Gay. Lord.

To celebrate my day off for election day, I went to meet our wedding planner at our wedding site just to check it out and talk about layout and other details. I had a little time to kill, so I also wanted to check out the hotel situation. There were two areas I'd never seen before: the newly-built National Harbor complex and Old Town Alexandria.

The National Harbor was first on my list (it's like 5 minutes from Oxon Hill Manor), and WOW. This area opened this past April with shops, restaurants, hotels and attractions to suit every taste and need! It's so new that my GPS left breadcrumbs so I could find my way back to the highway. I talked to a few friends and even our wedding planner, and no one I know has ever been to this area, or heard of it!

The crowning jewel of this place is the Gaylord National Hotel. Yes, Gaylord. With rooms for around $500/night, this place is jaw-droppingly jaw-dropping. They've got restaurants, coffeeshops, sports bars, conference rooms, TREES, and what looks like a mini-village in the main lobby. It's nuts. In any case, it's great to know that a place with such a variety of attractions for our guests if they want to hang out nearby during our wedding weekend!

Maybe it's because it was raining, but Old Town Alexandria (about 10 minutes away) wasn't quite as charming to me--It looked more like a dirtier, older Georgetown. But with such great, established restaurants like Hank's Oyster Bar and Restaurant Eve, it's tough to compare to the trendy newbies in the National Harbor.

In any case, it's really exciting that there are tons of things to do near our wedding site, especially when we thought that it was in kind of a dead-end area (ask any Maryland native about PG County...). More details are on their way as we really get the ball rolling. Next on the to-do list: hotel room blocks, finding a caterer!