Last Day in DC

So Saturday was it. The last day. Trying to cram in all of that stuff that we hadn't done yet. This is impossible to see with just two people, much less 6 and 3 of those being kids. But...we had to try. We will call this Memorial Day. We went first to the Washington Monument. We didn't get to go up in it because tickets were sold out until sometime in August unless you get there early in the morning to get tickets for the day and that just wasn't going to happen.

We then headed to the World War II Memorial. This was cool because there were several veterans there and most were in wheelchairs and we took the kids up to their group and shook their hands and thanked them for their service to our country. I think it was special for them and us both.

Then we headed to the Korean War Memorial. This was special because both of our Dad's fought in this war. Pretty special indeed and a neat memorial to go to.

Next up was the Wall at the Vietnam War Memorial. Kind of surreal seeing all of the names of those that gave their lives up for our country in that war. Goose bump kind of thing...

We kind of ended the Memorial swoop with the Lincoln Memorial. This is a neat monument and one that is special to Riley since he has done a project in school on Abraham Lincoln. It has a great view back towards the US Capitol but the only bummer was that the reflecting pool was drained and being worked on so that kind of took a bit of the beauty of the view away but it was still pretty amazing. We were going to have April run out thru the water shouting "Forrest, Forrest" and I was going to be standing on the steps going "Jenny...". But it just wasn't meant to be. Sigh. The good thing was that I was able to represent my family and all of Tennessee by being in as many random family photos that I could sneak into. Now I didn't pose with them but I just "happened" to be in the background of anyone I could find that was taking a picture. A "Where's Waldo?" event if you will.

So at this point we were monumented out so we headed to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. What was our first stop once we got there? Yep. McDonald's. Had to feed the beast. Or as we like to call him...Riley. We then meandered around and saw a Moon rock and a Space Monkey and lots and lots of planes and then saw a 3D IMax movie about planes.

So at this point we had all pretty much given all we had to give and headed home. All the stuff we didn't get to will just have to wait till the next time we come here. Just between you and me, I don't think Josie is going to remember any of this....

Today's pics:

Day 7 - Baltimore

So we had a slow start to the day and finally kicked our tails into gear around lunch time. We've been going pretty hard every day so it was nice to kind of recharge our batteries. We headed off to Baltimore and let me just say that the traffic up here is HORRIBLE! I'm not gonna complain about Nashville traffic any after this. It took us a couple of hours to get up there when it should have taken an hour. We'd be be-bopping along and traffic would come to a stop. We'd go slow for a while expecting to finally get up to where the wreck was only to never get to the any such wreck. Traffic would simply pick back up. I hate that. If I have to sit in traffic like that I want to see something that justifiably caused it. But I digress...

We get to Camden Yards and park and head off to get our tickets at Will Call. We get the tickets and head off in search of the Inner Harbor. We asked a Police Officer and a family with kids and both sent us in one direction. This direction led to the Hood. Let's just say that we were not in a very safe place to put it lightly. Finally we turned around and eventually made it to the Inner Harbor. The sucky part about that was if we had been directed correctly initially then we would have been there in like 20 minutes. But we can say that we have seen parts of Baltimore that your average bear hasn't :-)

We go to the game and had a big time. The Orioles are the worst team in the American League and they were playing the Indians. It didn't turn out well for the home team. It was close and only got beat 6-5. We had tickets in the lower level in left field but after the 2nd inning we were able to move to better seats that were still in left field but lower. Josie was a big hit. She was wearing a real cute little outfit and people were oohing and aahing over the lass. She has gotten that same reaction all week. I was glad the game was over though because I was tired of hearing Riley ask for a hot dog and nachos and cokes and a souvenir. Sigh. The boy just doesn't stop, nor does his sister. At any rate, we watched fireworks after the game and I will say that they were no where close to being as good as fireworks at the Sounds games. Kind of sad that a minor league team puts on a better show than a major league team. After the fireworks we meandered back to the car and headed home. We got home around midnight and pretty much collapsed into bed and so ended our Baltimore journey.

Enjoy the pics:

Day 6 - Mt. Vernon

So Thursday. We went to Mt. Vernon. One of Cathy's friends met up with us and spent the day with us. Her name is Sara. She is a DS Special Agent. DS stands for Diplomatic Security and they handle the security for the Department of State, which includes protecting the Secretary of State as well as foreign diplomats in the states. They are also at each American Embassy around the world.

Anywho..... we headed off to Mt. Vernon and spent most of the day there. We had a good time. The actual Museum and Education Center is better than the Mansion tour. We just got shuttled thru like cattle and frankly didn't get to learn a whole heck of a lot but it was neat anyways. A lot of of the pics of the water I post are from the back porch of Mt. Vernon overlooking the Potomac. Pretty incredible view and I can only imagine what it would have been like to live there in the late 1700's. So we left there and headed to Tysons Corner Center. This is a Mall that is ridiculously big. The reason we went was because they have an American Girl store that Laura had been jonesing to get to. She had saved her allowance and birthday money for this day. It was a huge event. After about an hour of shopping it to death she had made her acquisition. Today, Friday, she is wearing the same outfit as Julie is wearing. It is very cute. I will put the pictures up on tomorrow's version of the blog. Let me just say that Josie got an American Girl doll as well. Her name is Felicity. Yes my 5 month old has a very expensive doll. Part of me died at this place. I am admittedly weak when it comes to these girls. I just hope that they don't kill me with it over our lifetime.

So then we went to Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington. Apparently President Obama went there to eat recently so it was placed on our agenda as well. The burgers were good but honestly 5 Guys makes a much better burger but it was for the experience, right?? Riley loved to say where he was eating and what he was eating...just because he got to say the word "hell" and not get into trouble.

So this pretty much ended our day. Tomorrow we go to Baltimore and go to an Orioles game. They've lost 8 in a row. We may be the only ones there. Enjoy our pics...especially the ones of Cathy eating a Hell Burger and the one of me at Mt. Vernon...