It started at 5 am. Sunday morning. Once loaded into the car, and then a short drive back to get a forgotten cell phone, we were off.
The Mirci boys surprisingly enjoyed the 5+ hr. (traffic ugh...) drive to Our nations capitol. Thanks to modern technology, and a new Little Einsteins DVD. Mom enjoyed a few naps, and the beautiful farms along the way in to Pennsylvania. It was a rainy day, but the big silos still shined through.
Oh, and then the water. Despite the rain, the fountain was a hit. Dax found many puddles to splash around in.
I have no idea what this was.
So the story about the hotel was that when we checked in I noticed that there was a burn hole in one of the bed spreads. I, being a mom of 2 active boys thought to myself, that has to go, or fingers will rip it to shreds. We took the spread off the bed and were going to tell housekeeping that night...but forgot. The next morning when housekeeping came to clean for the day, I proceeded to tell the maid, who spoke basically no English, that there was a hole in the bedspread and it needed to be replaced. I had forgotten to tell them yesterday. Then the phone rings. I answer, and it was the front desk telling me they had a report of me telling the maid that WE accidentally burned a hole in the bed with a cigarette! Whoa. Wait a minute. They thought We did it? So I spoke to the supervisor and told them the story, not to mention it didn't even remotely smell of smoke in the room . He also spoke practically no English. He told me the Manager inspects each room after cleaning, and our comforter was fine then. So he suggested maybe I had burned it with an iron. What ? Iron the comforter? Why would I do that? ( It never even crossed my mind that a prior guest may have.) There was even an ironing board in the closet. So next I was speaking with the manager, who spoke OK English, and then it hit me! I had for some reason taken a picture of the hole when we arrived! I don't know why, I just did. Proof right there on my camera. Time and Date stamp and all! I busted it out, and suddenly she spoke English, and had apologised for the misunderstanding. They never did bring a new cover. Probably had no extras. Maybe that's why they tried to pin it on me in the first place. Lesson learned here, always take pictures of your hotel room when you check in! Especially in D.C.
My personal favorite place was the Smithsonian. Here you see my new necklace, The Hope Diamond. You think your last purchase was over packaged, I'm still figuring out how to get this out of the store!
Joey loved the bat fossils. We also ran into uncle Mikie in the mammals exhibit.
The next day we took a tour of the Library of Congress. It was beautiful. When it was built they really went all out, just to show off how awesome the U.S. was. They made sure to include fancy stuff like marble sculptures, gold leafing, and the works of famous artists.
Joey noticed off first hand what the painting on the left was missing. Then he was fascinated with the "real gold" on the building. And he thought this was a golden sun. He just had to touch it. It was amazing to him.
Dax got bored real fast. Luckily there were these computer versions of the Gutenberg Bible for him to mess around with while we looked at one of the the original. Lola was a little angel!
Next we visited the Korean and Vietnam War Memorials.
Here we are with our friends the Tillmanns (whom we had met up with earlier on in the vacation) in front of the Washington Monument. Lola again an angel.
Dax, Joey and Lucy (Tillmann) enjoyed Dancing at the Lincoln Memorial.
In front of the famous marble sculpture.
We then met for dinner at a yummy buffalo joint.
Lucy and Joey were hard at work coloring, and enjoying their incredibly good Mac & Cheese.
After dinner Joey decided to entertain the city....
Go Joey!
Mom and the kids in front of the Department of Treasury, and The White House.
