13 June 2009

Washington, D.C. - DAY 3 - Monday, June 8th


So we're up to day 3 now. By this time, our feet were really hurting. My lower back hurt. James decided to add a water bottle to my bag. He never drank it. I just carried it. Full. Oh well.

By this time in the trip we realized that Parker (although a very unique individual and we really like him) is soooo much like his brother Preston. How are they alike? They both have bad gas. They both drive poor Meranda crazy. (You boys should both be very grateful for your amazing, patient sister.) They both live for food! Twice a day Parker would start to wind down. His food-o-meter would get close to empty. This occurred just before lunch and just before dinner. He would literally start to tip over while he walked. He would start to whimper. He even fell asleep on a bench. He would be near death!! It was a terrible site. Until . . . . we fed him. It took only a matter of minutes for the nourishment to get in his tummy. Bam! He's back. He's smiling. He's walking upright. He's alive!!!! What a funny kid. There should be directions pasted on his forehead: Only works when fed and watered. Parker, we love you! Thanks for being a good boy.

So back to Monday . . . .

We slept in on this day because we didn't need to be to our first stop until 10:30. Yes! We left the hotel and headed to the National Archives. In the National Archives we viewed original copies of the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. It was great! We also got to see a painting of George Washington in tights. Priceless.

In addition to the regular exhibit, there was a extra exhibit at the Archives, titled "Big." In this exhibit, there were extremely large artifacts. It was pretty cool! Shaquille O'neil's size 485 shoe was there as well as the bath tub that William Howard Taft had specially made for him after he (as legend has it) got stuck in the White House bath tub. He was a little chubby chubby.

After the Archives, we headed back to the metro (via McDonalds) and then to the Zoo.

At this point, maybe I should explain Phineas (of Finneeus). He is the well-traveled sock monkey from the Kearns Oquirrh Park Pool. Wherever his employees go, so does he. He has been photographed all over the . . . well just Las Vegas so far, but he's beginning to expand. He was stuffed in Natalie and Lauren's backpack the entire trip, except when he needed to come out for air and a photo opportunity. Thanks for being well-behaved young monkey with the do-rag.


All I can say about the zoo is that some people really enjoyed it. I, for one, am not really into animals much. I just thought is was really hot and sticky at the zoo. Oh well. The pandas are cool. The naked mole rats are really icky. Thanks to Eva (who is absolutely crazy and calls Lauren, Lara) the naked mole rats have many more family members and a whole new colony invented just for them.
Another interesting thing about Washington that we noticed at this point was the crosswalk timers. Streets that are relatively wide have timers in the 11-15 second range. Streets that are about one car-width wide and can be crossed in 3 steps have timers in the 50-67 second range. Interesting. Do you know why? I have no idea.

We left the zoo. James got a souvenir panda beanie baby and a lot of panda photos. We walked to the metro and headed to the Spy Museum/National Portrait Gallery.

I went with my mom and dad to the National Portrait Gallery. Everyone else went to the Spy Museum. At the Portrait Gallery, we saw the official portraits of all of the presidents, portraits of many significant Americans, including political leaders, entertainers, sports figures, etc. It was cool! In all of the times I've been to Washington, the Portrait Gallery has never been open. I was glad that I finally got to go!

After the Spy Museum, everyone else came over to the Portrait Gallery and I think they all were glad that they could do both!

Next, we headed to dinner at Ella's Pizza. It was kind of like California Pizza Kitchen where you order your own 10 inch wood-fired pizza. It was tasty.

We walked to Ford's Theater. It's currently closed for renovation and it and the Petersen House were closed for the day, anyway. But, we did get to see them, so that was good. Next to the Petersen House is a 3 fo $9.99 t-shirt shop. Most of the kids loaded up on cute shirts.
Next, we walked to the White House. We walked around the White House. We saw a motorcade come to the White House. We asked the security guards if it was the President and they said, "No, it's just the JV team." Huh? They said it was probably someone from the State Department or a foreign dignitary, not the President. He was at home in the White House at that point. Natalie and Lauren wanted their picture taken with a security guard, but they're not allowed to do that. Bummer.


