During our month back in MS we decided to take a trip up to Washington DC to visit 2 sets of friends from Tucson who now live up there. It was a great opportunity as I had never been to DC and we hadn’t seen some of our best friends in quite a while. We somewhat split the trip between the Bigelows and the Grimes.
It was our first time flying with Clara and we were a bit nervous, but luckily we had direct flights both ways and Clara did well. Only a little bit of crying, not too bad overall. We arrived to DC and met Mary at the airport and headed out to Annapolis. We had a great time getting to catch up with Beau and Mary: getting to see the upgrades to their house, seeing Beau’s massive board game collection and enjoying a karate comic book game for Xbox Kinect (sounds ridiculous but was pretty awesome, Clara even got in the mix). We also got to go downtown for “Midnight Madness” which is an event where the shops stay open late and have free giveaways and deals. It was freezing, but we had a great time exploring the beautiful downtown Annapolis (Mary was a great tour guide).
On Saturday we all drove into DC to meet with Natalie and Liam. We met on the National Mall and strolled past the Washington Monument to the Smithsonians. There were so many I wanted to attend but we had to narrow it down to just a few. We went to the American History museum first. The transportation exhibit was great, but the best part by far was the display of the Star Spangled Banner, the actual flag about which the song was written. While not necessarily the most “flag-waving” American out there, the scale of the flag alone was awe inspiring, not to mention all the history wrapped up into it. Clara did extremely well during all of this. She ate wherever we were, whether it be the cafeteria of the Smithsonian or the burger place we went for lunch. She spent most of the remaining time looking something like this:
After lunch we strolled around DC to a farmer’s market and through some old neighborhoods with some great architecture. It reminded me of how much better the houses are in the east. AZ just has too many cookie cutter neighborhoods. That evening Beau and Mary had to return for a church function so Natalie, Liam, Beth, Clara and I continued our tour of the monuments with the WWII, Korean, and Vietnam war memorials as well as the Lincoln monument. Normally cynical about these type of things, it was somewhat surprising to me how much I enjoyed it. The artistic elements and historical depictions and reflections were a real pleasure.
The next morning we took the Metro down to Alexandria to see where Liam and Natalie live. Old town Alexandria was a charming place with quaint streets lined with shops and restaurants and we were able to visit a small French creperie (where Beth got what she claimed was one of her favorite meals of all time). We also strolled the waterfront which offered a cool view of downtown DC.
We then headed back to their house for dinner which was great. It was fun to see their place and catch up on life as well as for them to get to meet Clara and see her do something other than sleep. Not that I am complaining, but her 8 hour nap pictured above in the streets of Alexandria just isn’t her modus operandi.
Our last day in town was Monday so Beau and Liam had to work. Luckily Mary and Natalie were available to come meet us back in DC and explore the museums a bit more. We had saved the Natural History Museum for last as it was the one I looked forward to most (mostly because of the dinosaur exhibit). I remember as a kid always wanting to get to see the giant T-rex but most of all, my personal favorite, Allosaurus. Beth and I had also promised our nephew Owen (who now has a similar fascination with dinosaurs) that we would take a picture with the T-Rex for him. I also snapped a quick picture of all the girls with the Brontosaurus.
After the museum we headed over to Georgetown to explore and go to a cupcake place that Mary raved about. It was called Georgetown Cupcakes and apparently is the subject of a TV show on TLC. Georgetown was a cool place that reminded me a lot of Barcelona or other European towns with the narrow streets and older architecture. It was a great place to spend our final hours in DC.
Although we were tentative about traveling with Clara, we are extremely glad we went. Time spent with good friends is never regretted and we definitely miss all of them out here in AZ. Maybe someday we can all end up in the same place. If not, we’ll just have to plan to meet up regularly.
