Eating, Sleeping, and Homework

Here are a few pictures of the boys during the trip.  Gannon loved sleeping with his brother because he loves to snuggle right next to someone when he sleeps.  Not so sure Garrett loved being pushed to the edge of the bed every night, he was happy to be home in his own bed ALONE!

 

We ate LOTS of Subway sandwiches along the way because it was easy, familiar, and inexpensive!  We also ate lots of yummy breakfast at the hotels and dinners with the big kids.

 

We applied for Independent Studies for Garrett to miss school so he had a packet of work to complete during the trip and had to do a journal each day.  In order to keep myself and him from going crazy I tried to get him to do a few pages here and there.  In the airports during layover he did homework, at the hotel before dinner he did homework, and even on the plane he did homework!  Lots and lots of work and thank goodness he loves school work so it wasn't too bad. Gannon even wanted to join him most of the time.

 

 

 

Newseum

The Newseum is another really cool museum all about news.  It is also another museum that you could spends hours reading about all the history on the news, but with two little boys you do a quick fly by read of everything!  They had a section of the Berlin wall, the Unibomber's shed, articles recovered from the Twin Towers, and lots of newspaper articles.  Toward the end they had a big area for the kids to play around and test their knowledge of various things.  You could also record yourself as a broadcaster, which they boys both LOVED.

 

Capital Tour

Dave had contacted our local congressmen for a Capital Tour through his office.  We got to go from the office through an underground tunnel to the visitors center.  We were then guided through the Capital and told little bits of history.  I'm not a big history buff, but it was a cool tour.

 

Alexandria and Ghost Tour

Our hotel was in Alexandria, Virginia and honestly I think I could have stayed in Alexandria for the entire trip!  It is so cute and has tons of great shopping all on one street.  There is a trolley that runs the entire main street, King Street, which is where are hotel was.  So from the hotel to down by the water you can hop on and off whenever you need to.  The shopping ranges from inexpensive stores like Ross all the way to cute boutique shops for the entire family.  We checked out a cute toy store much like the one in San Luis Obispo and I wish I had had more time to shop. 

 

After having lunch with Bud and Jo we were walking them back toward their car and found a local park.  You can tell the theft level and poverty level is not high by the look of the park.  The neighborhood drop off old outdoor toys and others simply leaves their children's toys to play with on their next visit.  This would NEVER happen at a park in Merced.  Everything would be stolen!  Makes me sad that we live in a place that is like this. 

 

We went with all the high school kids on a night Ghost Tour of Old Alexandria.  Our story teller was very good and made me even more sad that we couldn't visit some of the places he talked about during the day.  It was a fun night of ghost stories and a quick walk back to our hotel.  Alexandria is a great little place and I would LOVE to go back and just hangout there.

 

 

 

 

Bud & Jo

Bud and Jo are the two that hired Dave in Hawaii for his first dolphin training job.  They live in Virginia about 2 hours away from where we were staying in Alexandria and met us for lunch.  Dave and I had been to visit them when we got engaged and they had taken us to dinner in Alexandria.  We went to the same restaurant they had taken us to 9 years ago.  The food was good and the schooner of beer was even better!  We hadn't seen them since our wedding so it was fun to catch up and visit in person. 

 

Arlington National Cemetery

 The Arlington National Cemetery was one of my memories from my 7th grade trip to DC that I remember the most.  I remember loving the visit and watching the changing of the guards.

 

From this trip I'd have to say it remains my favorite part of DC! It's so peaceful to sit and watch the guard of the Unknown Soldiers pace back and forth.  Garrett and Gannon watched in complete silence. We watching the changing of the guard ceremony and they loved that.  I wish I had video taped Gannon later in the day walking back and forth clicking his little feet together before he turned, just like the guards do. 

 

Washington DC Night Tour

After a day of travel from Kentucky to Virginia we headed out on the Metro to do a night walk of the monuments in DC.  They are beautiful to see any time of day, but during the night they have a pretty glow about them.  The boys loved seeing them all, but Abraham Lincoln was their favorite.  Garrett had learned about him in school so you could see why he liked that monument the best.  It is awesome that Garrett and Gannon are getting big and can experience these fun events with us, but on the other hand they are BIG.  A night tour of the monuments after 8 hours of travel is great to stretch your legs, but their little legs got tired which meant we carried 50 pound kids for a good portion of the walk.  Let's just say I probably could have left my coat and scarf in the hotel!  What a workout!