Family Weekend in DC

So, before Anneliese's birthday, we took a little family weekend jaunt to Washington, DC.

why, with the monument and my head, random-passers-by-photographer? why?

Our impetus was twofold:

1- The National Geographic Museum's special rotating exhibit right now is a big thing about spinosaurus, and... yeah. I just realized that sort of explains itself. SPINOSAURUS. So, we knew we wanted to take Nathan to see that this fall.

2- Anneliese has been asking for an American Girl doll for months and months, so we wanted to surprise her and get her one for her birthday. Yes she's a little young, and yes they're too expensive, but she made a giant effort at keeping her room and toys organized to prove that she is a big girl five-year-old who can handle having nice things, and I find zero objectionable anything about American Girl dolls in general (history! dolls! characters! books! they're good toys).  Anyway, the closest store to us (which is more fun than ordering online) is in DC.

So we mapped out the calendar looking for a weekend after the spino exhibit opened, before Anneliese's birthday, and when Mark was actually off work -- and last weekend was it. So we went! It wasn't the most conventional "Washington DC Family Trip" but we had our own goals of stuff to do, and we live close enough that we didn't feel like we had to do All The Important Things this time. So here's what we did:

1.) Rode the Metro a Lot - as far as Nathan and Anneliese are concerned, this IS seeing the sights of DC. That dark tunnel. Right there. Super! Exciting!

2.) National Geographic Museum - Mark and I know DC well, but had never been to this museum. Fun to do something that's new to us too. Also, the look on Nathan's face here, when we saw the spino they had specially installed outside the museum = maybe worth the whole weekend away.

3.) American Girl Doll Store - oh man Anneliese was so sweet wandering through this whole store (we had never been in one! I was overwhelmed) and seeing all the dolls and books and outfits and such. She waffled a while but then settled on Kit, and seems really happy about that, and she was so happy I thought she would burst. It was lovely and special in a way that 5th birthday treats should be, and it was so fun to shop excitedly with her. So, meet Kit, from 1934.

PS I just realized why we can't find Anneliese's orange hoodie anywhere at home. :/

4.) Air & Space Museum at Dulles - another new place for Mark and me! This is an extension of the Smithsonian museum downtown on the mall, and we have heard great things about it for years, but have never gone out to Dulles to see it. We did this time, and we are so glad. It was very cool. Like, the other museum sort of pales in comparison (don't hate me, internet, I still love the original too!) -- it is really hard to overstate the massive numbers of planes housed in this one giant hangar out there. Like, hundreds. HUNDREDS. Including some tough ones (the Enola Gay? Hm I don't want to explain that history to my fascinated child, kthx) and some cool ones (space shuttle!) and everything in between.

There was also a section with a tower where you could go up and see what was happening at Dulles airport, and a small exhibit on radars and air traffic controlling, which Nathan found a little more fascinating than the rest of us, but he was cute. (His favorite lego things to build these days are airplanes; this trip was good timing.)

I will leave you with this oddly fascinating fact from the museum at Dulles: the space shuttle is covered in... thermal blankets.

THAT BEAST WENT TO SPACE COVERED IN QUILTS. That is all.

5.) Air & Space Museum at the Mall - it was the most crowded I had ever seen it, and it was hot inside, and the throngs of people were overwhelming, and also there was an area cleared for salsa dancing lessons, and I don't even know. We hit a few exhibits and climbed in two display planes and Nathan gleefully spent some allowance money at the gift shop, and then we were done. Basically I could not get us out of there fast enough. (And I love that museum! Just, not that day.)

we saw a lot of planes last weekend, y'all

6.) Carousel on the Mall - because obviously. It's close, it's easy, it's fun, it wasn't raining, so yes.

And then we sat and had a funnel cake, and let the kids run around and play, because sometimes unorganized fun is just... necessary.

Walking back to the Metro, Nathan wanted to take some pics with us and the Washington Monument. He clearly has a future in photography.

I mean. Yeah.

