A Little Tour of Washington, D.C......

(my daughter on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial "holding" the Washington Monument in her hands)

Last week my daughter, Mother and I went to Washington! My daughter was attending the Jr. National Young Leaders Conference. After a 4 a.m. ride to the airport and two hectic flights, I left my daughter at the airport with a few chaperone's & about 25 other kids who were patiently waiting for all attendees to arrive. Then my Mother and I headed out to our hotel in Bethesda, Maryland. I wouldn't see my daughter until 6 days later at the airport for our return flight home.

With daily text messages & phone calls to my daughter, I knew she was doing well so it was time for my Mom & I to do our own sight seeing. We had a little rental car equipped with a GPS. our saving grace! we put almost 500 miles on it! The traffic is horrific, the freeways confusing and that wasn't even the commute hour! It would take us 60 minutes to go 12 miles! But we were footloose & fancy free, no schedules - so we went where we wanted to go.

Washington Monument in the distance....

555 ft. tall...

On to the Lincoln Memorial....

Walking up the huge steps...look at how tiny the people are! It's massive!







If you read my last post as I talked about my "unsuitable California wardrobe"...well, I packed all my sweaters, turtlenecks & wool coat only to be hit with temps in the 70's! haaa! Locals kept telling us how lucky we were to have the nice weather when the previous week there had been snow. I just wish I had known beforehand - our typical California wear would have been way more appropriate! Instead I was doomed to carry around my wool jacket expecting freezing weather at any moment!


Oops! ..how did that get in here?

We took a tour of how the money is made but they wouldn't allow us to take pictures of the process...
Show me the Money!!!!

A side view of the Jefferson Memorial....

And the front steps....(can you see him standing in the background waiting?...)

You mean that's not a "monument"?....

But it certainly was a sight to see..a full warehouse of antiques!

Oh, looky here! The White House door bell.. "Ding Dong! We're here!" (ha! yeah right!)

Vietnam War Memorial...

Women's Memorial ...

Korean War Memorial....

The Capitol Building...

Oh? did you think I wouldn't go antiquing??

(In Fredericksburg, a whole block of antique shops and yes, we had tea & a slice of pie in the "Tea Room"!!)

Arlington Cemetery.....

Something like 27 funerals a day...

Kennedy's Eternal Flame....

The Changing of the Guard at the unclaimed soldiers graves...

The Amphitheater at the cemetery......

We saw 4 of the 19 Smithsonian Museums...(they say you can't see everything in all 19 museums in your lifetime!)


But this Lincoln exhibit was really memorable....




Creepy head masks from their hangings....

It really was an amazing trip. We walked our feet off. As for my daughter's experience. She would be taken on field trips during the day and classes at night, not getting back to her dorm room until 10:30 pm and would have to be up by 6:00 am ready to go the next morning - all with a 3 hour (plus one hour daylight savings) time change! I kept asking "did you take a shower yet?" because I couldn't figure when they would have time!

(my daughter in front of the Supreme Court...)

She really enjoyed the experience, seeing the sights, making new friends and learning about the ups & downs, good & bad choices of past leaders. Needless to say she slept the entire first flight home!

(The goodies I had to carry back on the plane!)

(Cups & Tray purchased separately)


(A little needlepoint pillow...)

My mother and I really enjoyed the trip as well. These are only a few of the 300+ pictures I had taken. Though I wouldn't consider it a "vacation" (i.e. no beach chairs & cocktails were involved on this trip!) it was very educational and awe-inspiring, I just wished I had paid better attention in history class when I was younger! ;) As for the boys left at home, they survived...but my house didn't! (my husband was so eager to point out that he did the laundry but he can't multitask so everything else - i.e. putting AWAY the laundry or the dishes, vacuuming didn't get done and I don't know what happened but I have the most mismatched sheets on my bed!?)... sigh... :)

Going On A Trip!

Helloooo Fellow Bloggers!!

Sorry! I have been a bit busy these last few weeks. I was in tax crunch H-E- (well you get the point). I am supposed to manage the books for my husband's landscape construction business..but whoops! time gets away from me (could be the blogging!) and I have to do in a few weeks time what I should be doing all year long.

Besides the oh-so-fun tax stuff - I have been getting ready to take my daughter to Washington, D.C. tomorrow! She is attending a Jr. National Young Leader's Conference. Our flight is at 6:20 a.m which means we have to leave around 4 to get to the airport. Yikes!

I basically have to hand my daughter over for 6 days and meet up with her again at the airport on the day we fly home. She will be staying in a dorm with other girls. She is ELEVEN (nearly 12), people! what was I thinking?! But I am dragging my Mother with us, so her and I will hit the historic sights and do our own tour.

But of course the weeks leading up to this time off for the "Woman of the House" means alot of preparation for "the boys" that will be left home alone! That's right, my boys are 9, 4 and 37! So I have been busy not only packing for myself, helping the daughter along with her suitcase (including a sleeping bag for an overnighter in a museum!) but laying out sets of clothing for my husband and two sons. You know men can't dress themselves, or use the washing machine either or cook anything other than Top Ramen noodle soup & scrambled eggs!

As I sat there admist my empty suitcase, miserably looking at my mound of unsuitable CALIFORNIA clothing to be headed into what they said was 12 degrees in D.C. last week - tieing up loose ends of school needs (juiceboxes for school party & independent study forms) trying to decipher the crumpled up, washed & dried receipts for our taxes - scrounging through the loose sock bin in search of enough pairs of socks to last "the boys" through the maids (i.e. ME) time off - it really hit me that I will have 6 days off of not doing ANYTHING for ANYONE but ME! YIPEE!! :)

So I will be enjoying this next week - whether the sun is shining or not in D.C. and will hopefully have pictures to post for you then!