Washington Day 6 and Beyond

It's been almost 3 weeks since our trip to Washington.

It is now time for Things Fortnightly. Thing #1 will have to be my journal entry from day 6:

Charlie and I were slugs today. We drove in to DC with the friend of my sisters that we are staying with. With 3 in her car and 3 in ours we could both ride in the HOV (High Occupancy Vehicles) lane. In DC commuters meet up to be able to make enough passengers to get in those lanes. This practice is called slugging. Once we got into the DC area we took the metro to the zoo. At first,, neither of the pandas were very active or photogenic. While we were resting one panda started climbing a tree and spinning around.

Amy got footage.


I showed it to my sister and she said she doesn't know anyone who's been there and seen them be anywhere near that active.

We also saw many other cool animals like Orangutans climbing through towers outside of their usual habitat. After a number of hours at the zoo we went to the library of congress and visited two amazing exhibits featuring children's literature. One for authors and researchers and the other for young children to read with their parents.

Thing # 2. You can't believe everything you read.

Before the aforementioned trip to DC we read and read and read about how to prepare for said trip. One thing that we read and read and read over and over and over (I think you may be beginning to see the point here) was don't drive your car in DC.

This is why in past journal entries you have read about trains and slugs. It turns out that driving in D.C. is no worse than driving into Chicago. For us it was our preferred form of travel and was part of the adventure. Again we stayed outside of the city proper, and I could see the benefits of parking your car somewhere for a week if you were going to be holed up in some downtown hotel.

Thing # 3 In-flight Movie

Thing # 4 Endings

Charlie and his cousin Bobby finished cub scouts last week.
The kids finish Awana and another semester of our home school co-op Monday.

It's a good thing they all have at least one more activity they are still involved with. Otherwise people might start asking "What about socialization?" again!



Those are my things for this edition. Can I count on you to share some things by clicking on Mr. Linky below?


Next Time: Washington Trip Day 7: Saving the best for seventh.

Washington Trip Day 5

My fellow blogger Cristina of Home Spun Juggling is hosting the upcoming carnival of home schooling. I have decided to submit today's DC journal entry to the carnival. I do this for 2 reasons: 1) The entire DC excursion was like a home school field trip on steroids. 2) when I read this journal entry to Amy shortly after I wrote it she said that it sounded like I was making a blog post.

Day 5

My parents may have the right idea: Take 1 kid on a vacation at a time.

Of course, they didn't get or implement that idea until they were grandparents. What they do is take 1 grandkid at a time to Orlando for a week, usually the spring or summer before their 10th birthday. This is because at Disney 10 and over pay the adult rates. (What do you think I made up fun on a budget?)

When I was a young warthog, they did not have that idea and took all 5 of us kids for 2-3 weeks of vacation each summer. This may be why they came up with the 1 grandkid at a time scenario.

I mention this because today only 1 of my 3 kids behaved well.

It was a day where many things went wrong:

Our alarm clock said it was 15 minutes earlier than it actually was, so we left late. Then we went on parts if a military base, civilians are not meant to go. The signs about being allowed to use deadly force should have been a clue!

After that we took the wrong train. It went to the right place but since we missed the last commuter train we had to pay 200% more than we had intended.

Well we got to where we were going without further incident. The Smithsonian is awesome, but it can be very overwhelming. This may have been why we only had 1 kid behaving.

Amy was awesome. She knew when they need a break for lunch and also when to call it a day. Here are a few hints I learned from our initial foray into capitol land for any prospective DC goers out there:

1. Packing a lunch is a good idea. Because of our alarm clock synchronization problem, we did not. This means we spent $38.00 for 5 people (2 kids shared a meal) at the food court. Yikes-O-Rama!





2. You can bring library books into the library of congress without triggering security. Taking them back out is another matter entirely!





3. There are many people begging nearby the exhibits. One time I gave loose change. Twice I offered food. One time they refused it and 1 time they took it.





4. There is sometimes an up side of having your 3 children shouting "Let's go to Quantico! Let's go to Quantico!" over and over again when you are boarding a train with 50 commuters. The benefit is if the train you were boarding was not headed to Quantico. We got off and annoyed a new set of commuters.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE CARNIVAL!