7.) Adorable Cosi Dinner - this is DC dining at its finest, right? HA HA HA. But it is a good place with kids, it's tasty and relatively fast and relatively inexpensive, and it ended up being a delightful dinner. The manager thought they were out of stuff for make-at-your-own-table s'mores, but then found more fire, and comped us the whole thing and extra brownies, for no reason at all other than he said we were sweet. SO NICE. It was all lovely. And cozy. (See what I did there?)

8.) Walk Around the Monuments - on Sunday morning we took a walk in a big loop around part of the mall - from the Washington Monument down past the White House and then over to the World War II Memorial.

It was gorgeous and sunny out, and the kids needed some time to run in circles where they wanted, instead of us clutching their hands crossing a million trafficky intersections, so they played in the grass and chased each other and had lots of big talks about being president. They somehow decided it would probably be Charlotte, because she's a lefty (?) and they kept asking her if they could visit when she lived in the White House. Adorable. (She said yes.)

Lying in the grass looking up at the Washington Monument. I totally remember doing this as a kid.

Aaaaaaand that was our weekend. Honestly, one of the best parts might've just been staying in a hotel all together. We had two big beds and a sofabed so it felt big, and who doesn't like hotels, just in general, right?

this is like a vision of my own childhood, right here

The second night wasn't great sleep, but a slumber party in one room was mostly really fun! I like having all my people close. Especially when get all angelic when they sleep.

And Then I Found Five Dollars***

So.  Another Nathan and I went on a road trip to DC last weekend.  It was... something. 

It started with me forgetting the baby and having to go back to get her, and it ended with one of us (I'll never tell who) getting a speeding ticket. And in the middle:

- A Starbucks pit stop started great, then turned into a dead car battery.  A nice man named Brian who worked at a nearby Harley dealership gave me a ride in his red pickup truck. (Sketchy?) And a nice lady mechanic named Carla installed a new battery.  Lesson learned: everyone in Roanoke Rapids, NC is ridiculously nice.

- I might or might not have had to climb into the back of the van during an interstate traffic jam, to deal with a car seat poop explosion (oh yes) and nurse* the baby.

- Nathan** accidentally sent a hilariously inappropriate text message to Mark.  I laughed about it for three hours.  And by three hours I mean three days.  And by three days I mean I'm still laughing about it.

- We somehow used all of the six cupholders in the center console, at the same time. I hereby retract any previous statements about how there are definitely too many cupholders in the minivan.

- We sat in an incredibly frustrating amount of traffic in and around various DC suburbs.  Good lord the traffic. But a friend said that me cruising around there in my minivan pretty much made me Michelle Obama. So it was maybe worth it?

We feel the exact same way about DC traffic

- I had a phone conversation with a businessman named Curtis, which apparently left him convinced Nathan and I were both sketchy confused weirdos. Me!  I'm articulate! And not sketchy! What was his problem?! 

- We saw Merritt! And had dinner with her and spent the night with her in her new house. And didn't take any pictures.  So enjoy this cell phone pic of the two of us in my old house instead.

- Oh and we totally took the baby to a bar.

- I co-slept with Charlotte on an air mattress (this, despite the two empty cribs in Merritt's house).  But it was way awesomer than it sounds.  No tears! All night!

- I learned that Another Nathan, rule-follower though he may be, cannot follow GPS directions.  Not even a little. I had to hold the phone and read it and personally tell him where to go in order to have any chance at all of making the correct turns.

road trips give me good hair

- I fell (fell!) into the bottom floor of a row house building.  I have graceful entrances down to an art form.

- I had an emotional breakdown directly in front of the White House.  Know what happens when you're driving a minivan in a traffic jam and there's a baby crying and you're hungry, and you get totally overwhelmed with life and then you start crying too?  Your best friend force-feeds you crackers.  True story.

- I drove on the wrong side of the road in downtown DC.  I ran a red light in downtown DC.  Please no one let me drive in urban areas anymore, mmkay?  I'm not good at it. (And I'm still never telling which one of us got that ticket on the way home.)

- I made Nathan wear Charlotte in an infant carrier. He looks very sweet, no?

- Nathan called me a Boss Hog.  Oh yes he did. (He wasn't calling me bossy or fat though, why would you even assume that?? Bad blog reader!)  And then we ate in a restaurant of the same name. Somehow we went into the service entrance.  No one batted an eye.

