Erin, Jerry, Elijah, and Grace: vacation

So Day 2 of DC. The weather was over cast, but warmer... and not rainy.

the holding of the monument

kind of. hehe.

the capital

you will notice a theme. the kids were fascinated by the Washington Monument.

the white house from below the Washington Monument.

WWII monument

These ducks were insane. We wanted to sit and have snack... we DO NOT feed wildlife. These guys did NOT get that memo. They would jump up and run at us. I seriously try to be nice to wildlife as well, but the mama bear comes out when a duck tries to attack my kid... and what do bears eat... DUCKS... well, probably not, but I definitely ~~kicked~~ pushed them gently back in the water.

The Lincoln Memorial. I was a little sad (and kinda annoyed) that they were renovating and repairing the reflection pool... hmph.

We went to the Vietnam Memorial (see us there?)

see... the Monument.

we wanted to bring some ice cream to the Obama's, but they weren't home...

Alas.

We had thought about hitting the zoo again, or maybe another museum, but we were TIRED. So we went back to the hotel and played at the pool and went to bed. The next day we woke up and left at the crack of dawn to avoid the traffic around DC... which we did very well (we were on the road at 6 am) and decided to book it through back to NC. It was a long drive, but once again the kids (and the moms!) did an AMAZING job. We got to the mountains. Mom and dad took the kids to the garden and on a little walk. I unloaded the car. We slept well! I went out with some old friends while mom and dad took the kids to play putt putt the next night. I ALMOST left the following afternoon, but decided to wait. We left for OUR home the next day.

It was a GREAT vacation. There are things I would do different, but being flexible was the best thing. I appreciate the hotel stays, but I'm glad that the kids got the chance to camp as well! I"m sad we didn't get to NYC, but in retrospect, I think they may have ended up with brain overload.

We have been invited back to Vermont and I TOTALLY would love to go back and take Jerry. The beauty of that place and the hospitality of the Collins' made the whole trip! And really, they should get the credit. Had they not invited us, I'm not sure we would have gone. The fact that my mom and I got along says great things about us!! I would not have been able to go without her help. She is a trooper. She got a cold the second or third day and sucked it up.

I think we'll take some time to recover, but I'm excited to do something like this again.

My mom rocked it out and drove us into Silver Springs, MD which is on the line of Washington, DC. We decided that camping was overrated in the rain and as the weather was not looking great, mom booked us a hotel from the road for our stay in DC. It was a 20 minute walk to the metro, had a pool, and was connected to a Subway (Eat Fresh!) Admittedly, this place did not get a ton of good reviews on TripAdvisor and we were a little skeptical, but the room was clean (old, but clean) and really you get what you pay for, right? heh. So,we rolled into DC and it wasn't too late, so we decided to dare the drive out to Dulles Airport to see the Air and Space Museum out there. A friend of mine mentioned that if you go after 4 you don't have to pay for parking (SCORE!) the museum is free AND it's opened an extra hour in the summer. The ONLY disappointment that day was the scavenger hunt that the kids worked rather hard on for the promise of s stamp... the visitor's desk lady failed to mention that the visitor's desk closes at 5... so at 6, the kids did not get their stamp. hmph. It really was the perfect time to go though. Not crowded, tons of space to run around, really cool things to look at. Perfect thing after being in the car for a while.

The visitors desk (hmph!)

This museum is AMAZING! But I was constantly amused as to how the hell they got all these planes IN there. I mean some of the planes were much newer sandwiched in between older planes. It was like a puzzle.

And, selfishly, I wanted to go to this museum in particular because of this... the Discovery Space Shuttle. It was SO amazing to see this thing close up. Even more so to listen to a tour guide near us talk about it. When the kids are a little older I want to go back and do the free tour. But their little brains could only hold so much. It's only a 6 hour drive from here, so really a long weekend isn't out of the question.

SO much space and SO few people = run the energy out!

hanging above Grace were all types of hot air balloon baskets. She thought that was cool.

see... the Concord... HOW the hell did they get that thing in there???

Elijah really liked the army planes. He said this one was his favorite. When I asked Grace which was her favorite, she replied, "ALL of them mommy!"

After a long day, we went back to the hotel and ate at Subway for dinner. We settled in for the night and slept. The next morning was rainy. So after brief discussion we decided to drive to a cafe and then to the metro to minimize the amount of rain on our heads. We also needed to procure Metro Passes. So we got the passes, ate breakfast and then drove to a parking deck. Problem: only meters and you had to set up an account (though found out later that it's free on the weekends... thanks for making that known parking people... sigh.) so after some discussion mom dropped us off and decided to drive back to the hotel and then she would meet us at he metro and we would traverse into DC together. Sounds easy enough... yeah, not so much. Apparently mom took a wrong turn and went the wrong way. And met some VERY nice people. First, I was annoyed. Then worried. Then panicked. Here we were waiting and waiting... for an hour and a half. I didn't want to call dad and worry him. Mom had no phone with her. Finally we decided to walk back toward the hotel. Turns out that Elijah and I couldn't share a pass, so we had to get him one anyway. I called the hotel. No answer in the room. I left a message at the front desk to tell mom that we were leaving and would meet her at the Museum of Natural History. In theory, this was a GREAT idea. heh.

Waiting for the train... and Oma...

Finally, on the train (the kids were VERY worried about their OMA. I assured them that she was a big girl, at the same time freaking out that she was on the road with a broken car or kidnapped or some other horrid thing.)

Museum of Natural History

Right about here, my phone rang. It was a weird number (usually I don't answer these... BUT seeing as my mother was missing...) but I answered. It was a Metro worker. I had apparently been paged throughout the Metro, and they had finally gotten a hold of me. So we arranged to meet...but maybe you are noticing the insane amount of people around us? Yeah it was was raining out... so where do people go when it rains?

The Museum of Natural History. So we waited outside for Oma.

And she eventually got there. We ate lunch at a little hotdog stand and carried on.

Trying for the obligatory holding up the Washington Monument pose.

The Capital. The AIDS quilt was on tour and there was a huge AIDS rally this weekend and the following week, hence the tents.

We decided to hit the National Builders Museum. It was a little bit of a walk, but it was good to be out and we got to see a bit of Washington. We cut through the statue garden and paused to take a pic of the little.

The main reason for taking the kids to this museum was the lego exhibit. This museum is not free, but it was worth it! The exhibit was pretty cool. All sorts of landmark buildings built out of legos.

I liked the twin towers. The back is a picture, the front is legos.

After the exhibits though... there were 870458273046972497502760928375602983745 legos to be played with. One must be aggressive with the legos though. My mom and I scouted out abandoned projects and set about dismantling them so the kids could build.

We stayed here for 2 hours.

Grace built and destroyed... so this was her end projects.

Elijah built and then would eliminate something and then add something and this was his final creation. I honestly was willing to sit there until the kids were done or they kicked us out. The former came first. Elijah even disassembled hims project and looked around for people that were using certain colors or types of legos and handed them out (sweet kid!)

The building was AMAZING. Some of the AIDS quilt was on display here as well.

On our way back we stopped for a cupcake treat.

We cut back through the sculpture garden.

For some reason I thought that the zoo would be good since it was cooler. Though once we got there, the rain REALLY started. Still... we trudged on. This picture doesn't do the escalator justice. It was HUGE!!!