D.C.

Mike took the oldest four kids to Washington D.C. in August. 

I don't recall now exactly how it came about. I know Mike had a bunch of frequent flyer miles. And, at some point in the past, we'd talked about it as an idea of something that might be cool to do between Abe's arrival home from his mission and departure to college.

(The rotunda [is that the word I'm looking for?] just outside of their hotel room where people gathered to drink alcohol and talk boisterously until all hours of the morning. Obviously my crew didn't participate in the revelry. But ... they certainly heard it through their attempts to sleep!)

Mike and I had been thinking about taking a trip to see the synchronous fireflies in The Smoky Mountains. But only so many passes are given out a year and our names weren't pulled out in the drawing. So I think we decided to just go ahead and make the D.C. trip with Mike and the older kids happen instead. 

I can't easily tell all the stories there are to tell (as I wasn't there), and I have a sneaking suspicion that I am missing some of the photos I might most want to preserve here. (Supposedly they each sent me all the photos they took, but I vaguely seem to recall having seen other images here and there in texts and so forth during their trip.) But! I can tell you quite a few things. 

They took no car, but still managed to see the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and the WWII Memorial. (Those they walked to in the rain on the Friday night of their arrival.) 

On Saturday they went to the Natural History Museum, the American History Museum, and ... the grocery store. (Haha. It was more difficult than they might have hoped to find a nearby grocery store. Which wouldn't have mattered only, bless their hearts, they were doing their best to keep the Sabbath Day [which was the next morning] holy and so were trying to find some miserable Sunday fare that could be cooked in the one small microwave in their hotel room. [They also managed to cut a cantaloupe with a butter knife.])

They went to church in Alexandria, pushed a woman's stalled car out of the road on their walk back, walked down to the water front, and saw Arlington Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (where a sweet lady, whose shift had just ended, sat down with them and told them all about Arlington House).

They went to the National Zoo, Jefferson Memorial, and the seven-foot-wide Spite House (built solely to spite loiterers and horse-wagons trying to go through the original-owner's alley)

And one day they rented scooters to take past the National Monument, Vietnam Memorial, Martin Luther King Memorial and to go past The Capitol Building. (Though Mike insisted you didn't appreciate the sites as well when you could zip up to them so quickly and conveniently. [There's nothing, apparently, like seeing your destination in front of you ... and walking and walking and walking ... still seeing it in front of you ... and walking and walking some more before finally arriving to make you appreciate being there! :) They did do a tremendous amount of walking.])

Their biggest disappointment came on the last day when they discovered that the Air and Space Museum (which they were quite excited about), was closed for the day. But overall, they had a great time, and a very memorable time. I think the four of them were all old enough to truly appreciate the significance of everything they got to see, and it made me so happy having them all off together (with Mike keeping them safe!) experiencing these few days that they'll always remember. 

(And who knows? Maybe they saw a lot of other things too? If they read this and remember important things I left out, I'm sure they will tell me so I can amend this post. :))

(We all thought it was funny that there was a cow at the zoo. And that it was so clearly labeled. Rare beast.)

The End.