For those who don't know, Josh was tasked with a job that requires him to be in Washington, D.C. for the months of November and December. He went down this past Sunday to start his first week. This past Thursday and Friday the boys had off from school, so we loaded up the car Thursday morning and hit the road on an impromptu trip to our nation's capital.
Since Josh had to work a full day Thursday, we took our time in the morning getting going and graded to Delaware first to have lunch and spend some time with Josh's sister, Linda, and her boy, Sam. We had a really nice time, and the boys played pretty well until it was time to go and we tried to take a picture.
I really don't blame Sam. Having cousins over (especially these 3 hooligans in particular) can be very overwhelming. It's also sad when they have to go. We've been known to throw a fit or two ourselves when it's time to go.
After leaving Linda's we enjoyed a rather lovely ride down to DC. Well, the drive through Delaware was lovely. Once we got about 10 miles out from Maryland, traffic started and a major storm rolled over the area, which didn't help the traffic situation at all. Side story: at one point, after the rain had stopped, we were still in traffic that wasn't really moving, when this guy gets out of the backseat of the car he was in, yells into the passenger seat, and starts walking away from the car. Then, a second guy gets out of the passenger seat, grabs the first guy, yells at him, then essentially throws him back into the back seat of the car and gets back into the passenger seat himself. I got out of there as fast as I could.
Anyhoo! We finally made it to DC and to Josh's apartment (which resembles a hotel more than it does an apartment, but whatever). We picked up Josh, got some dinner, then did some food shopping for the apartment since Josh doesn't have his car down there. The boys were pumped to be down there and to be sharing one big room:
This set up didn't last long, and Zeke wound up sleeping in the closet (there was plenty of space and we kept the door open, don't worry). Eventually they did settle down though (once the main instigator was removed from the scene) and we all slept pretty well.
Friday Josh had to work in the morning, so I found a playground on my phone and the boys and I walked to it.
Go figure, as soon as we got to the playground, it rained a little. We played through it because 1)I didn't want to spend all morning in that little apartment with 3 energetic boys, and 2)it wasn't raining anywhere except over the playground, so I figured at some point it had to stop. Eventually it did. On the walk back home I picked up some lunch for Josh and me (delicious gyros/donors!). After lunch, Josh had to go back to work for a few minutes. Once he came back though, the touring began.
To sort of break us in I guess, we went to the zoo that afternoon. We took the metro to get there and the boys were pumped! Deacon had been talking about taking the subway around even before we left on Thursday to go down there. And no matter how many times we told him it was only called the subway in NY, he continually referred to it as such. But who cares when you're having this much fun:
After getting off the metro and taking a wrong turn and walking a solid mile or so out of our way, we made it to the zoo, completely worn out. It's a good thing we have a future zoologist on our hands, to help get the enthusiasm back up! A lot of the animals weren't out, but the ones we did see, were great. We watched the otters and the elephants get fed, both of which were very cool. Finn found a tiny tv showing videos of the animal that was walking around behind him. Well done, son.
We did most of the zoo, and had a great time. After the zoo, it was back on the metro and back to the apartment for dinner and bed because we figured Saturday was going to be a big day. And it certainly was!
Saturday we took the metro again (yay!) and did a lot more walking. We saw so many cool things that I'm just going to throw up a bunch of pictures and label them accordingly.
Washington Monument
the best way to travel around DC
at the new WW2 memorial, which was truly amazing
Lincoln Memorial
The White House
Air and Space Museum
There was more, but I don't want to completely overwhelm us all. I'll eventually get around to getting all of the pictures on flickr. Until then, after the grand tour Saturday morning/afternoon, we went back to the apartment, took some showers and baths, then went to some friends' house for dinner. (Thank you Vince and Heather for the food and hospitality!)
As soon as we were ready to go Sunday morning, we hit the road for home. All in all a really great trip and I'm really glad I decided to do it. So were the boys, they had so much fun they totally wore themselves out.
No comments:
Post a Comment