Day 1 of our trip was all airplane travel. We had 3 flights, with a 40 min layover between each on... let me tell you, we were hoofin' it across those airports! But are children did amazing! We all got to sit together because the planes had 3 seats on each side. We arrived in good spirits, and somehow managed to get on the metro rail and find our hotel. Jesse's work put us up in the Marriott Warden Park hotel right by the national zoo. It costs $500 a night, but we were less than impressed. Service was rude, everything was so expensive I wanted to die, and they told me we could not use the sink... due to it being plugged, and then they graciously told me it would be a hassle to move me to another room, because they were a busy. : ( No bueno. And every day we were there, service people called at least every 30 hour for some silly reasons, and woke my kids up from their naps. This was also not good. They didn't have continental breakfast. Laundry was available, but not to do yourself, you had to pay... lets just say to wash a pair of socks was $4. But they did have a pool, which was nice. It didn't have steps... so Lyla had to spider monkey it on the wall, and Spencer was glued to my hip. We basically ate McDonalds for 3 days straight because everything else around the hotel was mighty expensive. My kids got the runs from so much grease.
Day 2 was our first day without Jesse, and we decided to brave the world alone! It was a dismal failure. For all you who read my facebook post... we all broke down and cried multiple times before noon. First off, we hadn't anticipated all the stairs! Starting with McDonalds... we couldn't even get into the restaurant with a stroller... it went down hill after that, or should I say uphill. The walk to the zoo was supposed to be .3 miles, but it was more like .7 miles all up hill! Which was a great work out, but by the time I got to the zoo I was too pooped to actually walk around it. The zoo was free! Hooray, and ray of sunshine. And it was so green and gorgeous, and lush, and empty of all animal life. We saw zebras, and after walking over a mile to find the hidden entrance to the panda exhibit, we saw 1 panda. This was the highlight! And needless to say our zoo expedition ended there. We tried to buy hot dogs for lunch, but the girl couldn't work the register, and the man said they weren't really ready anyways... so we got stuck eating a super power bar that was putrid green with raisins in it... it cost us $5. Oh, and we also shared a cup of cantalope... also $5. And the bathrooms we went to after our "lunch" were not stroller accessible, oh joy! By that point my kids had sweat out half their bodyweight, so we headed back to the hotel for some solace. The room phone wouldn't stop ringing, and finally because I would not answer, they knocked on my door and woke up my children. They got maybe 40 minutes of sleep. Yuck! But I did meet a neat lady at dinner that was there with her two kids as well. Same ages as mine. She had attempted the zoo too, and had lasted 6 hours! Wowzers... I think we lasted 2 tops.
Needless to say, this was our only picture from Thursdays zoo adventure.
Day 3 I learned my lesson. Stay at the hotel. Don't take a stroller anywhere! Swim in the pool as much as possible. And lastly we hung out with the groovy gal we had met at McDonalds the night before. No pictures of this perfect day. Jesse got out of his conference at 4, and we headed downtown to the hotel we had for the remainder of the stay. Comfort Suites! Oh comfort suites how I love you! They have warm otis spunkmier cookies at all times in the lobby. Everything was awesome, and they even had a facility to do laundry for only $2 a load... beat the heck out of Marriott! And it was a close to everything we went to go see! We ate ethiopian food this night, and it was amazing, go try it... right now!
Day 4 was great. Jesse was there to help me lug the stroller around, so it wasn't so hard. We planned to do the Smithsonian museums on Saturday, which is what we did. We started at the castle, and made our way around to the other side, ending with the Museum of American History.
Waiting for the Subway train!
Riding the Smithsonian Carousel on the National Mall
Air and Space Museum, that is the original airplane made by the wright brothers.
Warning: Do NOT feed the squirrels at the sculpture garden... they will attack you when you stop feeding them, Jesse barely made it out alive after trying to defend us from this little guy!
After lunch we soaked our feet in a fountain.
Museum of Natural History, Super cool. The kids loved the discovery room best.
Sunday was day 5. We went to church at the Chevy Chase ward. Both kids loved nursery. Jesse was engaged in a casual conversation with some random guy, when the guy asked what he did. Jess replied he was a CPA, and to be polite asked the man what he did. "Oh, I'm a senator." Jesse had been talking to Harry Reed, but hadn't known it! It was pretty funny. After church we went to the National Archives and say the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights... along with some other neat things.
Afterwards we went back to the sculpture gardens and killed some time
Lyla was gracious enough to snap one of me and Jess
We started walking over to the memorials as it got dark.
We finally got to the Lincoln memorial, just as the sun was about to set.
Here is Honest Jess hanging out with Honest Abe
This is what the kids looked like on Sunday night after trekking around the
mall to see the monuments lit up at night. Look close, the white house is in the background!
Day 6 was paddle boats (which Spencer hated) and going through the white house visitor center. We bought the kids commemorative white house ornaments for this upcoming Christmas. We buy them an ornament every year. So we thought this was a good place to get them! After that we went to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. As soon as we got a block away, police swarmed the block and shut everything down. Apparently there was a bomb threat at the holocaust museum. Jesse was so peeved. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing was the top place he wanted to see, and you had to have tickets, which we did, but if they didn't let us through soon, we would miss our time slot. He kept saying "Who would want to blow up the Holocaust museum? There are so many other better places to blow up!" Anyways.... right in time, they arrested a guy, and we got to go on our tour! It was neat... we got to see the new 100 bill they will be coming out with in a few years (Spoiler Alert!!! It is blue).
Paddle Boats, with some wicked wind.. I thought we wouldn't make it back to the dock!
Jefferson Memorial from the paddle boat
Bureau of Printing and Engraving
Day 7 was all about capitol hill. Jesse went into the Capitol building while I stayed outside with the kiddos. You couldn't take in water or snacks... both which resided in my backpack. We then we to see the Superior court building, but it is under construction. Lastly we went to the Library of Congress. That building is breath taking! It was really amazing. I felt like I was in Europe. All flooring and ceiling were little mosaic masterpieces!
After the Library of Congress we picked up our luggage, and went to the airport. Spencer really enjoyed seeing the planes taxi in and out.
So would I do DC again... YES! With toddlers.... NO! Not because they didn't enjoy it, they did. The city layout is too hard to navigate with children in tow. It was such a pain, and very exhausting. I would say any child that can walk well on their own (8 and older) would make the trip way more convenient!
We did an insane amount of walking, which actually didn't bother me at all. I felt great the entire time. Although, when I got home, I had an appointment with my midwife, who said the baby's head is now fully engaged in my pelvis, probably due to all the walking and stairs, and because of this will probably come early. Lets hope not! I'm not ready!
Well I hope this wasn't a bummer read, it was a great trip minus the first 2 days, so hopefully I didn't complain to much in my post. I really loved the trip, it was amazing to see all that history!
