Mom and Kids Take D.C.

This first picture was really from our first day in D.C. It is the Korean War Memorial. This picture doesn't do it justice, but these people's pics. are etched into the granite. It was fascinating. (Ch said it would have been done by machine, not by hand, but I still found it amazingly artistic.)

Below are some samples of what we saw and did in Washington D.C. the day we went in to sight-see on our own without hubby/dad, since he was meeting customers:

Riding the Metro Line. (The hotel we stayed in ran a shuttle to the Metro Station.) It's an above-ground train until you reach the city, and then it becomes a subway. It was a little daunting for me to get us on for the first time, but once on, they had fun! Of course, coming back that evening, we had to stand up in the aisles because it was crowded with people getting off work and heading for home.

Here's the subway itself!


The kids remembered Amelia Earhart. This was one of her planes.

We spent a lot of time in the Air and Space Museum. This is only a smathering of what we saw. The boys really ate it up. The only "attraction" we paid money for, was the IMAX movie we saw titled "To Fly". The movie is on it's 25th year, but still totally amazing.

We recently read about the Bleriot XI, and here is a replica of it. It's so much fun to run into things we've learned about. It's especially neat for me to see the kids connect things to the "building blocks" we have laid via our studies.

After the Air and Space Museum, we went next door to the Native American Indian Museum. There was a lot of interesting things to look at that I cannot believe I didn't get pictures of! (I kick myself for not taking more pictures. I do that a lot.) For instance, we spent a lot of time looking at native costumes, guns, tomahawks, arts and crafts, hand made dolls, beading, peace treaty medals, and how to make buck skin for clothing. All were totally amazing.


The kids and I recently read a book about the Blackfeet Indians, so we were excited to find this display. (RSH recommended it to us, so she and her family will enjoy these pics too.)





Excuse my obvious fascination with the flowers we saw around town. I couldn't quit snapping pictures of them, they were so beautiful. I love tulips and pansies anyway.




This wall hanging "quilt" puts mine to shame. It was made in Peru.


A boat made of reeds. (Sorry I can't remember more details like tribe and area.)

Outside the Smithsonian Native American Museum.

Second Honeymoon?

Oops! I forgot to tell you something. The hotels were all booked solid and it was very difficult for us to find rooms to stay in the entire time. Last night was a surprise gift, though.

Because we just celebrated our 14 year wedding anniversary, Ch and I have been joking about how this trip would be our "second honeymoon" even though we were bringing the kids with us. Our real honeymoon consisted of 2 nights at a budget hotel near a local Florida theme park, and one day at the theme park. We were going to ride all the roller coasters the second day at the park, but then we went home a day early because we were in the middle of building our first home and it was expected to "close" at any time and we couldn't miss that! Our honeymoon was on a very tight budget because we had already paid for our wedding and were scraping together our pennies for the down payment on our home, and well, a fancy honeymoon was out of the question. You get the picture. It wouldn't take much to improve upon it if there were a second go-around....

Back to the surprise gift part: we ended up staying in the honeymoon suite last night! It was absolutely their last room, because of 6 buses that came through last night (yep, all headed to N.Y. to see the Pope). We got the room for a steal! We all took turns in the fancy jacuzzi tub and 8 spray head shower. And the KING-size bed was very comfortable. How's that for a second honeymoon?

And while I'm at it, I must say something about the kids' behavior on this trip. They were absolutely fabulous. They walked, and walked, and walked some more! I know B's little legs were sore but she didn't complain or ask me to carry her. I know my legs were sore! The kids didn't argue or fight (more than a few minutes.....). They didn't complain about the difficulty finding food we could eat because of our dietary challenges. They didn't grumble about the long periods of waiting the last 3 days because of their dad's business dealings. Shoot, they didn't even complain about the long hours of driving. Counting my blessings, I'm feeling pretty blessed right now. What more could a mother want?

And I am sending out a great big "thank you" to a friend of mine for suggesting I try using 5HTP with C. It's made a huge difference for him. Thanks again, Kiwi!

Coming Home is Not as Much Fun as Driving Up

Phew! The driving up North seemed like a whole lot more fun than it has been driving back South again. For one thing, the driving was split between 2 days and not done in one shot like we're doing now. Next, we are frustrated and disappointed right now, but more on that later. Third, we didn't have numerous delays or any break-downs. I'll elaborate further:

We had expected to spend at least another day in D.C. than we did. Little did we know that the Pope would be visiting D.C. at the exact time we were. It caused for some added traffic and city chaos. That was fine, since we (the kids and I) were using the Metro subway system to get around, and we simply avoided the crowded areas. But when we scooted out of D.C. to head North, the Pope followed us up there. (Just kidding. I know he had his own agenda, but it sounded good, right?) Well, I'm getting ahead of myself.