- Oh and did I mention that because the van is still relatively new, we didn't know the code to restart the radio after the battery died?  So aside from Nathan singing pop songs to me (not that that wasn't awesome in its own way), our whole adventure was sans music. Seriously.

code error 5: not our favorite radio station

But you know what?  In the midst of all the sweat and tears (and I mean both of those quite literally), dang did we laugh a lot.  And I think we might be better friends than we were before we went.  So... road trip win.  For sure.

* Just kidding Marky, I probably didn't do that.

** Let the record show, that is exactly how it happened.  No matter who tells you otherwise.

*** No, seriously. I found five bucks on the ground during the dead battery fiasco.

Great Urban Race = Guffawesome

This weekend I was in Washington DC to visit Merritt and do the Great Urban Race. I had never heard of it until recently, but once I heard about it I knew I had to do it. It's like the tv show Amazing Race, but only for one day and in one city. How cool is that? So I jumped on the opportunity to race in Washington (one of my favorite cities) with Merritt (one of my favorite people). And since last time I went to visit her, I posted a list of things I learned, I'm doing that again.

Here's what I learned on the Great Urban Race 2010.

1.) Pick a team name that starts with punctuation -- ours was ¡Guffawesome! -- and the race staff won't know how to
alphabetize you. Apparently we're the only ones who had ever done that. (Since some of you will ask, our team name came about for 3 reasons: First, my propensity for combining words with "awesome." Second, Merritt's love of español. Third, and most importantly, one time when we were freshmen at Furman, Merritt said guffaw. Yep, that's pretty much the whole story. Rather than try to explain a decade-old inside joke that I'm not even sure *I* understand anymore, I will just ask you to trust me that it was hilarious. Merritt said guffaw. See? Hilarious. Guffawesome, even.)

2.) Bring your own map. We got all the clues at the beginning, and half (or more) of the challenge is figuring out where they all are, and in which order to do them. (This is one thing that Merritt and I totally agreed is way harder than the folks on tv. They have to think a lot less, dealing with only one clue at a time.) No matter how fancy your phone is, there's no substitute for a good paper map with circles on it so you can clearly visualize where you need to go, and plan a good route. And, the map they give you might not be as clearly marked with metro routes and lines as you could hope. So... bring your own.

3.) Elementary school teachers are the best googlers. Since our strategy was to solve all the clues right at the beginning, and plot them by neighborhood to choose the best route, we had recruited a handful of at-home googlers to help us make that happen really fast. And they were all good -- it would have taken two or three times as long without them (and we never would have finished in time). Mark helped, and his brother Nick (and his wife Barbara), and my pseudo-sister Cassi. But the awards for best googling definitely go to Liz and Erin H, who are both elementary school teachers by trade. Erin was our fastest responder (and from her husband's phone, when hers died!)... and Liz... oh Liz. When online sources conflicted on which garden we were looking for, and which plant, and whether that plant was actually a member of the family our clue sheet indicated it needed to be, she called the US Botanical Gardens to find out (who does that?).... and then sent us a picture of exactly what we were looking for, in an organized email, the likes of which only a teacher could write out in less than ten minutes. Seriously. Please remind me never to compete in one of these races against Liz. Yowza.

4.) Paddleboating is way way way way way harder than you think it is. And steering those things is a nightmare. We managed to drive into another team, and an empty (anchored) boat too. Wow.

5.) It is very possible to get blisters so big on the balls of your feet that they extend up in between your toes. I wouldn't have believed it if you told me last week. But I am living proof and I am here now to tell you it's true.

6.) Merritt is a Rule Follower who doesn't like to jaywalk. Now, her version of the story might make it sound like I am a dangerous jaywalker and she just doesn't have any faith in me (the words wait, Erin, that's a really big bus! might or might not have come out of her mouth on Saturday... more than once) but we all know that's not true because I am an excellent jaywalker. I have a jaywalking ticket from when I lived in Germany to prove it. But that's a story for another day. For now, just believe me when I tell you that Merritt is a stickler for those flashing walk signs. And that her favorite phrase -- but their light is about to turn green -- makes no sense to me at all. About to turn green = still red = cars not moving. Now RUN.

