GEICO MILITARY AWARD DC

6 years ago

@bijouinhawaii

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Apr 24 2019

Letters from the Master Chief of the Coast Guard and the Commandant of the Coast Guard!

What an honor!

@bijouinhawaii

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@#MONTEINLV Beautiful

Apr 24 2019

This week, we are headed to DC to honor my husband. If you asked him why, he would say, “for doing my job.” His Command wrote a 3 page letter honoring his extraordinary work on The CGC Kimball for an award from Geico, who selects ONE person from each branch of the military. To say that I am proud of him, doesn’t even begin to say how very much I am beaming right now.

So we begin a week long trip, kid free (thank you, Holly!), all courtesy of Geico. Our itinerary includes White House and Pentagon tours; dinner at the Chophouse; a lunch cruise on the Potamac and on our anniversary, we have the day completely free! All glory to God for orchestrating this amazing trip with my handsome and brilliant husband!

Dinner before our flight. ✈️

@bijouinhawaii

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@#MONTEINLV So glad you had this opportunity

Apr 25 2019

We received a tour of the Coast Guard Command. We met the Master Chief of the Coast Guard!

Master Chief of the Coast Guard, Jason Vanderhaden.

This is in the foyer of the formal entrance.

We can see Georgetown University, across the Potamac, from our hotel room.

Beautiful rug. And the floor is like a ship-with planks.

@bijouinhawaii

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@#MONTEINLV Blessings

Apr 25 2019

Had lunch outside at a cute little place. In Georgetown. Then went to Georgetown Cupcakes. It was the middle of a workday and the line was out the door.

Got back to the room to find some Geico swag.

Walking back over the Key Bridge-after Francis Scott Key. See the Washington Monumrnt between us?

Took our coffee and cupcakes to the park on the Potamac.

How funny he gave us Hawaiian chocolates. 🌺

Pretty flowered tree. Unfortunately, we missed all the pink blossoms of spring.

@bijouinhawaii

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@#MONTEINLV Score!!!

Apr 26 2019

Tonight we had dinner, courtesy of Geico on the 14th floor of the Key Bridge Marriott with a magnificent view of the Washington, Lincoln & Jefferson Memorials.

@bijouinhawaii

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@#MONTEINLV So proud of you

Apr 27 2019

What an incredibly blessed day!

Geico has arranged to bus us around DC to shuttle us to all these amazing experiences.

First, we headed to the White House. I haven’t been here since the summer of 4th grade and John has never been here! I’m pretty sure we were able to see the Oval Office and other parts of the White House when I was a child. But today, after pre-registering with an ID, we needed to go through 3 more screenings to enter only the east wing!

Overlooking DC from the observatory. Can you find the Washington Monument & other Memorials?

I thought this marble sculpture of President Washington was beautiful.

Dinner was in the vault of the Chophouse.

I was too busy eating amazing food and chatting away and forgot to take pix.

Washington Monument at night.

The seal of the POTUS over our heads.

This window is in one of the 9 chapels within the cathedral. And this is the War Memorial Chapel. It is dedicated to all who sacrificed their lives for others.

Next, we went to the National Cathedral.

L’enfant actually had set aside property for all people to gather, but it wasn’t built until much later.

The cathedral was built in a 14th century gothic style. There are many tapestries, carvings and glass creations that could tell stories, because most people couldn’t read.

The seals of every state were in the entry hall of human rights. They had face carvings of Mother Theresa and Rosa Parks.

Helen Keller, along with about 350 other people are buried here.

Waiting for our ride...took a pic of White House in the background.

The dark circle is supposed to be the moon. And the piece inside of it is an actual piece of the moon! The only piece that is not in a museum.

Waiting line for security and Washington Memorial in the background.

He was a Coast Guardsman!

And....dinner!

General Lafayette.

This painting has actual gold in it!!!! It depicts Jesus’ sacrifice of His life for our sins.

This painting was saved by Dolly Madison during the fire of 1814.

The chapel next to it had knee cushions with different people’s names stitched in them.

This cross was made from pieces of the pentagon after 9/11.

This painting of President Lincoln over the mantle was entered into a contest and didn’t win but later was bought and donated to the White House.

The war memorial chapel.

This China set was my favorite.

Waiting for the elevator.

Mahalo, Geico for arranging all the tours and the beyond generous dinner! #geicomilitary

And on the opposite side of the gold painting, is Jesus’ resurrection.

Here is one of those stories-beware a sheep in wolf’s clothing.

