We left Philadelphia around noon. We drove to DC and stopped at a very busy Costco so I could grab a couple of things to take to our dinner appointment- Joey and Britta invited us for stir fry. It was nice to spend a couple of hours with them at their home with their daughter, Kira, who is around Cece's age (last time we saw them was when we had dinner at Thai Moon in Arlington, MA when Britta and I were both pregnant).
Between Costco and dinner, we had just enough time to throw our car in parking garage and go see the Mall. The evening was beautiful and the weather was perfect. We loved everything we saw- the White House, Alexander Hamilton's statue, the Washington Monument, the Reflecting Pool, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam Memorial. The kids are old enough now to really appreciate the history these things represent.
We checked into our hotel in Alexandria. It had a separate bedroom so we threw Cece in with us and the older kids used the pull-out sofa and the floor. The next morning we availed ourselves of the built-in breakfast buffet and then Peter took the kids swimming and I used the gym.
We checked out, but unfortunately the gusting wind blew the empty luggage cart we had been using into the car in front of us, which dented it in a few places. Unsure of who had liability in this situation (we called our insurance later and they said it was not us- just a weather related accident the other person's insurance should cover), we spent a few minutes sorting that out, exchanged information, and were on our way into the city for a couple more memorials.
We were able to find free parking along Ohio Dr. SW, and walked to the FDR and MLK memorials. We had meant to walk to the Jefferson memorial, too, but somehow ended up off course and were already lagging on our schedule due to the luggage-cart scandal. So we jogged back to the car and said goodbye to DC as we made our way toward our ultimate destination- North Carolina.
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| Sunshine- so nice and so blinding |
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| Do you like my hat? |
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| slippery climbing tree- worn smooth by many climbers before |
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| vietnam memorial |
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| Nice hair! Nice Glare! |