We went to N.J. to meet with a potential client. He wanted to see us, and we had an appointment set with him verbally via the telephone. We got up there and had to kill time the rest of the day (Wed.), waiting for the apt. on Thurs., at which time he was too busy to see hubby right then. So we waited around, and waited around some more. We literally walked the local mall ALL day, thinking this guy would call us back, since that's what he said. We're pretty honest people, and maybe a little gullible too, that people will tell you the way it is, and not what you want to hear. Because he kept saying he wanted to see Ch, we spent the night again, only to call him this morning, and he couldn't see us (with no explanation as to why not). What's most upsetting is that he knows we drove a long way just to see him. Second on the list of upsetting was the 2 entire days wasted twiddling our thumbs while we could have been sight-seeing, but oh, well.

So now, it's Friday, and time to come home. We were "SO close, so close and yet so far...." (can you hear the music?) to the Statue of Liberty, but found out the Pope had made his way up to New York City. The news stations were all talking about how the entire city would be in absolute grid-lock from extra traffic. People all over the city were taking a sick day to avoid the traffic. (People in D.C. did the same.) That's when Ch made the decision to skip New York entirely and just head home. It was probably a good idea anyway. He's pretty let-down right now because of the waste of time and money with the trip extension for nothing. But driving home today has not been easy. We had to drive back through D.C. and the traffic was pretty bad because everybody is leaving that was there to see the Pope in the first place. Traffic was at a stand-still everywhere we turned. Oh, well. No harm in taking a little extra time getting home. We'd get home sooner or later, right? Until "Blam!!!"

That's when we got a flat tire on our rental van. Luckily, we were pretty near an exit, and hobbled in to a truck stop. Yep, total flat. The closest tire-fix-it-place was 14 miles away. Lucky for me, hubby is handy. (Not a day goes by that I don't thank God for sending me a handy-man for a husband.) The kids helped too. The boys held tools and managed the air hose and water hose to check for leaks. B saved the day by providing soap to check for residual leaks. She had saved a sample of shampoo from our last motel. What did I do? Cheer lead, pick up trash, and document the whole thing. We had to go to 3 truck stops to get the stuff to fix the flat. But it's fixed, and we continue to drive. Thank you, Jesus! We're safe and sound, and "on the road again". (Again, I wish I could put musical notes in the text. It would help support the "mood".)
So, all in all, it was an interesting trip. Hubby ended up with a productive first half of a business trip. The kids and I ended up with 1 1/2 days of sight-seeing, and we saw a LOT in that day and a half! And we all got a lot of family together time. That in itself is priceless in today's busy world. And yes, I know we all got to work on building up our patience levels and flexibility requirements when plans go awry. I do not regret this trip in the least. I'm just trying not to focus on the "could-have-beens" and the "what-ifs".

Little Change of Plan--off to N.J.

We thought we would be in Washington D.C. for another day or two, but we're off and driving again. We ended up with 1 1/2 days sightseeing D.C. (another post with D.C. pictures to follow). This time we are traveling to Northeastern New Jersey. We're driving through Baltimore, Maryland right now. The kids were quite excited to drive through a pretty long tunnel, especially to know it was taking us under water. Ch says we'll be driving over a bridge that is quite elevated. All in all, the kids will be adding several states to their list of states traveled through. It's exciting because we have not done much traveling during their lives. Next up is Delaware.

For all you baseball fans, Ch went last night to a baseball game in Baltimore. It was all business, of course. Ch didn't even watch the game since he was mingling with hopefully future clients. He saw the Baltimore Orioles play the Toronto Bluejays. He did catch the game results though, and the Bluejays won by a lot, but he didn't catch the score.

It is early spring here. Some of the trees have some bright green growth. Others just have a very faint tinge of green on the tips of the branches. And some of the trees almost look like fall because their new leaf buds are an orange-red color. Is that a certain kind of tree, like maple, with their helicopter seed-pods? It was cooler the last 2 days, but seems to be warming up a little now.

Oh, we are going to try and scoot over to New York City to see the Statue of Liberty and Ground Zero before coming home. I'll write more later!

Highlights of First Day in D.C.

We really covered a lot of ground our first day in D.C. We drove around and around, trying to find our way through the one-way roads, navigating an unknown city. The traffic really wasn't that bad, we just didn't know where we were going! (I am not the greatest with navigating maps, and hubby is not the greatest at following my directives.) These pictures represent about 3 different car stops, with us walking a LOT to see the things we saw.

The Lincoln Memorial. What a day to see it, on the anniversary of his murderous death.

There are lots of flowers and trees in bloom, though we missed the peak of the cherry blossoms.