7.) The new circulator bus in DC doesn't stop at every stop in both directions. While Mark and I take full credit for coming up with this monument-area bus system several years ago (you're welcome, America), we can't endorse the levels of complication which require riders to not only know which stop they need, but also which direction the bus has to be going in order to stop there. Come on now. It's a circle. All stops in both directions. Please. (Merritt and I walked along the route for several stops before we realized there just weren't any stops in the direction we needed to go.)

8.) E Street is elusive. One of our challenges was to figure out a word based on the definiton on our clue sheet, then spell it by taking pictures of those letter street names. Merritt figured out the word was rest, and we got T, S and R streets pretty easily (since they're close together, duh). But we didn't get E. (Yes, even though there are four E Streets to choose from in DC, one in each quadrant, and we could have used any of them.) We got within several blocks, several times, in several different quadrants, and just... couldn't make it happen. It was that elusive E Street that caused our finish line penalty, since that particular clue was only 75% complete.
9.) If you just absolutely refuse to shut up, begging and pleading will eventually get you what you want. Even if what you want is for some GWU employees to temporarily abandon their posts at the front of several lines of graduates waiting for their commencement ceremony and take a picture with you, because (due to graduation day making most people be robed or otherwise fancied up) no one else is wearing GWU shirts and dangit, you need a picture with at least two people wearing GWU shirts! And for one of those said graduates to distract from her commencement day to take said picture. (Except, apparently we didn't need that picture after all, because it was a tic-tac toe of photo requirements and we had already completed that puzzle another way. Clearly our brains were fuzzy from the heat and exhaustion.) But, no matter -- the begging and pleading totally worked!!
10.) If you do this race as a nursing mom, either bring a pump or steer clear of other people's crying babies. A couple of hours into the race, Merritt and I were both so... um, full, that it was (almost) as distracting to our comfort level as our blisters. Ok, not really. But it did make it harder to run. Or maybe we just needed another excuse not to run. Seriously I don't think we would have stopped to pump. But it was funny that we both needed to. Although, neither of us leaked, so we'll call it a win. And we were both happy to get home to our babies. (Please don't ask me to explain the science behind Merritt looking so cute and together in this picture while I look like such a hot mess. She continues to defy all reason and logic on these things.) So. In summary. We pretty drastically underestimated the difficulty of this event. We thought we'd have plenty of time to finish in the allotted five hours. Yeah... we made it by two minutes. (And still took a penalty for having one clue only 75% complete. Dang you, E Street!) We're sore and tired but we had fun and we're thinking we should do the Charlotte even in late April next year. Who's in? (Liz & Jeremy? Ashley & John? Erin & Jonathan? Nick & Barbara? Kelley & Jonathan? Say yes! All of you!)

For more pictures of our day and some of the challenges we did (including Merritt boxing, other teams' crazy costumes, paddleboat scenery, and some outtakes of the two of us jumping in front of a statue), click below on the crowd gathering for the race start.

by mgoetts

What I Learned in Arlington

Anneliese and I have spent the last few days in the outskirts of DC, visiting my friend Merritt and her new son Finn. I was thinking I would be able to come up and offer Merritt some laughs and encouragement in her new motherhood, make her feel confident enough to get out and about with the baby, cook some food for them, share fellowship and memories, that kind of thing. And I think I did all that... I hope so anyway.

But I think I got as much out of my visit as I was hoping to bring them. I got to shop, eat good food, sleep past 10 each morning (did I mention how much I love Anneliese's 13+ hour nights?) and it was actually a pretty relaxing week for me. Merritt and Brett are great hosts!And I learned a lot myself. Here's some of what I learned in DC this week:

1.) Tang is awesome. How has this drink fallen out of fashion? Those rocket scientists or astronauts or whoever first discovered the awesomeness were onto something. It's like a blast of fruity citrus-y goodness that has no sugar. And it goes with everything! Chicken casserole, crunchy asian salads, pizza casserole, cookies, banana bread, you name it. And no that's not a random list, folks. Those are all the foods I enjoyed my Tang with this week. I will be stocking up on Tang in my own home very shortly. Ahhh, Tang.

