Thanksgiving Break Part 1: Washington DC

So this year the school gave the dental students the entire week off of Thanksgiving! Wahoo! Since he had a nice long break his brother Dave decided it would be a good time to come out & visit us! A couple days after he got here we ventured off on a road trip to Washington DC. None of us have ever been there before so we were all pretty excited about it! It was a 7 hour drive which actually went by pretty fast. I am so grateful though that we had the portable dvd player! Nothing beats watching Barney & Baby Signing Time. :)

We drove straight to our hotel which was in Alexandria, VA. It's about 8 miles out of the city. We were pleasantly surprised by how nice & big our room was! I would definitely stay there again. We dropped our stuff off & then went right to the metro. We went to Chinatown to meet up with our friends the Evans. It was so fun that we could do this trip together. We had to feed our bellies so what better place than PotBelly's?!

Their hot sandwiches were really good. So good in fact we ate there again on our last day, but the service was awful. I wasn't about to stand for that kind of treatment & insisted on talking to the manager. After explaining what happened he offered us any sodas & shakes we wanted. Score! I guess it pays off to stand up for yourself every now & then. :)

Before coming, everyone I spoke to that had visited DC said to see the memorials at night. They were more breathtaking that way all lit up at dark. So that night we decided to do just that. And right they were. They were all so gorgeous & massive! I don't think I've ever seen buildings, statues & memorials that big.

Washington Monument

World War II Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

Korean War Memorial

Vietnam Memorial

It was a lot of walking around & it was getting late. Gavin thankfully fell asleep in his stroller, but Collin wasn't having any more of the sight seeing business. So we decided to push the Jefferson Memorial off since it was so out of the way & call it a night. We got Gavin in bed around 9pm & we didn't last much longer.

Monday morning we met up at the White House. The property is huge & you really can't get very close. We were able to get a lot closer in the back. In fact, I didn't want all my pictures with the big rod iron fence so I climbed up on Doug's shoulders to get my pictures. There was a lot more security in the front so I felt a little dumb trying to do it there. When we were about to leave the officer was telling everyone to leave the fence! We all got star struck wondering who it could possibly be that would be leaving or coming to the White House. Steph was funny! She said that maybe Michelle had to run to Hobby Lobby. :)

The Evans & Shaws

Our next stop was to the Ford Theatre. Our friend Tiffany said we had to go there. Our tickets were for the museum & ranger program. We decided we should have only seen the program. We all sat in the theatre & a ranger told us the event of Aril 14, 1865 when President Lincoln was shot. It was very interesting to hear all the details. I had no idea that Booth was such a famous actor of his time. The guy said think big like Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise. Kind of puts it into another perspective.

Presidential Box where Lincoln was shot.

We went & had lunch at The Good Stuff Eatery. Burgers, fries, shakes, that sort of thing. It was really good! There was a pizza place right next door that kept getting mentioned while we were eating. So Dave went on ahead & bought us a pizza to share. Nothing like being on vacation right?!

This is the Supreme Court. Huge right?! All of the buildings here are this way. Crazy!

We had to be to the Capitol by 2:30 for our tour. Travis has a family friend that is interning for the Arizona Senator, Jeff Flake. He got to give us a private tour. We started out at his office in the Cannon Building. We got to walk the underground tunnel that connects to the Capitol.

This is the Crypt. Doug & Gavin are standing in the very center of Washington DC. The city was built around the Capitol.

The dome of the Capitol

The room where the impeachment of Bill Clinton took place.

Dave outside of the Capitol

After the tour we decided we had barely enough time to rush down to the National Archives building. So off we went. Seriously, as we were walking up they shut the doors. It wasn't even 5pm yet! We were seriously bugged. Well, Steph & I were anyways.

While we were rushing to get there I thought Gavin was just happily sucking away on his sucker. Travis turned around & pointed out that he was completely out! Sucker still in mouth. Silly boy!

So after resting for a short while we decided we might as well take the LONG walk to Jefferson Memorial. Did I mention that it was long? Gavin went into complete hysterics at this point. Doug just wanted to go back to the hotel, but I was a brat & insisted that we keep going. It was quite miserable getting there, but once we did it got better. I fed Gavin & he chirped up quite a bit. I guess they do need food. :) The Jefferson was beautiful! The pictures don't do it justice. The statue is huge!

After that we called it another night & went back to the hotel.

Tuesday we started out by going to Arlington Cemetery. I don't think I've ever seen such a big cemetery. And all the headstones are lined up perfectly. It really was quite a sight. We went up to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. It was very quiet & peaceful up there.

We went back to the National Archives & we actually got right in. I guess having kids in strollers makes people want to avoid you because a lady rushed us right in to the Rotunda. This is where all the documents are kept. The Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence & Constitution. They also had one of the four original Magna Cartas. It was amazing to see these documents! Kind of makes me want to watch National Treasure again. :)

We spent the rest of our time going to some of the Smithsonians. We made a quick stop at the Museum of Natural History. I just wanted to see the dinosaurs.

Then we went to the Museum of American History. This one had a lot of fun & interesting things.

Steph & me in front of Julia Childs kitchen

The biggest doll house I've ever seen

The original Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz.

Kermit & friends
{the original muppets?}

George Washington's uniform
{the men of that time were really small}

Mine & Steph's favorite was the First Ladies area. They had all the Inaugural Ball Gowns on display. So fun to see how the fashion has changed over the years.

Martha Washington's gown

Mary Todd Lincoln's gown

And today's First Lady, Michelle Obama's gown. {So gorgeous}

The automotive & locomotive area

We just couldn't resist taking a picture of Doug & Travis in front of the dental chair. I'm sure they are glad they weren't dentists back then. :)

Off to the Air & Space Museum. It was really cool to see all the planes & shuttles.

The Wright Brothers Exhibit

We didn't last too long because we were running out of time & energy. We headed back around 4:30 so we could get the car loaded & on the road by 5:00. BIG MISTAKE! What were we thinking trying to leave the city in rush hour traffic?! It was quite the nightmare. Then once we were clear from that, we missed an exit & the next one wasn't for another 35 miles! And it was still faster to turn around. Needless to say, we didn't get home until 3:00 AM! With that said, we had a great time on our little vacation & boy did we pack in a lot! I love living out here & being so close to so many places. Where will we go next time?