D.C.~Day 2

Saturday morning we woke early, wanting to get a good start into the city. 

We left the house around 9 hoping to get on the 9:30 train.

At the Glenmont Metro Station we purchased our tickets

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We read the map at the station trying to figure out the best route for our journey.

We played 'Eye Spy' with the kids trying to pass the time.  We had to get creative in such a colorless place!

Soon a train arrived and we hopped aboard.  The Gasser Girls now were pros at this and helped their cousins.

Riley decided it would be more fun to stand and hang on.  He did great!  Do we see a future city boy here? 

We rode from Glenmont to Metro Central, which is about 11 stops.  We got off at Metro Central and switched trains to the Smithsonian Stop.  That ride was only 2 stops and much quicker.  The kids had a blast on the Metro trains.

We decided we wanted to see two things for certain.  The Lincoln Memorial and The Air and Space Museum.  What we didn't know is that the Lincoln Memorial was at the far end of the Mall.  We started our walk.  It was a gorgeous day; a bit breezy and chilly, but not too bad. 

The boys needed to run, so I let them run a bit ahead of us.  The sky was a clear, deep blue.  It was a beautiful day.  We passed many people out running, riding bikes, flying kites and playing football.   

The children were in awe at the size of the Washington Monument.  In all honesty, so were the adults.  We couldn't get too close to it because it was still blocked off from the earthquake this past summer.

Next stop was the WWII memorial.  There was no water in the fountains in the center, but it was still beautiful.  Riley loves to read about WWII and learn about it, so this was a special memorial for him.  I would love to bring him back someday to see it lit up. 

We found our favorite state!

There was construction at the pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial.  We had to do a bit of detouring but we enjoyed the walk.  By this point a little girlie, Annie, was getting tired of walking.  It is a long walk for short little legs, so Auntie Julie was more than happy to carry her. 

We finally made it to the Lincoln Memorial.  It was fairly crowded.  I'm assuming because of the holiday weekend.  It kinda' made it more special. 

Lincoln is my favorite president.  Partly because he was the best and partly because we share a birthday.  This is the third time I have visited the monument and look forward to bringing my children back someday.   

The Gettysburg Address 

We soon left the monument.  The children were cold, tired and hungry.  On our way back to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, we decided to swing by the Vietnam Memorial.  I wish we would have had the time to look up names of people we knew.  I told them to look at the names as we passed; to realize that each one of those names represented a person who gave their life.  And that there is a family attached to that name who still mourns their loss.

We walked all the way back to the museum to eat lunch in the cafeteria.  I wish I would have remembered to take pictures.  We were quite the crew!

After our lunch, Kurt took the boys through part of the museum while Kelly and I finished up feeding the little girlies.  Soon after we met up and K&K decided they needed to get home to get ready for church the next day.  They took Rhianna along with their girls and left the boys with me to do a bit of 'boy stuff'. 

We spent some time in the History museum.  They weren't as excited as I was.  I could spend a week in there.  At one point, I drug them through the first ladies' dresses display.  Needless to say, they were not impressed.

I only took one picture of them.  While they were not excited about the dresses, they did get excited about a bison.  It was my turn to not be overly excited. 

The boys were excited to go to the Air and Space museum, so we left shortly after the bison display.  We found our map and headed towards the other museum. 

On our way there we stopped so the boys could get a picture with the Capitol in the background.

We spent an hour or so in the Air and Space Museum.  And I forgot to take pictures.  We realized that it would soon be dark and had about a 45 minute ride back to Kurt and Kelly's.

We found the nearest Metro Station and headed back towards Silver Springs.  We were tired from our day! 

Here is a picture of a map and highlighted route from the day:

We made it back to K&K's around 5:45.  Dan and Mary Lou were there from CT to serve as minister the next day for church services.  They are friends of my mom's and they have known us since we were little girls.  We were very excited to find out it was them coming in for the weekend.

They treated us to pizza and we had a very nice evening.  We bathed and showered all 6 kids and got them tucked in for the night.  The 5 of us adults stayed up and caught up.  It was a wonderful evening.

The weekend was exactly what I needed: A break from the everyday routine, A mini-vacation with my children, and some adult conversation time.