Washington, D.C. Part 2

 Now that our family was together again, we could all go back to our comfortable roles. Thank goodness! Because I had been carefully researching where I thought we'd all like to go in Washington and now I just needed someone to get us there. 

Our first order of business was to head to the home where we'd be staying. We had planned on getting a hotel in the area but it just wasn't working out. We decided to contact the area pastors to see if they had someone in their congregations who would be willing to host us. The week before we left, we were contacted that there was a couple who agreed to host us. The connection was loose - she was in Wayne's brother's wedding and roomed with my sister-in-law at DMLC. But that's good enough in the WELS and they graciously opened their doors to us! Yay! 

By the time we arrived, it was already well into the day. After meeting our hosts, moving in our stuff and following some sage advice from Jules (our hostess with the mostess), we decided to drive into the city and check things out. 

I'm going to quickly gloss over this first night of adventure because it was a flop. In a nutshell, the traffic was HORRIBLE, it was impossible to find a legal parking space, it was hotter than Hades, and I was hungry. All this added up to foreseeable disaster. I had hoped we would: a. find a parking space and b. take a monuments tour that evening. The parking space ended up being in a very expensive parking garage and the monuments tour didn't happen. But if I was to focus on the positive, they would be: a. we didn't get into an accident in all that crazy traffic and b. we ate dinner in air-conditioning. 

The rest of our Washington adventure was far more successful. 

The next day we went back into the city - this time with Jules driving us and dropping us off at the Air and Space Museum. Yep - she was more than a concierge - this was first rate niceness. We spent the morning learning all about spaceships, airplanes and air travel. For lunch, we skipped next door to the Museum of the American Indian for lunch because I had read they had an awesome cafeteria. Which they did. Then we wrapped up the Air and Space and moved onto the Museum of American History.

I was in heaven because I love American history! Where else could you see George Washington's uniform and Dorothy's red slippers? 

The President and First Lady exhibits were amazing. I could have spent more time here but it was time to move on.

The evening was capped off by our hosts, Dwayne and Jules, picking us up and giving us their personal tour of the monuments. See? And there you have it, it all worked out even better than I hoped! 

With with Einstein

Thomas Jefferson

Selfie with Jules and Roosevelt's dog

Abe

It was the Depression ...

This fun-filled day was followed by another fun-filled day. This one started on the subway. 

We drove to the station and took the train in. We spent a good portion of this day at the International Spy Museum. This one was for Will, mainly. It was a lot of fun and makes me want to watch my episodes of Alias. We all ended up enjoying the tour. Afterwards, we went across the street to the art gallery so we could see the Portrait Gallery of Presidents. This was really cool, too, and we all enjoyed it.

007

Zanna with her hero

We took the subway over to the area of the National Zoo. Man, was it hot. I was glad we had brought plenty of water bottles along and I was also glad I had brought my backpack on the trip and I was thrilled that the guys took turns carrying the backpack. 

Anyway, upon arrival at the zoo we headed over to the panda area and there were no pandas. We stopped at other exhibits along the way and 20 minutes into our visit we had yet to see an animal at the zoo. I was starting to wonder if this was some joke - no animals to see at the free National Zoo. Maybe we were supposed to be the ones on display and the animals were somewhere hiding and watching us. As it turned out, it was not that big of a conspiracy theory. It was just so hot that many of the animals were inside somewhere. What a terrific idea!

We gave up after seeing a cat and some elephants and headed to a restaurant nearby that had been recommended to us - Hot 'n Juicy. It was a crawfish place and we were all up for the adventure! It was one of those places that give you a bib to wear, a roll of paper towels and a bucket. Then they bring out a bag of food - in our case it was crawfish, shrimp, andouille sausage and a couple potatoes and ears of corn - all in a very messy sauce. And then you have at it. We were a mess, but a happy mess! Wayne took some pictures but frankly, they're embarrassing!

We headed back to the subway station to ride back to the suburbs found at the end of the line. At the same time we were ending our day, so were others that had been attending a "Rainbow Festival" and also others that had enjoyed an afternoon of "Brew Fest".  Ah, public transit, a window into humanity at it's most interesting ....

We were lucky enough to share the ride with one very inebriated man who was having some trouble keeping his liquor down. Hence, the look on my face below ...

We somehow ended up at Dairy Queen before calling it quits for the night. When asked by Jules the next morning what her favourite thing we did the day before was, this DQ stop was what my dear daughter referenced. Seriously? After everything else we did, this is what you say?!! Oh, brother! 

So by now you can well imagine how utterly exhausted we were. Thankfully it was now Sunday. A day of rest. Thank you, Lord! We attended church with Dwayne and Jules in the morning. For lunch, we were invited to a friend of Will's from LPS that lived in the area. We enjoyed a lovely meal in their home and made new friends we'll enjoy seeing in the future as our paths cross at Prep. We relaxed the rest of the day, did some loads of laundry and chatted with our host family. By this time in our stay, we had reached the point of familiarity to put our feet up and help ourselves to a glass of wine. It was lovely!

Monday was our last day:( We drove to Mount Vernon and immersed ourselves in everything George Washington. It was amazing and very well done. It was blazing hot but there was enough indoor and air-conditioned things here to balance the time spent out of doors. 

Zanna is a huge GW fan mainly due to her obsession with the Liberty Kids cartoons. I had purchased the series years ago for Will to watch during our study of US history. Zanna's been watching it ever since and never seems to get sick of it. She knows all things George and has a bit of animosity toward the British which we try and keep on the down low. She was devastated by this recent conversation I had with her:

Zanna: We should have a 4th of July party and invite only Americans.

