Tanner's youngest brother Cooper kept my in-laws pretty busy this summer because of his studly athletic abilities on the football field. He was able to attend multiple football camps at various campuses around the country like Stanford and Notre Dame (just to name a few). So they decided to make these trips into a 3 week long vacation and stop at all the cool sites along the way.
When they made their way to the east coast, they decided to end their trip with the very coolest stop of all- DC! :)
Tanner and I could not WAIT for them to come. Although my in-laws would be sleeping on an air mattress in our empty guest bedroom and Cooper would be all cozy on our couch, we were stoked for them to stay with us. It was the week of the 4th of July so we had been moved out here for a little over a month and were missing our family a ton! (I know I know I'm really late updating all of this! I'm workin on it!!)
It just so happened that I already had that week off of work because the family I nanny for was out of town that entire week. SCORE. And although Tanner never gets days off, this also gave him an excuse to take 2 whole days off! *GASP!* DOUBLE SCORE.
The first day that they were here they obviously wanted to see the sights. And so did I! Tanner had to work that day, so we said goodbye to him in the morning and went off to be tourists in the city. My in-laws generously bought us metro cards and loaded them up for our week of adventures so we wouldn't have to worry about driving.
Day 1: We rode the metro into the city and decided to have the Smithsonian as our first stop. The moment we got off the metro, me and Cooper both were literally about to pee ourselves so we had to find a bathroom... STAT. Little did we know, the nearest public bathroom was centuries away (or that's how it seemed to our bladders) so the next thing I knew I was following Coop into some random official Government building and was immediately greeted by security guards and a metal detector. Coop explained that we just really needed to use the bathroom so the security guard took our ID's, made us sign in, checked our bags and sent us through a metal detector. After passing all the tests, we barely made it to the bathroom in time. Later I found out it was the Department of Agriculture or something official like that. Who knows. But after we were done relieving ourselves, we grabbed our IDS back from the kind security official and were on our way. Good times.
After our bladders were emptied, we continued onto our destination, the Smithsonian. Oh and did I mention it was one of the most humid weeks of the summer?? Go figure right?
The type of humidity that makes you feel like you are eating the thickest slice of musty, city air while making you feel instantly wet the moment you walk outside. Love that. Super comfortable. So basically walking around the city was awesome. And by awesome I mean, sticky. But that wasn't stopping us!
The type of humidity that makes you feel like you are eating the thickest slice of musty, city air while making you feel instantly wet the moment you walk outside. Love that. Super comfortable. So basically walking around the city was awesome. And by awesome I mean, sticky. But that wasn't stopping us!
In front of the Capital Building!
We decided to go to the Air and Space Museum first. (It had amazing AC). Holla! And the exhibits were really interesting as well! We also watched a movie in the I-Max theatre.
We grabbed lunch afterwards and then headed to the Natural History Museum. Another score for the AC and also of course, great exhibits. I loved the one I went to when I lived in NYC and this was equally as cool! I loved the animals of course.
Dinosaurs!
More dinosaurs!
My favorite! The elephant!!
Tanner and I both knew that we wanted to go to the famous Holocaust Museum while we were living here, so we decided when his family came it would be the perfect opportunity. Apparently we underestimated the popularity of the museum and considering the fact it was the day before the 4th of July in DC, the patriotic were out and about and determined to flood the sights.
Luckily, my Father in-law prepared and even though the tickets to the museum were sold out for the next week (What??) he was able to swing it to get us VIP tickets by making a generous donation and we were all able to go! I was soooo excited. Props to you Big Papi!
When we got there they tell you to grab a booklet and that is your 'person' and each level of the museum you complete, you read a new page in the booklet about your person and then at the end of the museum you find out whether or not you survived the Holocaust. They are real people from the holocaust so it gave it a whole new meaning. The museum was GIGANTIC and took us about 3 hours to get through but it was soooooo moving. So many videos and real life examples. It made the Holocaust seem so much more realistic to me and even then made it almost impossible to understand and fully comprehend. My person was a young girl who during the midst of the holocaust ran away and hid in some palace until she was discovered by some prince and they migrated to New York and got married and lived happily ever after. Go me. Cooper ended up dying by being hung in public. Sad.
Luckily, my Father in-law prepared and even though the tickets to the museum were sold out for the next week (What??) he was able to swing it to get us VIP tickets by making a generous donation and we were all able to go! I was soooo excited. Props to you Big Papi!
When we got there they tell you to grab a booklet and that is your 'person' and each level of the museum you complete, you read a new page in the booklet about your person and then at the end of the museum you find out whether or not you survived the Holocaust. They are real people from the holocaust so it gave it a whole new meaning. The museum was GIGANTIC and took us about 3 hours to get through but it was soooooo moving. So many videos and real life examples. It made the Holocaust seem so much more realistic to me and even then made it almost impossible to understand and fully comprehend. My person was a young girl who during the midst of the holocaust ran away and hid in some palace until she was discovered by some prince and they migrated to New York and got married and lived happily ever after. Go me. Cooper ended up dying by being hung in public. Sad.
Afterwards, we went to the National Mall which we soon figured out was sooooo huge and spread out. It had rained that morning so it was also extra humid. Sweet. But we were determined to see at least the Lincoln Memorial! After many wrong turns and eventually seeing majority of the memorials in search of the Lincoln memorial, we finally found it! And although we were all dripping with nice, salty, sweat... It was worth it and gave us a funny story to look back on!
Brotherly love.
It's fine. We had to ;)
Humidity and all, it was an amazing visit and especially because I got to spend some much needed quality time with family and my honey!
Day 3: the 4th of July we decided to sleep in, have breakfast at I-Hop (our fave), lay by the pool, and then go to Georgetown for a movie (White House Down ironically), shopping and dinner! We ate at another one of mine and tanners spots-the famous Serendipity! And ended the night off with nothing better than a Frozen Hot Chocolate! Our favorite!!!
We were so grateful to have them come and be able to have so much fun together. They spoiled us rotten but more importantly, we were able to enjoy each others company and make even more cherished memories here on the East Side :) We are truly blessed!
Xoxo,
-mr & mrs clark
Having visits from family is the BEST. I am so glad they came all that way.
ReplyDeletecutest couple. looks like so much fun!
ReplyDelete