It was awesome. We got to DC around lunchtime on Monday. We got a little lost trying to find the Metro station (Shady Grove) from the hotel, but eventually found it and went on our way. Once we got on the train and traveled a while, we got to Metro Center where we met up with Tiffany and her friend, Jessica, and both of their kids, bringing the total number of kids up to 8. We searched around for a place to eat lunch and settled on a McDonald's. We ate lunch and then headed to the Jefferson Memorial. We walked around for a while and I convinced Jennifer that there is a sea monster that lives in the Potomac. I convinced her that the boats out on the water were disappearing (they were docking) and that she shouldn't get too close because the monster would eat her. It worked, and we had no problems with that.
The Jefferson Memorial (and a brief trip to one of the sculpture gardens) took up most of our evening, and we decided to go for dinner. I was terrified of Chinatown when I went a few years ago and swore that I would never go at dark. But since it wasn't dark, I was good, and we decided to scavenge for Chinese food. After taking a wrong turn that made us circle the WHOLE block, we ended up finding a little hole in the wall Chinese restaurant, in which we were the only non-Chinese customers. We figured this meant that the food HAD to be good. We looked at the menu and were...umm....interested? For an appetizer you could have cold sliced jellyfish, if you were so inclined. For your entree, you could have intestinal stir fry, snail stir fry, or pork loin with jellyfish. In the words of Rachel Ray, Yum-O. We ended up getting the traditional cashew chicken, sweet and sour chicken, wonton soup, egg rolls, and Dawn got some weird tofu stuff that everyone except for her and Tonya refused to try. The first thing we actually noticed at this restaurant was that they gave you no silverware. Just chopsticks. When we asked the waitress for a fork, we quickly realized that she didn't speak English when she brought us napkins. 
The bathroom was just a disaster, too. Tonya had to go to the potty, and when she washed her hands, or rather, when she put soap on them, we tried to turn BOTH faucets, and no water came out. Beautiful. But the food WAS good. Even if the experience wasn't the greatest.
The next day we tried to get out the door by 9 so that we could catch the shuttle to the Metro. This did not happen. Unfortunately. But we got into DC at around 10 and we went exploring. We walked. A lot. We walked up to the Washington Monument. And to the WW2 Memorial. And Jennifer was dying to see the reflecting pool. And we saw the Lincoln Memorial. And the Korean Wall. But not the Vietnam Wall. It was like 1 at this point and we needed to stop for snacks or something because we were dying.
We made our way back to the national mall and went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The love of my life, Smithsonian Museum of American History (which has Judy Garland's red shoes!) has been closed for 2 years now for renovations. They open again this fall.But all of the kids found out that there was an Easter Island statue at the museum and for those of you who have seen Night In The Museum, they HAD to see Dum-Dum.
He was quite disappointed that we brought him no gum-gum.
When we were done at the museum, we headed to Union Station, which I less than three, for Lunner. It was 3, and since Brunch is in between breakfast and lunch, Lunner is lunch and dinner. I got a burger, Dawn got a gyro, and the kids got pizza. And then, dessert was wonderful.
After all of this, all 4 kids were exhausted and I had a cramp in my TOE. It was about 4 or 5 when we left, and we made the trip back to Shady Grove.
He was quite disappointed that we brought him no gum-gum.When we were done at the museum, we headed to Union Station, which I less than three, for Lunner. It was 3, and since Brunch is in between breakfast and lunch, Lunner is lunch and dinner. I got a burger, Dawn got a gyro, and the kids got pizza. And then, dessert was wonderful.
After all of this, all 4 kids were exhausted and I had a cramp in my TOE. It was about 4 or 5 when we left, and we made the trip back to Shady Grove.And when we got done, we all were sore. And whiny.
And then went to Tiffany's for dinner. We had a great time. Jennifer and Chanel hit it off especially well.
We got back to the hotel at about 9 or 10 and crashed, and started home at 10 or 11 the next morning. It was great fun. Because even with that, we still got home at 1 AM Thursday. This had something to do with the stop at the Gettysburg Outlet Mall, and the potty breaks, and everything else. But the ride was still long. And I discovered that I hate the Doodlebops, which I was subjected to mercilessly. No human should have to deal with that.
No comments:
Post a Comment