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!  

 

 

Churchill Downs

Churchill Downs Museum and Track were a huge crowd favorite with the team and our family.  Garrett loves the track and horses as much as his Daddy and Papa Dave (which might scare me a little!).  The student loved watching the horses run too.  As you can see the museum had plenty of picture locations for us to be goofy. Check out our little "jockeys" on the scale, they remain 2 pounds apart when on individually and unfortunately they will never be small enough to be a real horse jockey.  They did enjoy dressing up in the jockey gear for the picture.  The number sixteen silks were worn by the horse that won the Preakness on the same day in May that Dave's team won State. 

 

Fun times at Churchill Downs!

 

3rd in the Nation!

Dave's team placed 3rd in the Nation, his best place so far.  One of the girls on the team was second in the Nation.  We are very proud of our Daddy's dedication to his career and look forward to him taking home a 1st in the future.  He's determined!!! The students were awesome in having our kids tag along during the second half of their trip.

Louisville Slugger Museum

Dave's Dairy products team won the State Champions back in May and went to Louisville to compete in Nationals.  This is Dave's third time at Nationals and we figured since the boys are young enough to miss 5 days of school and old enough to travel easy that it was time we joined them.  Dave left on Monday with the team and the boys and I flew out on Thursday to meet them.  Which is why I said old enough to travel easily, flying with two kids alone! I'm sure lots of parents do it, but I like a partner!  They did awesome for our day of travel and the next day the first stop in Louisville...

 

Louisville Slugger Museum.  I'm sure you'll never guess who was in bat heaven!  Garrett go to see lots of his favorite teams bats on display and we all enjoyed the factory tour of how the bats are made.  Garrett was thrilled to pick out a shirt to bring home and Gannon picked a wood patterned baseball. 

 

Dave was all dressed up because the awards were right after our tour.