Washington D.C.

This will be the first of many posts that I (hopefully) write about our road trip through the southeast. We are hitting six states in a little less than two weeks. We spent the first three nights and four days in D.C. which was wonderful. Bear with me on this long post. I want to write down all the things we did before we forget.

9/17 - Day 1 - Spend a long time flying from Seattle to D.C. and finally settle in at 11:30 EST at the Embassy Suites in Arlington. Grandma Sue joined us for this part of the trip and we were thankful to have an extra set of hands. Charlie took a nap on the plane. Della didn't get the memo, can you see the crazed look in her eye? She was crazy, the whole time.

9/18 - Day 2 - Our friend CJ (from Seattle), who was in town for work met up with us and took us to see some sights. He knows D.C. and the metro pretty well so he was a welcome addition to our group. We saw the Capital building, Botanical garden and went to the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights. After naps in the hotel we went swimming and met Sue's cousin for dinner. Our day in pictures:

Charlie's first ride on the Metro

The Capital Building

1st attempt at a family photo

CJ giving the kids a bath at the Botanical Gardens

The kids loved the children's garden

Dancing with Sue's cousin Kathy after dinner

9/19 - Day 3 - Another day led by CJ. We checked out the White House, all the monuments and spent some time on the mall. After naps we went to dinner at a friend's house who I haven't seen in probably 10 years. She lives on Capitol Hill and it was fun to see a real D.C. neighborhood.

The front of the White House. It wasn't at all what I imagined!

Della napped wherever she got the chance. Poor girl hasn't had a proper nap in a week.

The back of the White House. What surprised me most was that it is in the middle of a bunch of buildings. I imagined it up on a big hill or something!

Does this monument make my belly look big?

Fun on the mall

The World War II monument was my favorite

Della, Charlie and my friend Amber's son, Deacon

Bedtime has been a bit of a struggle each night. We were glad to have Mama Sue to help with the challenge.

9/20 - Day 4 - Today we were on our own without CJ the tour guide. We survived barely now that he had shown us the ropes on the metro. We focused on the Smithsonian's and went to the Air and Space Museum, Natural History Museum and Museum of American History (my fave!). Then we had lunch at Hard Rock, visited Ford Theater (amazing!!), took a carousel ride and went to Arlington National Cemetery with Amber and Deacon to see the changing of the guard. Seeing Julia Child's kitchen was a highlight for me. Do you know I love her? We ended the night, exhausted, with dinner at the hotel. The kids got ice cream for dinner, a new rare McFarlane family tradition. Here is our last day in D.C. in pics!