In the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum

This model of an aircraft carrier took 12000 hours over 12 yrs. to build.

We drove by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.

We actually stood right in front of the White House, and skipped our close-up picture opportunity because we needed a bathroom break in a major way! (Well, after driving around for over an hour looking for parking, anywhere near a landmark of any sort, what could be expected?) When we came back, the area in front of the White House was closed off to foot traffic. We had to walk, taking the long way around to our car. We almost got a ticket because our parking meter had run out.

The Capitol Building. (We got closer later on.)

The Washington Memorial Monument.

I don't know what this giant #1 in red tulips is for, but it was sure pretty.

And for all you letter boxing fans, have you heard of the National Parks Service Passport program? You start with a nice inexpensive passport book, and stamp it at several different NPS locations across the country. We got 7 stamps yesterday to start our collection! I think there are about 20 different stamps for the D.C. (Capitol) region. It's pretty fun.

Driving, Update, and More

We stopped Sun. night and got a hotel in Virginia, north of Richmond. But let me just back up a bit and offer a little bit of advice. Ch and the kids had fun playing "I Spy" with all the "South of the Border" billboard signs they saw along the way. I kept myself busy playing the referee. Boy, were there a lot of them! It was a nice game to keep them busy for quite a while, which definitely helped to take the edge off their boredom. Turns out, this place, South of the Border, must be nothing more than an old, washed-up tourist attraction. It must have been a big hit back in the day, though. I wonder how many years ago that was? Well, when we got to "South of the Border", we pulled into a little Mexican Restaurant for supper. The food was totally NASTY. We ate it because there wasn't anywhere else to eat, and given our food difficulties, we really had no choice. But it really burned me up when we ate at Chevy's Mexican Restaurant the next evening, and food that was 10 times better, actually only cost $1.00 more. A great lesson explaining supply and demand. Your official advice: Count all the South of the Border billboard signs you want, but DON'T, under any circumstances, stop there!

Truly, though, on Monday night, Chevy's had a wonderful gluten-free menu, and the manager really went all-out exploring our dietary challenges, and finding something we could eat. It was delightful to get a little TLC from a restaurant staff that cared a little bit about their customers. We may just go back again while we're here!


The kids were pleasantly surprised to find out about the free face painting on Monday nights. We couldn't have planned it better! Our table was near the face painting, and B lost no time in jumping up in the lady's chair to have her face done when she saw the chair was empty. She's really coming out of her shyness. It's so cute. Man, she's growing up fast! And once the boys saw their little sister getting her face done, they couldn't resist. Here are the results. Luckily, the stuff washed right off, so we didn't have to walk around D.C. the next day with smudgy face paint all over their faces! (More advice: the face painting-lady warned against green paint. I guess it stains pretty bad. I wonder if that's all face paint brands, or just what she was using?)

Driving....

We are on our way to Washington D.C. We are literally driving as I type this blog post. I think it is the coolest thing to be plugged in to the computer, online, and driving (well, I'm not driving, but riding!) at the same time. Some of you may have been doing it for a while now, but I'm a little later getting into the techno scene. Our home internet is portable, so it's easy to bring with us. Hooray for modern technology!

We left a little later than we meant to, but Ch had a race last night so he wasn't in any hurry to get going early this morning.

So, I'll try and send some pictures of what we're visiting once we get up there and see something neat to share. We might even run into some snow somewhere up there. I think it's supposed to get colder in the next couple days, even here in FL.

Ta-ta for now!

In Search of Fall Foliage

Living where we do, there aren't many opportunities for appreciating the autumn colors. So we headed to Georgia to find some! The locals in North Georgia claim the colors are not as vibrant this year for some reason; maybe it's the drought they've been enduring the past 2years, or that the temperatures didn't chill soon enough, or both. But the colors were still pretty to us. We spent much of our time in Georgia driving through the mountains, in active pursuit of the reddest and the orangest leaves we could find.The kids were surprised to see different colored leaves. Now they are bugging us to take them to see snow this winter, as they haven't witnessed it before either!

We had so much fun on our mini-vacation, but we actually came back home a whole day early on accident! Hubby blames me, and I guess it was mainly my fault. Somehow I just got the dates mixed up in my head. I must confess, I was a little worried that we would miss our field trip to the local TV station! (More on that later.)

While in Georgia, we visited a family's personal model train collection. They boast the largest "O-guage" model train setup in the country. It was absolutely fabulous, and the details were outstanding. They had replicas of several local towns, as well as some national landmarks. Here is a picture of the town of Blairsville, GA, with the tower of Brasstown Bald in the background. After the train museum, we drove up to Brasstown Bald to see it for ourselves. It is the highest elevation point in Georgia.