Roper Family: Summer Vacation Part Two

Once Tuesday arrived, the family vacation changed just a bit. The reason we actually decided to take the trip in the first place was because Glenn had to work for a week in DC and the rest of us got jealous (okay, maybe it was just me who got jealous). We figured that with Glenn’s plane ticket and our hotel room paid for, we could totally justify planning a last minute trip out there for the whole family. Could I could manage the big city with 4 kids all by myself every day for four days with no help? I felt confident that I could.

So, Tuesday morning Glenn left for work before the rest of us were even out of bed (that 9:00 PM ice cream really took its toll). The kids and I spent the next four days navigating the city on our own. We enjoyed a lot of site-seeing, whining, exhaustion, attitude adjustments, walking, trudging, rain, waiting in line, exploring, and learning through the week. My confidence was totally dashed after the first day of dragging the kids from place to place, but I think we all came away with happy memories nonetheless.

Here is our week in pictures:

TUESDAY:
--International Spy Museum
--Lunch at Potbelly, our favorite DC sandwich spot. It took us two separate attempts to go into the shop and order the food. We actually had to leave, regroup outside, and go back in for the second try. By this point I was realizing that I was totally outnumbered
--The United States Capitol Building
--The Library of Congress
--The Supreme Court
--Home to the hotel to watch a gorgeous thunder storm in our PJ’s

WEDNESDAY:
--Waited in line for an hour to go to the top of the Washington Monument. One week later I can finally say it was worth the wait.
--Took goofy pictures of the Washington Monument
--Air and Space Museum
--A very brief stop at the Museum of Natural History before calling it quits. The poor kids just could not do one more thing even though we walked past the Museum of American History on our way back to the hotel.
--Swam at the hotel pool while I adjusted my attitude and reconciled myself to the fact that we just would not see everything I wanted to see
--Late dinner in Chinatown with Glenn- so nice to have some help!

THURSDAY:
--Left in the rain with hope in our hearts
--Lincoln Memorial
--Got lost and went on a really long walk in the miserable cold
--Jefferson Memorial
--Dragged ourselves back to the hotel to swim, unable to drudge up the energy to go and see anything else- this is where we were very grateful that the hotel was close to the mall!

FRIDAY:
--The White House
--The Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House where Glenn used to work
--Checked out of the hotel and ate lunch at Potbelly
--We finally got to see the American History Museum!
--We waited in a little butterfly garden next to the National Mall for a couple of hours for Glenn to finish work. We were right across the street from the National Archives, but not even the promise of seeing the original Constitution could motivate those kids to go up that whole flight of stairs. We looked up at the front of the building, but the kids opted for the butterfly garden instead. It was probably for the best, because I was pretty wiped out by that point too. Did I mention that we had no snacks the whole time? The kids ate all the snacks I packed during the flight to DC, and there was no grocery store convenient to our hotel. The kids were really troopers in that respect, especially given that most days we didn’t end up getting lunch until around 2:00. We may not have seen everything I wanted, but I do have to give the kids some credit!