Washington, D.C. - DAY 1 - Saturday, June 6th

Our trip began early in the morning. By the time our laundry was finished, the house was cleaned, and everything was packed, it was about 1:00 a.m. Time for sleepy, sleepy. The alarm went off (all 3 of them) at around 4:30 a.m. My mom, dad and Willie were picking us up at 5:30. Our flight left at 7:00. We made it just fine.


Everything went exactly as planned. We had a layover in Detroit and then continued on to Reagan National Airport in Washington. Eva and Hannah sat in front of us and let us make pipe cleaner figures with them. I made a bracelet.We took the metro from the airport to the Crystal City stop and found our hotel, the Hampton Inn at Crystal City. We checked in to our rooms, took a quick pit stop and met back in the lobbyto head out on our night's adventures.



First stop, dinner at the Pentagon City Mall food court. James, Willie, and I went to Johnny Rockets. It was tasty. I don't know where everyone else went.

Second stop, the monuments. We got off at the Smithsonian Metro station and were right on the National Mall. We walked to the Washington Monument, the WWII Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, Mr. Lincoln's Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial. We took a break for a minute and then decided to continue on. We made the trek over to the FDR Memorial and then around the tidal basin to Mr. Jefferson.

The walk around the tidal basin has always creeped me out a little. Maybe it's because we've always insisted on doing it a night. Maybe because it's dark and you never know what kinds of people or animals are looming there. Maybe it's because there is no railing and the water makes me nervous anyway. I don't know. This time, however, gave me even more to be creepedout about. We were walking along the tidal basin sidewalk and the puddles (it had been raining earlier in the day) seemed to be getting closer and closer together until finally we were in one big puddle that wasn't going away. We looked ahead and saw that there was no more sidewalk. The tidal basin water had raised up and covered the entire sidewalk for yards and yards in front of us. Scary!!! We hopped over some soppy grass and found another sidewalk, but it was pretty creepy. I guess we could have gone for a swim.

After visiting Mr. Jefferson, we walked back to the Smithsonian Metro station. It's quite a hike and we started singing "Ants Go Marching." By the time we got to the metro stop it was closed. Dad read this on the sign earlier, but we didn't believe him. Oops. Emily started singing how the "Pioneer children sang as the walked and walked and walked." Parker wailed that he hated that song, but we made it one more block to the next stop, anyway. We got back to the hotel and tucked in for a good night's sleep.