Next Time: DC Trip Day 6

Washinton Trip Day 4

Still continuing my journal from our D.C. trip. We are up to the Monday before Easter. In real time six word Saturday approaches. My Six words:

What's up with 15 UPS trucks?!?!?

Lovingston, Va. to Stafford, Va.

We woke up, checked out and then broke fast in the van. Drove towards Chancellorsville, Va. a famous civil war Battlefield. On way there we passed 15 UPS cars in a row going the opposite direction. That must be some package!

Charlie loved it as he loves all things military. The battlefield is less than an hour from where my sister lives. The difference is substantial. From 19th century rural to 21st century suburban in no time flat.

Had a nice visit with my sister and her family. My sister's choir director is putting is up for the week, which is awfully kind of her. We are finally in the D.C. area and the trip becomes in earnest tomorrow. The weather is not supposed to get warmer until later in the week, So tomorrow, we plan to do some indoor things like the Smithsonian.

For more Six Word Saturday head on over to Show My Face Dot Com.

Next time Washington Day 5

Washington D.C. Trip Day 3

Lovinston, VA

We all slept in past 9 am, which is a very strange phenomenon. Today it was partially by design, as the rest of the week is go, go, go. We drove to the hometown of Earl Hamner, the creator of the Waltons and spent a few hours a t the Walton's Mountain Museum. It was interesting, and fun.

We went out for lunch at a nice little restaurant by our Inn. I had an excellent Crab Cake sandwich. What we all dug about the place is that they had the kid's menus taped into children's books. What a cool idea!

After lunch we went back into the same mountains we drove through yesterday to get to Crabtree falls. It was a beautiful waterfall. Unfortunately, it started pouring rain as we got there. As a result, we didn't spend as much time there as we would have liked.

Click on this picture to see a video.

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We spent the rest of the day relaxing at the Inn.

It's about time to say good night John Boy. Tomorrow we head over to D.C. for the remainder of the trip.

Next Time: DC Trip Day 4

DC Trip Wordless Wednesday

For more Wordless Wednesday click here.

Next Time: DC Trip Day 3

Washington D.C. Trip Day 2

Ohio to Virginia

It's nice to wake up and not have a number of tasks you need to accomplish for the day.

Today it was simply: 1) get up. 2) Drive to Virginia

Amy scouted a Waffle House by our motel, so that was breakfast. I used to live in South Carolina and Amy knows I sometimes wax nostalgic for the Casa de Waffles. After breakfast we gassed up and headed out. The kids listened to play-a-ways (high tech books on tape) we checked out from the library. After a while, we played some mad libs. I blogged last year that we scream marshmallow when we cross from state to state. So far the Marshmallow update is 2 yesterday (Indiana and Ohio) and 2 today (West Virginia and Virginia. Also we were in one of Amy's favorite geographical localities: The tristate area. There we were, just miles away from Kentucky, hopping from Ohio to West Virginia.

As we got further and further unto West Virginia we discovered on the highway food signs a new world, Biscuit World. Biscuit world is a fast food place that seems to be the biscuit equivalent of the Waffle House. We ate at one when we got into Charleston. This was our third meal in a row where the restaurant had the name of the food served in the title (Kentucky Fried Chicken, Waffle House, and Biscuit World).

While in Charleston we visited the State Capitol which is based on the Capitol Dome in D.C.






As we drove out of Charleston, we quickly discovered why West Virginia is nicknamed the Mountain State. As we crossed into Virginia the mountains continued. The last 20 miles we drove at dusk going through a mountain pass averaging 20 miles and hour (sometimes 5, sometimes 40). For some reason they didn't put up any guard rails until we got to the bottom. It was majestic and frightening at the same time. We arrived safely and we were glad to buck the food in the title trend with a take out pizza and salad from the Italian eatery across the street from our inn.

Tomorrow it's the Walton's Museum and maybe back in those mountains to see a waterfall.

Next Time : DC Trip Wordless Wednesday