2.) If you're changing a diaper in a car, it's easier to do it flat on the front seat than in the tilted infant carrier in the back. Please don't ask me how it took more than two years for me to figure this out. Merritt's a smart one, let me tell you.

3.) Anneliese is apparently not patriotic. I am basing this assumption on the fact that she had the biggest poop of her life, all over her clothes and car seat and pretty much everything in sight, promptly upon arrival in DC to look at the monuments. I mean, does she hate our nation's capital that much?? I don't know if she'll fit in with our family if that's the case.

4.) Cloth diapering is totally manageable. I originally considered it and ruled it out since I was terrible about laundry when I had a "real" job, but I have gotten much better at staying on top of it (as well as other household chores) since I'm no longer gainfully employed. And really, Merritt doesn't do any more laundry than I do (especially considering I have to do a poopy load every other day anyway, see #3), she doesn't change any more diapers than I do, and her kid's room is not any stinkier than my kid's room.
Oh, and after each diaper change she manages to not throw 20c in the trash. Plus her baby's bottom is living in the lap of fleece-lined luxury. Cloth diapering will be immediately re-assessed in my own household. Stat.

5.) All plungers are not created equal. This is the official word from my friend Betsy's (who also lives in DC) new beau who was awesomely helpful in trying to fix a toilet clogged with sludge (after a water main broke near Merritt's house and left us with limited clean-water access for about 24 hours). Which still wasn't fixed when I left. I love that I will go down in infamy as the guest with the potty sludge.

6.) Breastfeeding + friend's new beau = minor panic attack. Despite how awesome and not-awkward her new guy clearly is (see #5), Betsy still freaked out a little (ok, a lot) when my hand moved towards my shirt and I settled on the couch to feed Anneliese. But don't worry, Betsy got over it, Anneliese ate and no breastage was exposed. And the new beau was exactly as un-fazed as I suspected he would be. :)

7.) Finn loves gutteral noises. I don't know what Merritt has been telling you on her blog about how his "thing" is to stretch out a lot. I mean, he does, and it's insanely cute, don't get me wrong. But let me be clear: this baby's "thing" is moaning and groaning and pooting and tooting and slurping and sighing and squeaking. Sleeping or waking, happy or mad, that child is never not making noises. Especially when he eats. It's hilarious. I'm really hoping she gets it on video before he grows out of it (in case he ever does), if not for the internets than for her own memory's sake. I can hardly wait to hear the noises he makes when he tastes his first awesome Tang.

For more pictures of our visit to DC, click on Anneliese and Finn, below.

by mgoetts

We *Heart* Metrorail

Well, we are home from Washington and we're all sort of tired, but not the kind of exhausted you get after a vacation where you try to do too much. Just the kind where you're satisfied with a fun time away but glad to be home again. Which means I think we planned and executed this one pretty well, if I do say so myself (and I do).

Last night we met my college roomie Betsy for dinner downtown -- despite the fact that it took forever and Nathan wasn't asleep until after ten (and therefore didn't sleep well at all the rest of the night), the food was great and the company even better. I love being around people who just get me.

On the way back to the hotel (and then this morning again when we hopped over to Union Station to see some trains and enjoy a quick food-court lunch before we left town) it hit me that part of what Mark and I enjoy so much about these urban vacations is the public transportation. I know I blathered on about this when we were in New York, so I won't do it again. But I have to say this: it's just so... freeing not to have a car. We didn't have to drive or park or worry about getting lost or whatever.
We did drive to Washington, so we had a car in town, but with very few exceptions, we pretty much took the Metro everywhere we needed to go. And we loved it.

Nathan loved it too, as you can see.

And by the end of the trip, he knew all the metro lingy-loo. He would say orange circle, and blue circle (those were the two lines that went to our hotel), and we also heard a lot of here it comes! and ride the train? and go on the elevator? when we were in the stations. (We did attempt the escalator most of the time, though technically it's not allowed with a stroller since it's not the safest option. In fact, he came to associate the escalators with the trains so much that he would get excited just to see the moving staircase -- it never failed to bring on a round of ride the train? where's the train?)

