Kara and I had been wanting to go to Washington, D.C. for a while for a day together and walk around the city and visit the sites in D.C. So, we planned on arriving Saturday morning and leaving late Saturday night.
We got in the car early Saturday morning and drove up to our nation’s capital and started the morning at the Jefferson Memorial. Then we walked around the Potomac River to get to the Washington Monument. From the Washington Monument, we made our way down the street around the mall to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History where we looked at the “Hope diamond.”
Brandon has a friend who is an attorney in the West Wing of the White House. So, he set up a private tour of the West Wing of the White House. We got to spend the afternoon touring what would otherwise be closed to the public in the White House. We saw the Oval Office, the Cabinet Member’s Meeting Room, and other important rooms.
At about the half-way point of our tour, we went down the “million dollar hall” which was full of original Norman Rockwell paintings worth millions. This hallway led out to the Rose Garden of the White House. Our tour guide, Robert, said “You two go ahead out and we will catch up with you,” so Brandon and I went out into the Rose Garden where he proposed to me.
The Rose Garden is significant to us because for our first date, Brandon surprised me and took me to the Botanical Gardens here in Norfolk, and he had a picnic lunch made for us to eat in the Rose Garden. So, the proposal in the Rose Garden was very special.
- Brandon R., Virginia Beach, Virginia