It's been so much fun to get away together for a few days, even though I caught a bit of my kid's stomach bug while I've been here, but it's manageable.
We had very smooth travels. We had a short layover in Newark and looking at the city made me really want NYC as my next trip! I would love to get back there with Doug, since he'll go to all the artsy fartsy stuff.
We arrived and had lunch, then checked in at the welcome center for Wyndham (who is paying for this trip since we went to one of their timeshare presentations in Destin). Never, never, never will I do one of those again! They are horrible! The pressure for this one was almost worse than the original one! The lady wanted us to come to another presentation (90 minutes) and she would give us a choice of a bunch of different things. We said no. One of the choices was another 2 day trip somewhere - yeah right, like we're going to be bugged about going to ANOTHER presentation. Yikes! She kept offering different things, and we kept saying no. Ultimately she offered us up to $500 just to sit through another presentation. Um, no. How many ways can you say no? Sure, $500 would be great (it would have paid for everything else on our trip!), but it is pure torture to sit through one of those things and be begged and bothered with until you want to barf. So, the answer was no, and we just asked for our vouchers and finally got out of there! We want to enjoy our trip, not go back for another dang presentation, thank you very much! Arghh...
So, that finally being over, we checked into our hotel, which is a Courtyard Marriott and a nice place. It's quite a ways from the metro, but they have a shuttle to and from the hotel so it's not too bad.
After check in, we went to Arlington National Cemetery. I took a bunch of pictures there, I think it's a really amazing place. Very humbling to see all of those graves of those who fought for our country.
The changing of the guard is so interesting. In a way, so silly all that attention to detail (sorry all you military people out there), but it's tradition and really is quite fascinating to see. For those who haven't seen it, the soldier who is guarding the tomb of the unknown marches back and forth in front of the tomb, each time taking 21 steps, then stopping for 21 seconds, then taking 21 steps to the other side, and so on. The tomb has been guarded 24 hours a day, 7 days a week since 1930-something. Anyway, pretty fun place to see. We also liked seeing the tomb of the Civil War unknowns, since we have learned more Civil War history since moving to Louisiana. That tomb has the bodies of 20,000 Civil War unknowns, buried 20 feet across and 10 feet deep. Amazing.
We went to dinner at Chili's and then hung out at the hotel. We wanted to see the season finale of Lost, but I was so exhausted and sick that I just went to sleep. I would wake up occasionally and see things like the island disappearing, but that's about all I caught!
This morning I felt a little better. A full night's sleep was helpful!
We headed straight for the Capitol to get our tour tickets, and our time was 1:30 so we had a few hours to see others things. We went to the National Museum of Art, the sculpture garden, and the Museum of Natural History (where we had lunch - burgers and fries for $25, can't beat that, lol!).
Our Capitol Tour was not as good as when I went before. The guide was an older man, and seemed flustered by the crowds and some unusual situations in our group (like a loudly complaining woman, and a person who needed an elevator escort that was always late). Despite the less-than-stellar guide, the Capitol is always an amazing place to be. Beautiful inside and out, and I love the artwork and sculpture that is there. The guide was very impressed that I knew the name of the sculpture "Genius of the Constitution" and that the snake represents wisdom. He said, "Gee, you must have studied the Classics" and I said, "not really, I just know that snakes are known for being sneaky". Anyway, it was really great to see that amazing building again, so full of history.
After that, we went to the Air and Space Museum. This is a place I passed on last time, but Doug wanted to see it and I'm glad we did. It was quite interesting, although science isn't my thing. I had to laugh when I went to some of the exhibits that are hands-on, trying to teach you how aviation works, and not getting it even then! Lol, these exhibits are made for like 4th grade science level and I still couldn't get it. Biological science, I can handle, but physical science is way over my head! So even though I'm dumb, it was still fun.
Our last stop today was the National Archives. Long lines again, but definitely worth the wait. Nothing like seeing the Charters up close and personal, although you can hardly read the writing on the Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence anymore. The Constitution is still fairly readable.
We stopped in Pentagon City for dinner, then back to the hotel where I am typing all these blogs!
I'm going to post the slideshows of the pictures I took so far separately, and I may not get to that until tomorrow.
Tomorrow we check out of this hotel and into another one (on our own dime). Then we've still got plenty to see and do, including the monuments, the White House, and the Holocaust Museum.
Oh, and I had a nephew born today, who is a total cutie. I'm so glad everything went well for Ryan, Jen, and baby Holden!
We are now watching the Scripps National Spelling Bee and it is a total hoot! Love it!
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2 comments:
Mark and Calvin watched the spelling bee last night, too.
Glad you're having such a great time.
I'm glad you're having fun! Your mom told me today that you are feeling better, so that makes me happy. I was sad that you were feeling sick on your short trip, when you don't have a minute to waste. Travel safely home!
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