When we were actually riding, he would say here we go! and three stops! the whole time. We decided that even though he "knew" which lines to take, he could never actually get anywhere on the metro, since he would always be "three stops" from where he was going. :)

He also managed to talk to pretty much any stranger who would make eye contact with him. I guess we need to start working on that whole "stranger danger" thing, since the idea seems kind of lost on him at this point.

But the main thing we heard over and over again riding the Metro with Nathan was it's coming! He must have said it a thousand times while waiting for each train. Sometimes he would add a few minutes at the end, but usually he thought the train's arrival was absolutely imminent. He was just SO excited that the train was coming. And when it pulled into the station, his eyes would light up and he would get this huge grin on his face. Man that boy loves a train!

Anyway here's a short video of us waiting for the train last night. You can see he says it's coming! pretty much constantly. Bonus: at 24 seconds into the video, you can also hear his extremely southern right there. We have no idea where he picked up that accent but it's a little bit hilarious.



All that to say -- we officially all love public transportation and would love a lightrail system here in Raleigh!

We had a great time in Washington and I'm so glad that we got to spend a few days with Nathan -- just the three of us -- focusing on stuff that he likes. An early birthday present (for him and us!) and a great way to shower him with some extra attention before Beanie gets here. It was the goal of the trip, and I definitely think we accomplished it. For more pictures of our weekend in the district, click on Mark and Nathan at the reflecting pool, below.

by mgoetts

Washington Part 3: The One Where Nathan Looks at Airplanes Instead of the Camera

I've decided that the whole no-fly zone over DC is a total myth. Because no matter where we go in this city, there are airplanes overhead. Seems like everywhere in the city (as opposed to nowhere, like you'd think) is directly in the flight path for Reagan National, so we can constantly see planes taking off. Approximately every minute and a half. Or more. Oh, the things you don't notice until you travel with a things-that-go-obsessed toddler.

Last night we took advantage of a gorgeous evening to take a walk around the Tidal Basin over to the Jefferson Memorial, which is Mark's favorite second-favorite monument here (he just corrected me) after the WWII Memorial. And I can see his point -- what's not to love? A big dome, gorgeous views of the city over the water, a tree-lined walkway, and yes -- paddleboats rowing and airplanes overhead [insert Nathan grin here]. Here are the three of us on the far side of the Tidal Basin, just starting our walk. Nathan is most definitely not looking at the memorial, but at the airplane overhead. Yes, this is really the best picture we could get of the three of us. :)

Once we got to the memorial, Nathan insisted on climbing all the "big steps" himself. I don't know how his calves aren't killing him (or maybe they are) because he has only spent about half this trip in the stroller -- the rest has been walking on his own, and climbing steps. He's putting a lot of grownups to shame, I'll say that. Washington has a lot of steps.

And his reaction once we got in the memorial? "It's a man! It's a big man! It's a very big man!" I think our explanations that it was a statue of Thomas Jefferson just confused him. He now thinks Thomas Jefferson is a "big man" named Statue, who might or might not have something to do with Thomas the Train. [sigh]

After our walk we went over to the Pentagon to see the memorial for the victims of the 9/11 attacks. It's a little gravel garden area with a bench for each victim, and it seems like everything meant something. Lots and lots of symbolism built into that little yard. I think when the trees get bigger it will be a really nice place for reflection. We were actually sort of nervous to be at the Pentagon -- seems like access should be a little more restricted. We made more than one nervous joke about "getting sniped" for taking pictures in the wrong place or something, but -- no problems. We got back safely to our hotel, free of any and all snipings.

This morning we took another long walk, exploring the monuments just west of the mall. And if you can believe this, Nathan climbed every single step to get to the top of the Lincoln Memorial -- AND back down. That kid is kind of amazing. (And clearly the grandson of an IronMarmie.)

When we got to the bottom again, and he got close to the reflection pool, his first reaction was "get naked?"... Yep, he's a Bumgarner all right. (We didn't let him, in case you were curious.)

