dc highlights

As Max mentioned, we spent a couple of nights in DC. We are generally not that crazy about big crowds, but we were pleasantly surprised by how much fun we had. We drove most of the day Thursday, stopping in Cleveland for lunch and a visit with Aunt Dana at Cahoon Nursery, and got to DC in the late evening. Once we were settled in our hotel room, we ordered pizza (from We the Pizza, naturally), and once dinner was over, we were a little bit restless, so we decided to do a little late-night exploring on the Mall. Mike was skeptical, but it actually was really great. There were people around, but nothing was super crowded, and the boys could run pretty freely. We went from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, stopping at the World War II Memorial along the way. And once we got to the Lincoln Memorial, we could see lightning from a distant storm, though it looked like it was right by the Washington Monument. Once we were all exhausted, we caught a cab back to the hotel and crashed out.

Friday was all memorials, all day long. We went back to the Washington, saw the White House, headed out to the Jefferson, saw the MLK Memorial, and generally acted like tourists. The boys had a great time setting up pictures that made them look like they were holding up buildings that were off in the distance. The crowds were bigger, but it still wasn't terrible. We took buses all around town, which was surprisingly easy, and fun for the boys, who have never been regular users of public transportation. We ended up at Union Station for lunch because Mike had a long-ago memory of having lunch there with his family ... and that's where things started to go sideways. Henry got his head stuck in a revolving door and, though he wasn't really hurt, he was scared, so he screamed bloody murder. We were all starving and it was jam-packed with people and options and just generally very overwhelming. We ended up getting bagel sandwiches at Einstein Bros., after which everyone was in a much better mood. Henry was exhausted, though, so I decided to take him back to the hotel for a nap. Liam opted to go with us, while Mike and Max set off to see the Supreme Court, the Capitol, and the U.S. Botanic Garden.

Once we were all reunited, it was pool time! The boys have been so excited about this leg of our trip because we told them that the hotel has a pool on the roof. They have been pondering how such a thing was possible, whether the hotel would be flooded if it sprang a leak, and so on. I'll admit, it was pretty incredible to swim on a rooftop above Washington with the Capitol dome in the background. Definitely not something I ever thought I would do.

We had dinner, then set out again after dark to explore the Lincoln Memorial. If you are thinking this would be because I couldn't get any good pictures the night before because I am not very good at taking pictures at night ... give yourself a prize. We started to walk, but then it started raining, so we cabbed it the rest of the way. By this time, Henry had gotten so accustomed to taxis that he kept asking us if we could just "catch a cab" to the next destination. It was really cute, like he was suddenly a little city boy or something. Eventually, we took his advice again and caught a cab back to the hotel, got some sleep, and were off early Saturday morning to make our way south.