D.C. done right

I guess 2nd time is a charm for us, at least as far as D.C. goes. :)

Trey had the past week off for spring break.  Who knew we would still be having a "spring break" in our old age, ha ha.  We had a simply loverly and leisurely weekend after his test.  After-test weekends are the best!!!  They always go by so quickly though so Luce and I were delighted to have Trey for the whole week after.  We did a little spring cleaning, had the missionaries over for dinner, went to Chipotle, and did a little thrifting with our cheery friend Beth.

On Tuesday morning we headed down to Kensington, Maryland to the LDS temple!  It was the perfect way to start our mini vacay.  Trey & I traded off watching Luce and went through individually.  I met some sweet sister missionaries and one was from Logan!  I think her name was Sister Gordon.  She was cute as a button.  She gave Luce this little "Junior Missionary" sticker and she slapped it right on her nose.

She looked so cute in her little spring outfit.  And she knew it too. :)

We set the timer and put the camera on top of the car and this is what came out, not too shabby.

Then we went and checked into our hotel, that was slightly ghetto but clean, and went to Silver Springs for some good old Chick-fil-a and Cold Stone.  We just stayed in the rest of the night and Lucy was wired, probably because she ate half of my cup of ice cream.  Yeah, that was definitely the cause.  I forgot how good Cold Stone is!  It's been awhile.

The next day we got a slow start but headed out to D.C. and hit our first must-go-to place, Good Stuff Eatery.  Their burgers and fries are AMAZING!  I hear the shakes are pretty awesome too.  But first, I must acknowledge the awesomeness of the Metro.  We are big fans.  On our first attempt at visiting D.C., we tried driving into the city and finding parking(on a Saturday).  How silly of us!  I'm all for public transit and I was impressed at how clean it was.  The seats remind me of the awesome colored seats at the Spectrum. (Go AGGIES!)

Luce loved the "train".  She loved looking out of the window and climbing on the seat, something she doesn't get to do in the car.  Sure beats being strapped into a car seat!

 

I just love this little face.

Here she is callin' all her peeps

Here we are at Good Stuff...mmm

If you go, get the Sunnyside burg!  It's our fave.

Then we took a nice little walk(to burn off our lunch) to the Capitol building.  As we were walking, we ran into some protesters and this lady asked us as we were walking by, "Are you ready to fight the British Empire the way the Irish do?"  What the what?!  We just kept walking and laughing to ourselves.

It was a chilly day but thankfully it didn't rain on us.

Lucy was enthralled with the seagulls, while I was doing my Cub scout salute

We stumbled upon a cute little park with a bunch of crazy art and such and we found this gnarly tree--it's made of stainless steel and concrete!  It looks like they took a tree and dipped it in metal.

We made it to our main destination: the National Museum of Natural History.  It did not disappoint.  Lucy was in heaven!

As you enter the lobby, you are greeted by this huuuge elephant.  We saw everything there was to see in there.  I loved the dinosaur bones and all the crazy underwater creatures.  Lucy loved the big whale hanging from the ceiling.

After the museum our legs were pretty tired.  We walked down to the Washington Monument to see if we could get tickets to ride to the top but they were all sold out, I guess you have to get there early.  We were all bushed and Lucy was ready for a nap so we decided to head back to the Metro.

Luce was fascinated by the tunnel and the fast "trains" that came zooming by every few minutes.

After we made it back to our car, we hit the road and headed to our next destination, the Niehoff residence in Forest Hill, Maryland.  Our GPS is a little wonky sometimes and takes us on some "scenic" routes and in this case, it took us right through downtown Baltimore.  It's actually a really cool city.  I can't wait to go back there and see the Aquarium and eat some crab!  Mmmm...

2 hours later we made it to Forest Hill and Lucy slept the whole time, that blessed child!  Trey & I were entertained during the car ride because we were listening to Harry Potter 7.  Yes we are nerds like that.  Jim Dale is the man.

We love the Niehoffs.  We feel so at home when we stay at their house.  They really are our east coast family.  We had a nice spaghetti and meatball dinner prepared by Mike and just chatted and relaxed.  That night it started pouring and didn't stop all day.  The streets were starting to flood in some areas which made for some pretty interesting driving conditions.  We ventured out to Miss Bev's house and then to IKEA to pick up a few things to spice up our house.  We are in need of some pizazz.  Then we went to the mall and had our selves a time with Miss Betsy.  Then we dropped Bets off and hit the road for home.

I'd say it was a successful trip.  We had fun, ate some good food, and hung out with great people.  What more could you ask for on your spring break? :)