Travling Trio in D.C.

OMG. Look at the traffic we sat in on our way to Washington D.C.

This is in New Jersey. It took us an hour extra to get to D.C. Then, when we finally got to the area of D.C., it took us forever to find the hotel because it was on the corner of an unusual round-a-bout and we kept turning down the wrong street! But we finally made it. The bell hop was great. We were exhausted so he took all of our things to our room and we gave him a cookie =)
We actually slept in Thursday morning. It was nice. Aubry did a 6 hour stretch of sleep so we took advantage of it!

(By the way, she is still doing EXCELLENT! It does seem like she's been sleeping a lot, but when she is awake, she is SO alert. She wants to look at everything going on around her. She also has started talking! She makes these little "oo" sounds and sometimes it even sounds like she makes a little laugh. We imitate her to see if she'll talk back and sometimes she actually does!!! She is also getting big. She still fits in all her clothes, but you can just tell by looking at her that she is growing. Everyone that she's been around has said what a good baby she is. She really has been great - we are very greatful!!!)

Ok- back to Thursday. We noticed that the same Old Time Trolley company was in D.C. as well, so we went for it, since we enjoyed the one in Boston so much. While on the trolley, it started POURING. Thank goodness for the trolley! We saw lots of sites of Northwest D.C., by Georgetown, then transfered trolleys so that we could see the government buildings and memorials. The rain let up just as we needed to transfer. Phew! But then it started POURING again! We decided to for-go getting off at any stops, and just see where everything was and hear about it. Just as the tour was ending, the rain stopped and sun came out, so we got out near the White House. That's exactly what we saw - it was a large white house. We were going to have dinner with Barack, but he was in Chicago! So we got back on the trolley so we could get off close to our hotel instead of walking. Once we got back to the hotel we got the truck and headed to the Washington National Park to see a baseball game. We brought our rain jackets just in case... and we needed them! The park was really nice. We had 3rd row seats on the 3rd base side, but in the outfield. We sat there until the 3rd inning because it started POURING. My mommy sense kicked it and we made our way to covered land just before the rain came. We waited the hour rain delay by finding seats in the last row. Aubry traveled to the game in the baby bjorn and seemed to enjoy facing out so she could see everything going on. She even took a little nap in it! The game started again, but we opted to go get our picture taken and get ice cream. By the time we were headed back to our seats, it was POURING again. So we decided to make a break for the car. Bryan bundled Aubry in his jacket and we headed to the car. She did not like that at all, so screamed all the way to the car. You'll see in the picture that her mouth is wide open from screaming. Poor thing. It took a bottle to calm her down, but minutes after the bottle she was talking up a storm. We made it to the hotel and got to sleep in again Friday morning.

We enjoyed our lazy morning and didn't leave the hotel unitl noon. We walked to the Old Town Trolley Welcome Center, about a mile and a 1/2, where we found that our tickets from Thursday were not dated so we reused them on Friday. On our walk there we saw lots of streets blocked off and the Secret Service scattered throughout the City. Not only was Obama coming home, the Iran Prime Minister was in town. This caused a lot of road blocks for Motorcades, causing headaches for traffic and the Old Town Trolley. We were detoured a couple of times, but finally made it to the Lincoln Memorial, where we got off to see Abe. As we where boarding the trolley after seeing Abe, another tour bus clipped the rear end of the trolley while making a turn. This created a small delay, as our trolley driver had to get out and photograph the damage for records. Luckily no one was injured. As we were attempting to finally pull away, another tour bus almost backed right into us!! This caused our already fired up trolley driver to have a few choice words with the other driver. She said "Where did you learn to drive?" He was quick to reply "I learned to drive at your mother's house." It was hilarious - a bus driver using a "momma" joke! It was good to get away from that busy area before we got clipped again. We got off again near the Smithsoniam Museums and walked around the Air and Space Museum. After we left the Museum we walked to the Old Post Office, about a mile away. At the top of the tower of the Old Post Office we were able to get a 360 degree view of the City, 12 stories high, without waiting in the line like we would have had to do at the Washington Monument. We got this tip from one of our trolley drivers. By now it was 6 o'clock and we were exhausted from so much walking in the hot humid air, but we still had another mile or so walk back to our hotel, where we ordered Papa Johns for dinner. We slept good that night.

Saturday morning we woke up, with the plan to go to the National Zoo, but we just weren't up for it so we loaded the truck and headed west. Margo told us it would take 11 hours to drive home. With a few stops along the way, including Smokey Bones for dinner (yum yum ribs & cornbread!), we made it home in 14 hours. We were sad that our vacation was ending but it was good to be home. Boy do we have laundry to do!