Washington D.C.

We only had two days in D.C., but boy did we make the most of it. Late to bed and early to rise was our motto on this trip. We had to pack it in!

Anna picked us up from the airport, made us some lunch and sent us on our way with her awesome VIP pass to see the sights! We went on a hop on, hop off trolley tour and a duck tour. We got to see all the monuments and some other pretty awesome stuff in a short amount time, thanks to Anna.

 The view of the Washington Monument from the trolley. It was closed for renovation, so we couldn't go inside.

This is us in front of the White House. Not that you can tell. Thank you nice Asian man who took our picture.

Oh, there's the White House

 This is the duck tour we went on. We drove on the road with it and then floated down the Potomac. Just a bit of anxiety overtook me as we headed in to the river.

 Peter steering. A dream come true for my boat loving husband. And the three little boys on the tour.

 The Pentagon

They handed out these duck whistles. We officially made it to ultimate tourist status with those things. And, apparently your eyes must be squinty and weird while pretending to blow one.

 The National Cathedral was amazing.

The Capitol Building

We also saw the Library of Congress. Did you know that they have one copy of every single book ever published in the whole world? That is a whole lot of books. 

One of Peter's favorite things was seeing the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It was pretty amazing, almost spiritual, to see such important documents, but to realize they are just that, pieces of paper. I'm really grateful for those pieces of paper.

Other highlights included the Lincoln Memorial, the memorials for World War II and the Vietnam War, Jefferson Memorial and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. 

I am so glad that we got to go see these pieces of our American history. We truly have a great nation, even with its many flaws.

Once again, I didn't take any pictures with family, but while we were there we were able to spend time with Anna, Ben, Nikki, Michael, Ada and baby James. Ben and Nikki and family came down to Anna's place the first night we were there for dinner. We also made delicious caramel apples. The next night, Anna picked us up from the city and we headed to Ben and Nikki's house for dinner. We just played and played with those sweet little ones. We don't see these Joneses too much considering they live across the country, so it was such a treat to spend time with them! Ben was so nice to take us to our bus stop early Thursday morning so we could make our way up to NYC!