Arlington National Cemetery

Now that we're done putting together our home, we've decided to create a Fort Belvoir bucket list. There are a lot of things to do here in the Washington D.C. area and we want to be sure that we don't miss out on anything. Once we've actually crafted a list, I'm excited to share it with everyone! Do you know of any must-see places or activities in the area?!

Anyway, I mentioned that I really wanted to see the Cherry Blossoms. Because of the brutal winter, the blooms are a bit delayed, so we're holding off our Cherry Blossom trip till this coming weekend. They are supposed to be at full peak then!

Instead, we decided to take a trip to Arlington National Cemetery this past Saturday. It's on our short list of things we must see - and it just made sense to pay a visit sooner than later - especially to pay our respects. It was a first time for both of us and it was one of the most humbling experiences I've had in a long time.

In the morning, we drove down to Old Town Alexandria for brunch and parked our car in the Metro parking lot. We thought it would be easiest to take the Metro and parking at the Metro station was apparently free, so we wanted to take advantage!

The grounds are incredible. Rows and rows of our nation's fallen are buried there - from conflicts dating back to the Civil War. We walked around to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and JFK's burial site. I especially wanted to see the ceremonial changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The changing ceremony takes place every 30 minutes on the hour.

Here is a video I took from the ceremony:

I didn't want to take a video of the actual ceremony because I wanted to give them my full attention. So, if you're interested to see it for yourself, pay a visit to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier! You won't regret it.

Some of my Instagram photos, in case you missed it: