Trip to Washington DC

For our anniversary this year we decided to take quick trip up to the DC area. The girls did great on the drive up there. Settling down to sleep at night was the biggest hurdle for us to overcome. Silly giggly girls!!!! I do recall those days as a child.

The big plan was to go to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Chantilly, VA, but on a whim we decided to drive into DC. The weather was questionable. It was one of those gray cloudy days where you were never quite sure when/if it was going to pour down. The good news is that the temperatures were perfect....a little muggy but I would take that over 90 degree temperatures any day.
We found ourselves on a neat little two lane green way with single lane bridges. It ran along a canal system that was parallel to the Potomac River, the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park. It made for quite the pleasant drive and it was certainly less stressful than city traffic driving in an unfamiliar city. Along the drive we came up with a new term for drizzle/mist, drist. We had quite the laugh over that. The one time we decided to park and check out the bridges and trails it immediately started to rain, so we had to head back to the car. Maybe on our next visit we'll get to explore that park more.

We drove around and past just about everything before we decided that it would be worth getting a little wet to see the sights. We parked in one of the free parking lots and headed out on foot with two umbrellas (and no jackets). Thankfully it was still warm even when with drist and eventually rain.

The first was the Jefferson Memorial, which under construction or restoration. It was quite the walk and it started pouring pretty good about half way there. I'm just glad that it was not cold. That would have been no fun. Dennis took a lot of pictures of the memorial, but missed the one that I wished he would have gotten. There was a spider dangling from Jefferson's nose! The girls were quite fascinated by it. Elizabeth had a blast posing for pictures on this trip. Here's her Ms. Jefferson Memorial picture:

From the Jefferson Memorial we could see the Washington Memorial across the Potomac River. We were pretty damp by the time we got back to our car, so we actually got back into the car. The thing we didn't realize was just how close we were parked to the Washington Memorial. So we took another scenic drive around only to find ourselves back in the same exact parking lot. Hahaha!

From there we headed to the Washington Memorial and had a great view of the Capital Building and several other sights! It was a little breezy there, so the girls were ready to move on to the next stop pretty quickly.

Next was the WWII memorial. It was neat to find our state, but I was the only one interested in posing next to it. Past that was the Reflection Pool and the Lincoln Memorial. The girls were pretty tuckered out by the time we headed toward the Lincoln Memorial, but they just kept going. Dennis was determined to make it to his personal favorite memorial. (I like them all, so I'm not sure I have a favorite.) Again, Elizabeth posed for the perfect Ms. Lincoln Memorial picture.
The girls were pretty much ready to just camp out there so Dennis and I ended up putting them on our shoulders and heading back towards the parking lot. Along that walk we stopped at the Korean War Memorial. Both Dennis & I would love to visit that memorial early in the morning before other people get there to really get some good pictures to get the full affect of the reflections on the slabs in front of the statues and reflections of the statues onto the etched wall. That one I could spend some time really appreciating the creative artwork.

Finally we made it back to the car and were all pretty much beat. The girls slept all the way back to the hotel. Both Dennis and I were wishing we could nap all the drive back to the hotel, too.



















The next day we went to the National Space & Air Museum in Chantilly, VA. Dennis and I really wish the girls had more patience, but considering they were great trooper in the city the previous day, we couldn't complain. We certainly did not get to see and enjoy it as much as we wanted. I did get to see to see my favorite plane ever (SR-71 Blackbird) and I got to tell the girls about my old job before becoming a Mommy! They thought it was pretty cool that Mommy used to build the pretty shiny things hanging above the space shuttle. Elizabeth had fun posing for pictures again and Katherine was ready to go back to the hotel from the moment that we arrived. The gift store was the biggest hit. Katherine picked out a fancy water timer and Elizabeth a space shuttle. Mommy bought a SR-71 Blackbird model and Daddy a cool paper airplane book.
We wrapped up the evening by hitting the worlds smallest swimming pool at the hotel. It was like an over sized hot tub. We weren't the only family with the same idea so that made it seem even smaller. The funny part was that there was a lifeguard on duty. Seriously funny! I wish I had thought to take a picture of it.

The next morning we packed up and headed home. It was a fun trip. We took the scenic drive up to DC and we wished we took the scenic drive back. There was a lot more stop and go traffic on the way home. It was interesting to see different scenery on the way home though. We look forward to more trips to the DC area in the future.

You can check out more pictures here.