Vacation part II: Washington DC

Okay, sorry it's taken me so long to get to writing this next part of our vacation...it was a long week involving a trip to the doctor (scheduled) as well as a test I hope none of you ever have to do when you're pregnant (it involves a very large urine sample...that's all I'll say). Just as a disclaimer for this part of our vacation, as to the number, etc. of things that we did... remember that I'm a grumpy pregnant lady with a 1 yr. old, and the days we were in the DC area it was over 100 degrees, without factoring in humidity.

So...where are we...Oh yes. I left off at the end of Monday....Okay. Tuesday morning we got up and checked out of our really nice downtown hotel. We drove through part of Philly to the bridge we were taking into New Jersey. It was a different way than we came, and I got another new state (I think that was one of the best things from this vacation- I got to see 4 'new' states and the district of Columbia). We stopped in NJ for gas and realized that Oregon isn't the only crazy place where you can't pump your own gas-NJ has the same silly rule. But we didn't complain since the price was still cheaper than we pay here in Charlotte. One interesting thing about driving on the east coast is how many states you can go through in a short amount of time. Out west it's hard to be in more than one or two states in a day (driving), but we were in 4 states in less than 2 hours that morning. (PA, NJ, DE, MD), and we added VA just a couple hours later.

We did stop in Maryland to see the DC temple. It was hot, so mostly we saw it from the visitor's center. Oh, one funny thing about going into a visitor's center not in Utah or at church history sites: you get accosted by sister missionaries the second you walk in the door, but as soon as they find out you're originally from Utah they don't even talk to you anymore. Interesting, really. The rest of Tuesday we didn't really do anything. I took a nap, so did Karen. Joe watched ESPN (so did I).

Wednesday morning we got up bright and early, loaded the stroller, water cooler, food cooler, and diaper bag...and some other stuff...into our car, drove to the metro station (we stayed in Fairfax, out of DC a ways) and after some difficulty and nasty looks from commuters, got on the train to the national mall. By the time we got to the mall at 9:30 it was already at least 80 degrees. Since it was going to get way hotter as the day went on we decided to see as many of the monuments/memorials as we could before it got too hot to be outside anymore. So, here is a list of the things we saw in the morning (some pics at the bottom): Washington Monument (outside only-no strollers inside), WWII memorial, Lincoln memorial, Korea memorial, Vietnam memorial. I think that was all... After that we stopped at a shady bench to eat the lunch we brought, then headed for shade.

At this time (around noon) I was definitely starting to overheat, and I had already almost finished off our cooler full of water...being pregnant on this type of trip isn't very fun, just to let you know. Anyway, we started making our way from the area around the Vietnam memorial to the Smithsonian (yes, AC!!!), and I nearly passed out a couple of times. We wanted to go (well, I wanted to go..) to the museum of American history...but it was closed for rennovation! Yes, so if you want to see it go after next summer. We went to the natural history museum instead. It was really cool (in multiple senses of the word). They had a discovery room where we could let Karen touch lots of different things. She really liked holding skulls...what does that say about her future? There was also an exhibit on Korea that we really liked. Of course the dinosaurs were really cool too...yeah it was fun. The only bad part was that everyone else who had been outside in the morning was now packed into the same building we were (at least that's what it felt like; there was hardly room to move the stroller...). After natural history we went over to the air and space museum to see some things...and find Joe a McDonald's because the lunch wasn't enough for him. After this we went to the national Archives and saw the DofI, Constitution, bill of rights, etc. It was really cool and would have been great if Karen hadn't thrown a fit while we were trying to look at them. She just wanted to walk!! So, after that ordeal we decided to try out an art museum. The only art museum I've ever been to is the MOA at BYU, so I thought it would be interesting to see a 'real' art museum...however, we didn't watch the time well enough. Everything there closes at 5pm-silly government buildings!-so we couldn't do that. So, we thought we'd go to dinner somewhere...but we didn't know where to go. We were tired...so by 5:30 we were back on the metro heading for our hotel and the suburbs where we knew where to find food. We ended up at IHOP for dinner, and I don't think pancakes have ever tasted so good. We went back to the hotel, put Karen in bed, took showers, and I fell asleep watching ESPN (baseball is so boring on TV).

The next morning we got up and drove home. We were tired, we wanted to be home, and we didn't want to be in the heat anymore. So, yes I went to DC, but there was SOOOOOO much that we didn't get to see. We decided that next time we go there it will be either spring or fall (not so hot) and we don't want to take strollers. In the post-9/11 security world, it's no fun to have to take lots of different bags and strollers places because they have to be searched every time you go into a building or near a monument...just a note. In all it was a really fun trip (even if this post doesn't sound that way-it's almost my nap time) and I would love to do it again-in a few years. It was great to go and see lots of new things, and it was also great to come home at the end.