Trip Highlights;
- Rockland Bakery in NJ
- Heidi and Larry's house in PA
- hearing Joe Labbe's conversion testimony again
- seeing the Lincoln Memorial
- seeing the **delight** on Landon's face on the subway
- appreciating my kids stamina and enthusiasm
Trip lowlight
- falling right onto a lovely Asian lady on the subway. She braced, I didn't, poor her. I don't know why that had to happen.
Washington was great- the whole trip was wonderful. Being at Gordie's cousins, Heidi and Larry's house in PA, was a great way to start the trip. They have lots of property and are close to everything that you could ever need, but secluded and safe. The kids swam in the creek and did lots of things that got them very dirty. It was also great to visit with Heidi and Larry and their kids. Love them!
We stayed there til Monday morning and had a 2 hour trip into DC from there. How perfect is that?
We arrived in pouring rain at noon. We were all in awe as we saw familiar looking domes and obelisks and street names. First we headed to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum where we saw an awesome IMAX movie about fighter pilots. Being aviation lovers we all loved that museum. Even Landon enjoyed most things, but without any sense of waiting for the next thing or for his fellow travelers to read the appropriate placards...you get the picture. So when the kids wanted to see our hotel and go swimming, I was mentally ready to leave the museum even though we hadn't really seen everything.
After swimming we drove out to Tyson's Corners, VA to the Cheesecake Factory to meet a dear friend who has moved to that area. She brought her beautiful little grandson and her daughter to meet us. The kids just loved the little boy, Quinn. He is 15 months old and sat through a very interesting Cheesecake Factory experience like a little gentleman. After leaving there, we arrived back at our hotel, too late to swim.
We enjoyed the hotel, an Embassy Suites, the free breakfast was very convenient and impressive. There was a large part of the State of Massachusetts there as well. The hotel was transformed into Red Sox Nation for the week :)
Tuesday morning we went to the National Zoo and stayed til early afternoon and drove back to our hotel. The Zoo was wonderful and we actually cut short about a third of the zoo so we could squeeze in the monuments. But we could have spent much more time there. We drove back to the hotel and parked our truck there because we were taking the subway.
This was the day we took the subway to the National Mall and walked from the subway stop to the Lincoln Memorial. We unwittingly made more walking for ourselves and the kids by not walking straight back to our hotel from the Lincoln, but we did get to see Obama's motorcade. Or I should say, we are pretty sure it was his. I wish we could have seen everything, we did not see the Jefferson, Arlington, Ford Theatre, National Cathedral, many museums, etc. but you need more time and an knowledge of how to do it efficiently with out wearing yourself out. AND, without a 4.5 yr old who wanted to go in the exact opposite direction of you every direction you went. Not to mention any names!
Our subway stop was about a mile from our hotel and as soon as we stepped out you feel the wind and see the storm sitting overhead waiting to break. Maura was a nervous wreck as she hates thunderstorms. We made it back before the torrential rain but just in time. I think the kids swam some more that night, we ordered Dominos Pizza online and it was delivered to our room as we watched the virtual timeline on the website. (that was really cool, we were impressed with that efficiency!) Geek much?!
When Maura woke up on Wednesday morning she said "I can't believe we saw Obama yesterday" and I said to her "Do you think he's thinking "I can't believe I saw the R** family" yesterday?" She giggles and says "yes, he said 'there are the white people who didn't vote for me!" and lost it in a fit of giggles. She is secretly so funny.
And on Wed (bored yet?) we went to the International Spy Museum! It was terrific, awesome, and again, would have been great without the aforementioned 4.5 yo behavioral tendencies. (The 4.5 yo is wonderful, just behaving in a different way.) But, enough about that! Adam and Gord went on a special spy mission that you had to be 12 or older to do. So Dave, Maura and I did most of the museum without the big guys. It was great and really, we didn't see or read everything there was to see/read because of the constant interference from you-know-who. He was ready to be done with "WashingtonDC". Then there was the small matter of our battery being dead and having to wait for AAA to come and boost us. That was maybe 1.5 hour delay but was surprisingly, stress free. We left there and were home at 9:30 ish.
That's how it all went. We were thankful for the opportunity to make this trip and for safety walking all around there with 4 kids. Our kids were troopers, we were really pleased with how they "worked" it!
1 comment:
Fun Trip! Haha, Maura's funny:)
-Heidi
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