Next, we headed back to the hotel. Half of our group went back to chill. A few of us - me, James, mama Judy, Meranda, Parker, Lauren, and Natalie - decided to go to Alexandria's King Street and walk to the river. We did. 17 blocks. The river is disgusting. We rode a cab back to the metro station. The cab driver was from Pakistan. He has been in the United States for 14 years and brought his family over here 4 years ago. He earned his citizenship by lottery. His minor children are now citizens and his oldest son and wife are still awaiting citizenship. He and his wife were both teachers in Pakistan. He children like the American school system because they don't get beat by their teachers. Interesting story!

That's the end of Day 3. One more day to go!

12 June 2009

Washington, D.C. - DAY 2 - Sunday, June 7th


Day 2 began bright and early. We ate breakfast, had a brief Sunday morning fireside, and headed for the metro by 9:00. Our first stop: the Pentagon Memorial for September 11th.

This was pretty sombering. There are benches there for each victim of September 11th crash at the Pentagon. The victims ranged in age from 3 to 71 and the benches are organized by their age. Some of the benches face toward the Pentagon, representing the people who were killed on the plane. Some of the benches face away from the Pentagon. They represent the people who were killed in the Pentagon. It was a powerful memorial.

After the Pentagon, we headed to Arlington National Cemeter and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We watched the changing of the guard at the tomb. While we were there, a little girl dropped her water bottle under the rail and reached across to pick it up. The soldier on duty stepped off the path and yelled, "Young Lady, no one is permitted to . . . " I don't remember what he said, but it was scary and I think that girl may be scarred for life.




We left Arlington and headed to the Smithsonians. The top of everyone's list was the Natural History Museum and the Air and Space Museum. We started at the Natural History Museum, ate lunch, and wandered around. We saw giant whales, large mammals, dinosaur bones, the Hope Diamond, and a lot of other stuff.


After this museum, one group left to go to the Holocaust Museum and my mom and I went over to the American History Museum. We met back up afterwards and all of us went to the Air and Space Museum.

We went to this place called Hamlet's for dinner. We were all very hungry. Our server was Olivia and she talked a lot. Some of the kids went back to go swimming. My mom, Meranda, and I went to find the CVS for some milk and sunscreen.

This night then got a little crazy when we had a fireside chat in the girlies room. Parker had gas and Eva made us sing a tu-da-ta, tu-da-ta. We got a little out of hand and some poor little boy accidentally came into the room and with a very strange look on his face, did a 180 and awkwardly walked away. Oops.


11 June 2009

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.




10 June 2009

We Made It!


(This clock marks the a.m. time at the airport when we finally got off the plane in our lovely home of Salt Lake City.)

We are finally home from our DC Trip. It was awesome!! We had a great time, saw as much as we possibly could, have extremely tired feet, are glad to be home, but had a great time. We couldn't have asked for much better . . . except for our flight home yesterday. Our flight should have left DC at 6:00 and then landed us in SLC at 11:30 p.m. Instead, we were stuck in a lightning storm!! We boarded the plane in DC at around 7:30 p.m., we sat on the runway until 9:30 and finally got to SLC about 3:30 this morning. Ugh.

Lucky for us, our plane in Atlanta was delayed. It was delayed because they didn't have a crew. It's crew was on our plane, sitting on the runway in DC. Lucky for us, they held the plane in Atlanta for the crew, instead of cancelling the flight. If not, we would have had to sit in Atlanta all night long until being able to get on another flight sometime this morning. Phew!! We lucked out and were blessed on that one. Unfortunately, none of our bags made it on the Atlanta plane, but they are supposed to bring it to my house in the next half hour.

I'll post more details and pictures about the trip later, but it was a great experience!