Me: If we did that, then you and Dad wouldn't be allowed at your own party.

Zanna: You mean I'm not an American? insert incredulous gasp

Me: It's on my to-do list.

Anyway, Mount Vernon was fantastic! And for those that are a little rusty in their American history, they provide little films to "catch you up".  One theatre even provided snow and vibrating seats to mimic the Battle at Valley Forge! 

We headed back to Dwayne and Jules to pack our stuff up and visit with our hosts one last night. We had a delicious dinner of salmon fillet followed by a hot and sweaty walk "to the crack and back" which is about as far as you could possibly stand to be outside in the summer heat of Virginia. 

We were truly blessed in many ways by this trip - God is good! We had safe travels, good health and nice weather. We spent time together and explored new things. We made good memories and even learned a thing or two along the way! We were blessed by others as they welcomed us into their home, extended hospitality and gave of themselves generously. We made new friends and reconnected with old ones. 

And as always - as much fun as we have being away, it's always great to come home again:)

Washington, D.C. Part 1

 We have been trying to do a trip to DC for awhile now and it finally happened! Yay!

Wayne had a conference in Maryland so the kids and I tagged along for the road trip. 9 hours of traveling is nothing compared to what we're used to. What we were not used to was being south of the Mason/Dixon line in the summer. Instantly the temperature rose and we all started to melt. For the first couple of mornings, my teenager kept putting pants on. Maybe I should have let him suffer the consequences of such a foolish choice, but the mother hen in me wanted to spare him from embarrassing chafing. So he heard me say a few times, "We are in the south! It is HOT! Put your shorts on!"

While Wayne was attending his Summer quarter pastor's conference, the kids and I had a few days alone.

Now, I've been feeling a little sensitive lately in regards to maintaining some independence. I have a great husband and we've fallen into each of our roles pretty easily. He drives, I work the entertainment and snacks. He navigates, I point out the restaurants. He fills the car with gas, I go to the bathroom. He pays for stuff, I lead the group in a hearty, Thanks, Dad!. All that being said, I also realize that I'm at risk of getting a little ... lazy. I could maybe challenge myself to step outside of my comfort zone every now and again and gain some self confidence in areas I don't usually pay attention to. And so it began ...

My credit card wasn't working. It must have been flagged for being out of the country. So in the middle of Trader Joe's, I called my bank. And I called them again from Olive Garden when it still wasn't working. I was pretty proud of myself for being persistent and fixing the problem. I even texted my husband so he would know there was a problem and hey - I took care of it.

After a night in a hotel by myself with the kids, we packed up and headed farther south to Richmond, Virginia. This required me to drive through the Washington, D.C. area by myself. If you've ever heard how awful the traffic is in this area, it is all true. So with my GPS programmed and my hands firmly clutching the stirring wheel at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock, we were off. At some point I some how managed to find myself on some Express Lane that required a special pass that I obviously didn't have but the GPS made me do it.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

We were heading to Richmond to visit friends from college. I couldn't wait to see them again and meet their kids after all these years! I managed to be ahead of schedule and didn't want to show up on Cara too early, so I stopped for gas. It was then that I realized that the credit card that I had spent numerous phone calls on the day before was left at Olive Garden. 

I left the credit card at Olive Garden.

After reuniting with my friend and settling into her home, I was back on the phone with the credit card company and Olive Garden trying to rectify my mistake. My husband received a semi passive aggressive text from me that read something like - 
Me: Left the credit card at the restaurant last night. Whatever. 
Him: Did you get it back?
Me: Nope. In Virginia now. Whatever.

I was feeling a little deflated by my mistake but I was determined to  move on and have a good time. And we did. We had a blast!! Our friendship picked up right where we left off. It was honey. We brought each other up to date on our lives and reminisced about the past. 

 And meanwhile, our kids got to know one another through the typical bonding of the Wii and a day spent at a museum followed by an amusement park. What more could kids ask for? We are awesome mommies. Yep.

 And I just have to explain this next photo because it was hilarious. We went to this particular museum because Cara's 2 year old was telling me about how she saw rat's playing basketball. I thought she was nuts but Cara confirmed this was true. So that's how we found ourselves at this particular museum watching fancy rat's play basketball. It was totally worth it.

Our girls totally hit it off. They bonded over American Girl dolls, clothes and the Wii. At the amusement park, they started off with the mild rides like driving the cars around and slowly built up to roller coasters I wouldn't be caught dead on.  Life was sweet as they stood in lines together, screamed bloody murder as their little bodies were jostled to and fro on crazy rides, and shared snacks and treats. Until Zanna wanted to go on the Ride of Death (that's not really what it was called - like I'd let her go on that, people!) and Livvy did NOT! And the whole Chic-fil-A fiasco. But I won't get into that.

And we ended the day a little crabbier than how we began.
 Zanna: Whatever. (I don't know where she gets this attitude!)

Happy ending! Everyone was happier once the air conditioning kicked in on the van ride home:) 

We have great memories of Cara's someone's Tervis cup addiction, Sonic cherry limeade drinks and a elementary graduation celebration! Will is still talking about how much he liked visiting with their two year old as they chatted it up on van rides. It's comforting to know that even though we change through the years, somethings never change - like her laugh you'd recognize in a crowed room or that her enjoyment of crushed ice is still there! 

After our wonderful visit with friends, it was time to hit the road and go get Dad. Part 2 of our trip was about to begin!