Not sure what the pelican in the next row was about.

President Reagan was in office the last time I was here.

The west rose window.

1977 President Carter and Elizabeth II were here for this unveiling.

Our docent said it was representing God calling light to existence.

The only President buried here is Woodrow Wilson.

@bijouinhawaii

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Apr 27 2019

We left the hotel at 8am and headed to Iwo Jima.

I am grateful that my dad, a Marine, still has his life. It was amazing to see the photo converted into this massive memorial.

This was a 3 year old on the plane. The names below are her parents and sibling that also died.

“Uncommon valor has uncommon virtue.”

The design was meant to reflect the Thunderbird’s signature “bomb burst” contrails.

It was a nice, casual afternoon chatting with the DCC and his wife on the Potamac.

Mahalo to Geico military #Geicomilitary for taking us around and for all the wonderful opportunities like this lunch cruise to enjoy.

Next, we stopped at the Air Force Memorial.

John had the DCC from Yorktown come out to join us!

The cement wall gets higher as the age of the deceased gets greater.

Then...after all this reflection, we went on a lunch cruise on the Potamac.

There were several walls with quotes from various people of the Air Force.

Then we went to the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial.

This was a teacher that believed in taking kids out of DC to learn about other areas of our country. She and the students with her, of course perished.

I’m not grumpy-I just thought it inappropriate to have a gapping grin at something I just wanted to remember being at.

The layout of the benches-where each bench represents someone who died-were lined up according to their age. If the bench points to the sky, they were on the plane that crashed. If it points to the Pentagon, they were inside the building when it crashed.

@bijouinhawaii

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Apr 28 2019

We went to the symphony tonight and had a Thai dinner.

My Johnny guy.

Pad Thai.

We tried hard to capture a decent photo tonight.

A lovely evening. I love hearing art in my ears. We have a Creator whose image we were designed after. Isn’t it amazing that we have ears to listen to magnificent symphonies of melodious music composed with multiple instruments?

Mahalo to Geico for this trip and providing us with so much generosity. #Geicomilitary

And tomorrow, we have 14 years of Team Cochrane!

Dumplings.

And our seats were directly below him!

Additionally, from our angle of seating, we could see the conductor-Gianandrea Noseda. He was quite lively and fun to watch his expressions and movements.

We had a special treat-we heard symphony No. 3 by Camille Saint-Saëns, which had an organ solo! I talked with the organist and he said it was the first symphony written with an organ solo.

@bijouinhawaii

@#MONTEINLV Happy Anniversary to an awesome couple

Apr 28 2019

We had a full day free to celebrate our anniversary! Happy 14 to my handsome and generous hubby.

We loved reading all the quotes on the walls.

There was a barrier around the monument. So we weren’t able to go inside due to repairs.

FDR Memorial. We tried walking around, but this area was quite dark.

Marine One as the sun is setting over the Potomac.

It’s hard not to swallow back tears at the thought of lost lives in one war.

The underside of the eagles.

Sizzling meal.

We rented bikes for the day and there were several docks in the area where we could lock them and recheck them out whenever. (Lincoln Memorial in the background.)

180 degrees of the area. I haven’t been here since I was 13. It was amazing to be back and re-experience everything.

It was hard to get a good angle of the beautiful eagles holding ribbon in their beaks.

Reflecting pool and Lincoln Memorial.

Each branch had its emblem at the entrance.

CG Helo over The Jefferson Memorial at dusk.

We took a break to watch Endgame in 3D and have dinner on the waterfront in Georgetown.

MLK Jr. Memorial.

“Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.” A design by a Chinese artist that depicts him hewn from what seemsto be \240an unmmoveable mountain of rock.

Cruising on our bikes.

After coming back to The Lincoln Memorial, we made our way back to Rosslyn to crash for the night.

Looking out from the Lincoln Memorial.

Riding back to view DC at dark.

Walking to find bikes to ride for the day. They also have \240the same concept as Biki Bikes on Oahu.

DC \240has scooters as well that run on a battery and were quite annoying. People leave them in all kinds of places. As you just scan a QR code on each to ride it and they are about 15 cents a mile. Bikes aren’t allowed in the National Mall, but for some reason people thought smaller wheels meant they could ride around people and discard scooters anywhere they please inside the parks.

Small area for our forgotten Founding Father, George Mason.

Vietnam Memorial with Washington Memorial in background. They store all the coins and other items in \240a warehouse after being tagged. Somebody open a museum to place them on display.

@bijouinhawaii

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