Spring Break!

Warning- LONG, with a slideshow to come.

Adventure #6: East Coast- Take 2 (March 12-20)
With Chad and I both being teachers, we are blessed with quite a bit of vacation time. Given that we don't have any children yet, we are even more blessed to be able to travel relatively hassle-free, very often. Our Spring Break was spent in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC. I had been there twice (when I was 17 and again when I was 21- hmm- I just realized that I've been every four years since I was 17, weird) but Chad had never been. We both really enjoy U.S. History, so were STOKED to go! We were able to stay with Aaron and his family. We had never met little Trevor yet, so we were really hapy to get to meet him and to play with the other kiddos again. It was nice to be able to play with the niece and nephews that live so far away!
We left on Thursday right after school and drove to SLC to catch a "shuteye" (they don't call them red-eyes on JetBlue) to NYC. The flight was fine, other than my lack of sleep, even with NyQuil...We arrived in NYC at 5:20 a.m. and found a place to curl up and sleep on the floor since we had a 4-hour layover. We slept pretty well, got breakfast, and boarded our flight to DC. Jen picked us up at the airport and we spent the rest of Friday playing with the kiddos, sleeping, playing, eating, etc.
Saturday Aaron took us to his office to show us the view. Um- UNBELIVABLE! We could see the whole of DC as well as the Iwo Jima memorial from his office! Totally surreal for us! We took his car while he studied and drove into DC to check out the National Mall. It was rainy, but there were NO crowds, and the monuments in the rain are a completely different experience from anything I'd ever experienced. There is an incredible amount of pride and respect as we walked to each of the monuments. I was incredibly emotional at the Lincoln Memorial for so many reasons. I stood and silently weeped. I was pondering the incredible strength of Lincoln, Dr. King, Jefferson, and all the people who stood for civil rights when it was dangerous for them to do so. I was also thinking of Mandi and her family- the adoption of their sons was on my mind and how impossible it would have been without the courage of great men and women. We were also able to see the rest of the monuments on the Mall. It was really fun for me to watch Chad have this experience for the first time! He was so giddy about everything! It was fantastic!
Sunday we went to church with Aaron and Jen. Let me just say this- his ward is a perfect example of what an LDS ward should be. We love our ward in Hurricane- it's the best ward we've ever been in, but his ward made us jealous. It would be reason enough for us to move out there if we could have a ward like his! WE got to play more with the kids. Kevin LOVED Uncle Chad- always wanted to to be held my him, no matter what. It was so great!
Monday we headed out early to take a tour of the Pentagon (which was much loser to DC that I thought it was for some reason- I hear that it's in VA and I think, "Oh, so its a little ways away." Nope, just on the other sie of the airport...) It was not as awesome as we thought it would be, but given that you can't just walk in- you have to have background check and set up a time through your congressman to do it, it was well worth it. It was an incredible building and we were able to visit the 9/11 memorial inside the building. We headed over to George Washington Univeristy and ate breakfast over there then headed over to Chinatown and the International Spy Museum. It was pretty sweet! I love museums, but they are so hard to do. Give me 10 miles of monuments and I'll walk it- up and down hills, stairs, etc, but 3 hours of marble and concrete floors is so hard on my back and hips- it's insane! We hit up an awesome Chinese restaurant afterward- complete with real (dead and skinned) hanging ducks at the front of the restaurant. It was fantastic food (a VERY close second to the chinese food we had in Heber City last spring break) We then walked down to the White House, stopped at Ford's Theare and Hard rock on the way. After the White House (we only looked- unfortunately- no tour:() we walked over to the Jefferson Memorial. At this point, we were exhausted! We sat for a little while and took in the sights, and then headed back to catch the Metro home. This was our longest day. We saw and did so much- it was absolutely incredible! We were very grateful to Aaron and Jen for letting us use their Metro Cards and for the Metro at all. We wouldn't have been able to do half as much without it! To give you an idea of time frames- we had our Pentagon tour at 9:00, were done around 10:00, got to GWU around 10:15, over to the Spy Museum around 11:30, ate Chinese at 3:00, got home around 8:00.
Tuesday was another early day, unfortunately, not early enough. We missed our 9:00 tour at the Capitol, but were able to hit the 1:00 tour with the Intern at Matheson's office. So we headed over to the National Aquarium in the mean time. It wasn't very impressive, but when you live on the west coast, it's hard to beat what you've alredy got... We also went to the White House Visitor Center (while we were there Mandi texted me to tell me that the adoption was official- I totally started BAWLING then and there- Chad looked at me and got all worried- but then I let him know and he started laughing at me...I'm such a nerd). It was really interesting to see the original maps of DC- the Potomac River came all the way up to where the Washington Monument is today. Interesting, huh? Then we went over to the Capitol which was amazing! We took underground tunnels from the Congress Buildings to the Capitol. There was a video we watched that EVERY Middle School U.S. History student should watch- I'm going to look into getting it for my school. We were able to see a lot of the Capitol. Funny story- while we were there, we saw police posted like every 6-10 feet. Didn't think anything of it, since we had never been there. One of the rooms that we saw had been closed because of a luncheon and the Rotunda had been as well. We would get hurried along if we stopped to look at anything, so at first it was kind of rushed. Eventually we got to see everything (including the statue of good ol' Brigham Young) and went on our merry way. Come to find out the next day...Obama was in the luncheon at the Capitol, so the diverted tours for a few hours. Unbeliveable... We took pics outside of the Capitol, Library of Congress, and Supreme Court. We then walked over to Untion Station, ate dinner, walked around for a while and caught the metro home. Another memorable day.
Wednesday was a little more chill. We didn't have any early morning tours, and the weather was finally going to be sunny and warm, so we headed to the National Zoo with Jen, Karissa, and the kids! What a great Zoo! We saw pandas! Pandas! It was great! We spent 4 hours at the zoo and headed over to the National Archives. Um- wow, there is a reverence there that is amazing. It was incredible to see the documents that shape our country. We had heard of a great place to eat called Old Ebbit's Grill from some of the locals and wanted to go, so we went. It's a VERY popular place, with good reason. It's been around since 1856 and was popular with a lot of the presidents and still is with quite a few senators and congressmen. We had an hour and a bit wait for the two of us. In face we had enough time to go over to walk two blocks Macys, look around for a bit (and so I could pee) and get back in time to wait for a while longer. It was well worth the wait! The atmosphere was unique and the food was amazing! And the funniest thing about it was that our food cost the same amount there as it did at Union Station. I'd take Ebbit's any day! Aaron picked us up from there and took us over to the FDR memorial. Again, one of the presidents I've always had great respect for. It was very different at night than during the day, but we really enjoyed it there!
Thursday was our last day and we were EXHAUSTED at this point. We hadn't hit any Smithsonian Museums, so we Went to the National Air and Space Museum and the American History Museum. We had a great time at both, but by closing time, we were done. 8 hours of marble floors had taken it's toll. We took the Metro home and played with the kids for the rest of the night.
Friday was a travel day. We had such a great time while we were there. It was hard to go home, but exciting as well. We loved waking up to the cute Christopher and Emma voices every morning (spoken as a person without kids)! Even though we did so many amazing things we felt like we didn't do as much as we would have liked. Next time- National Cathedral, Masonic Temple in Alexandria, National Harbor (more than a drive through it), more Smithsonian Museums, King's Street in Old Town Alexandria, and much more...