And yes, the bottom of the memorial proved prime opportunity for more airplane viewing, despite the fact that Mark and I wanted pictures instead. Seriously, what is the deal with these planes???
We stopped at the WWII Memorial and thought about my recently-passed Grandpa Schnack. He and my mom came to DC in 2004 for the memorial's dedication, and I know it was a highlight of the last few years for him. The memorial is absolutely gorgeous, and I think it would be my favorite even if I didn't have two grandfathers who served in the war. But especially because of that.


But the real flyover excitement of the day came when we were just in front of the White House and President Obama's helicopter (and entourage -- not sure what else to call it; what's the air equivalent of a motorcade?) flew overhead to drop him off. They landed right on the lawn of the White House and we had a great view, as you can see. Talk about being in exactly the right place on our walk, at the right time! Tons of people were yelling and cheering and running that way, it was crazy! And Nathan was just absolutely in his happy place. Choppers circling around, coming and going. It was kind of a spectacle, I'll be honest. But it was really neat and I'm glad we got to see it.


After another picnic lunch on the mall (can't seem to get enough of those -- I think if I lived here I would do it every weekend!), and some running around, and yes, even more photo attempts distracted by airplanes, we're now back at the hotel for one last DC afternoon nap. Nathan was a little fussy this morning (despite all the planes! I think he was just up too late last night) so I'm hoping this will be another long one. Mark, of course, is napping too.

Assuming they wake up in time, we're going with a friend to church in downtown DC, and then dinner afterwards. Which should be a very pleasant way to spend our last night here!

Washington, Part 2

Time for another naptime update. :)

Last night, after an incredibly long nap by Mark and Nathan, we had a superb dinner at The Boulevard Woodgrill here in Arlington. They had patio seating, so it was a rare opportunity for Mark and me to have a nice-ish dinner with Nathan in tow, without worrying too much about him disturbing other diners. And it was really good!

After dinner we went down to Arlington Cemetery, which is just a few blocks from our hotel. We didn't really go in to the memorial grounds (they were about to close for the night anyway), since we mostly wanted to explore the Iwo Jima monument (officially called the Marine Corps Memorial) just outside the gates. My Grandpa B was a marine, and he served there in the Pacific during WWII. So the Iwo Jima monument is always especially poignant for our family. Nathan and I took a picture to send to my Grandpa so we can tell him how proud we are of his service.

Then this morning we went to the Air and Space Museum -- one
of my DC favorites. Considering Nathan spent almost an hour this morning (while Mark and I dozed as much as possible though his chatter) standing in his crib commenting on every plane that flew by (our hotel is just a few miles from Reagan Nat'l) -- it's an airplane! it's another one! where'd it go? it's right there! oooooh it's another one! it's a big one! -- we weren't sure if he would be up for even more. I mean, why go to a museum about airplanes when you can just book a hotel near an airport, right?

Well, he loved all the airplanes at the museum. Of course. He actually had a bit of trouble walking in a straight line, since he was staring up at all the airplanes suspended from the ceiling! (Speaking of which, am I the only one who gets nervous in that building?) He was looking everywhere but where he was going, and as a result he sort of spun around and circles. I think the whole effect was quite dizzying for him -- literally! We saw big airplanes and little airplanes and rocket airplanes and tractor airplanes (that's what he calld the lunar module -- how appropriate we're here on the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing!) and brown airplanes and silver airplanes and he even got to touch some airplanes. Wow!

I know I have said this before, but there are few better sights in the world than your child's face shining with joy. Even if it was brought on by airplanes instead of snuggles. I'll take the grins however I can get them. :)

After the museum we had lunch with an old friend (from elementary school!) who now lives in DC. Mark and I hadn't seen her in at least ten years (the three of us also went to high school together), so it really was a blast from the past. In a very neither-one-of-us-seems-to-have-changed-all-that-much kind of way. Our personalities still seem, in some ways, exactly like they were in second grade. Funny how those things happen. Anyway we met Terri (and her hubby! she's a newlywed) for lunch at the Old Ebbitt Grill, kind of a Washington staple and one of Mark's favorites. The food was good, the company was good, and it has been a very pleasant day so far.

Nathan, Mark, Terri and me

We're planning on a low-key evening, maybe a visit to one of the farther-flung memorials and a place to let Nathan run around a bit, since hasn't had very much roaming time today. More pics and updates still to come!