Washington DC

So, after sitting around Alabama going crazy, I started looking at maps and seeing how far things were, and I discovered that DJ and Justin lived only 7.5 hours away from Huntsville, and then it was only 5.5 hours from Winston-Salem, NC to Washington DC. I started plotting my escape, uhm I mean adventure. First thing was to see if DJ was wanting to see DC as much as I was, she was so excited that she wanted to go right then, sweet! Let the planning commence. I spent the next week looking at maps, learning the Metro system stops, finding hotels and trying to see what we could do in two days. There's so much to see and do in DC, and since this was my fourth trip to the Nations Capitol I wanted it to be a good trip for DJ and the kids. I found a super cheap hotel in Alexandria which is on the outskirts of DC, booked it for two nights and then packed up the kids and started driving to North Carolina. We left Monday morning (7/20/09) we have traveled Hwy 40 so much that I feel like I know it very well, so the trip was nice and uneventful.

We got to Winston-Salem about 6ish, and DJ took us to the hospital where Justin works as a first year resident. There was a very cool playground on the roof and we were able to look at downtown Winston-Salem and the kids were able to play and work off some energy after being stuck in the car for 7.5 hours. DJ and Justin took us out to pizza for dinner and I had the yummiest chicken pesto pizza, and the kids had their boring pepperoni and olive pizza.

Tuesday morning we didn't wake up quite as early as we wanted but oh well, we got on the road and made it to Alexandria, VA in record time.....me speed? You bet'cha. We got to the hotel about 3pm and immediately went to the Metro station and took the Metro to L'Efant Plaza, got off and walked right into the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Great news the Smithsonian museums were staying open until 7:30pm! Awesome! It was about 4ish by then so we decided to walk across the mall to the National Gallery since it was going to close at 5pm. I personally love the National Gallery. It is my favorite museum in DC and I could spend a week in there and still not see everything. We wandered around a little, and then went down stairs to try and find the gift shop, I had a mission, I wanted to replace some Monet cards that I had gotten the last time I was in DC with Matt in 2005. On our way to the gift shop we stumbled onto a room that I had never seen it was full of ancient statues! I as stunned and amazed and oh so very happy. Connor found his favorite Auguste Rodin's The Thinker.

It was about 5pm and we were asked to leave by very nice friendly ubiquitous guards.

We then walked through the National Gallery Sculpture Garden which I had never seen before and was very impressed. There was a sculpture of a house that was an optical illusion that was just super cool.