This past weekend I flew to Richmond, Virginia to attend the Marine Corp Birthday Ball with Lt. Dan! I left after work and got into DC around 7:30 pm and then we drove down to Richmond. Every time I come home from visiting Dan I am always so grateful for Iowa traffic because things are so chaotic on the East coast! We finally got to our hotel around 10-ish and crashed for the night!
Happy 237th birthday USMC!
The next day we went to get some breakfast (at McDonald's...it a tradition) and we got stuck behind the King's College basketball team, and each 7 foot tall player ordered at least two pounds of food, I swear! We probably waited in line for a half an hour before we got our food...grr. Dan also needed to get a haircut so we ran a few errands as well and headed back to the hotel in order to get ready. After much primping and priming we were ready to go in the afternoon. We had to travel a ways because our hotel was about 8 miles away from the convention center where the ball was being held (Note to self: next year book a hotel within walking distance!) but thankfully Dan had friends who had rooms near the center and we had a few drinks before the ball began.
Cocktail hour began at 6 pm and people milled around and got a few drinks, took professional pictures and introduced everyone to each other. Drinks were super expensive ($5 for a beer, $7 for mixed drinks in tiny glasses) but luckily we came prepared and brought in a flask. :) There were about 3,000 people at the ball and it took up three giant rooms in order to hold everyone. According to Dan, this is the second largest Marine Corps Ball in the country!
Our "ticket'" for the Ball
Around 7 people were told to take their seats and the speeches and introductions started. For some of them were able to sit, others you had to stand...and after standing for the duration of the cocktail hour, my feet were HURTING! Most of the other girls brought small purses or clutches, but me? Oh no...I brought my giant purse! It was a good things because without it, I wouldn't have been able to bring a comfy pair of flats to change into. I also had to hold my wallet, phone, Dan's wallet, Dan's phone, Dan's camera (he isn't allowed to put items in his pocket while wearing his uniform. My question- why have pockets in the first place then?!?), and the flask, of course.
I tried to take a panoramic picture of how many people were at the Ball, but the "mood lighting" doesn't do it justice!
Literally the only picture of us from the ball, Dan must not like to use the camera he has. Sorry family members, you'll have to wait for the professional pictures to come in for a full length picture!
After about an hour of speeches, I was never so happy to eat a salad in my life! It had been sitting on the table the whole time during the speeches and it was just there tempting me! We then had some yummy chicken with mushroom sauce, asparagus and squash (fancy!) before eating some birthday cake! And since the speeches were over, we were free to get up and roam about and start dancing and chatting some more beverages (while the people were giving their speeches getting up to go to the bathroom is a BIG no no!). At first the music was pretty tame (think Kenny G and Michael Buble) but things escalated quickly and the true colors of our nations supreme fighting force came through. That's right folks....Marines dancing. Some were good dancers...others not so much! See the picture below:
I attempted to get a picture of Dan dancing, but he was moving so fast that his face disappeared! :)
Same dress!
Slight wardrobe malfunction...good thing that's what friends are for!
Dan really likes to dance after a few beverages...and boy is it entertaining! He is the first to admit that he is the typical "white person dancer"....haha. I couldn't stop laughing! I have a better picture that shows exactly how much Lt. Dan was having, but I am forbidden to show anyone! It was so much fun, although I was a little disappointed we didn't hear any country music!
Things started to wind down around midnight and we headed back to one of the nearby hotels to change into more casual clothes because we thought we might head out to get a bite to eat or grab a nightcap. There was one small problem though...I was literally stuck in my dress! The zipper was all messed up and three separate people tried to get it undone, but no luck. Finally, they just ripped it and I was free! Hopefully it can be fixed, because it is a nice dress! We changed, but after sitting down after a night of dancing, we were pooped and decided to cab it home. Our cab ride was quite the adventure, learning all about our cab driver's brother/nephew/cousin's (I can't remember) military history, his felony record, and then finally having him sing us his own dirty rap song. Needless to say it was the longest cab ride of our life!
The next day we checked out of the hotel, got some food at Applebee's (Dan got a free lunch because it was Veteran's Day!) and then did some sightseeing around Richmond. We went to Monument Avenue, which is famous for what else...monuments! Mainly they are of Civil War historical figures, but there is also Richmond native Arthur Ashe there as well.
Stonewall Jackson
Lt. Dan, Stonewall and me.
Jefferson Davis
Jeff Davis and Lt. Dan
Cannon
The Big Man himself, Robert E. Lee
J. E.B Stuart
The house where Stonewall Jackson died.
We then left Richmond, and started our journey back to DC. My flight didn't leave until 8 that night so we had some free time. We went to some antique stores (where I got some cool old skeleton keys for my Christmas tree) and also went to the Stonewall Jackson "Shrine" and to the Fredericksburg battle field site. Being a history buff, these places were pretty cool to see!
I had a great weekend and had so much fun meeting Dan's friends and commiserating with other girlfriends/fiances/ wives about how much fun it is to date a Marine!
One final piece of excitement from my trip was when an older gentleman tried to pass a fifth of scotch through security, which meant that I stood in line for about 45 minutes without shoes on because TSA wouldn't tell anyone what was going on! Thankfully, my flight got delayed by about a half an hour so it was all good!
Oofta...this was a long post- sorry!
