picture (again)

On our way back to the hotel, we decided to stop by the Theatre to see what kind of crowd there was and if we stood a chance at the lottery. Much to our surprise, there was a crowd but we were able to win discounted tickets for the show!

We raced back to the hotel for dinner with everyone before a quick wardrobe change and we were running to make the show on time.

We knew nothing about the show and at intermission we weren't too sure about the play but by the end of the show it all clicked and we really enjoyed it. I would hate to give anything away but I would like to note the way Jed described the show in the end, "A little bit Broadway, a little bit Vaudeville and a little Cirque du soleil." It was different then anything else we have seen and it was really fun. I am so glad we did it. It was a great way to spend Christmas evening.