Washington DC

July 1 We made it to Washington DC. Driving into the city in the evening on our way to Maryland and Smallwood State Park, where we are staying, was a beautiful sight. From the highway you can see the Washington Monument, the Capitol Building in the distance and the Lincoln Memorial among other sights. We made our way to the state park we were spending the next 7 nights at. It is in Maryland on the Potomac River. That sounded really exciting to me when i booked it. The park only had electricity and no water or sewer hook ups but it did have a water sight and a sewer dump. It was probably a mistake to book this sight because we had to dump 3 times while we were there. That means taking everything down including the awning and packing everything up that might fall or break while the trailer is moving. The whole process took about an hour every time. On the first day, we noticed that the daddy long legs there were enormous! I mean huge! Crazy big! Disgusting really. But, there weren't too many so it was okay. That changed by the last day. Either it was the lights from our trailer or the condensation coming off the trailer from the AC but the spiders were everywhere! We left a towel outside to dry and it was literally crawling with them. OOoo! It gives me the heebie geebies just thinking about it! We started having flashbacks to the movie arachnophobia. Smallwood State Park will forever be remembered to us as Daddy Long Legs State Park.

On one of our days in Smallwood State Park we decided to head to the Chesapeake Bay and try to find a place to swim. We ended up at Calvert State Park. You have to take a walking trail about 2 miles to get to the bay but it is well worth the walk. The ocean was like bath water and the girls had a great time swimming. Abbey didn't like the salt water. I spent the time looking for fossils and I found quite a few. Steve sat and watched the girls play.



I could go through our trip to DC day by day but I will just give you the run down. We went to the museum of natural history (night at the museum) and it was probably the best of them all. Something fun for everyone. These Smithsonian museums (which are free) are huge and you could spend a day in each. We also saw the Museum of American History. The highlight of it was the flag that was the actual Star Spangled Banner. Very exciting for me. We went to the Air and Space Museum too. We didn't spend enough time there so that was regrettable, especially for Steve. The overwhelming theme to our trip to DC was the heat. The unbearable, sweltering, unrelenting heat. It dictated everything we did and how we did it. You literally could not walk from one museum to the next without dripping in sweat. The girls wilted under this heat. Record breaking heat day after day. It was insufferable. As much as we tried it kept us from doing what all the things we wanted to do. DC is a very walkable town if you are in any decent kind of shape, unless it is hot. And its not just the heat, there is the humidity to add to it. 80 percent on most days. Not to mention the air quality was terrible. Through all of this we saw the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Korean, Vietnam and WWII memorials (WWII was awesome). Took a tour on a non air conditioned trolley and saw Arlington cemetery (with JFK's grave and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier). We also saw a tour of the Capitol Building and got to go in the Senate Gallery thanks to our Senator Mike Crapo and his tour tickets. A highlight was our tour of the White House (also thanks to Sen. Crapo). The white house is beautiful but surprisingly small. Of course, they didn't let us see the whole thing. Actually, it was about a 1/3.

I think the best thing we did in DC (and we were very nervous about this) was seeing the fireworks on the 4th.) What could be better than celebrating our independence in our nations capital? We were nervous because of the crowds and riding back on the metro. We had used the metro once before (finding out later we had used one of their new parking areas that was a bit risky) and were now comfortable using it. But, we knew the crowds would be enormous. And what would we bring. I had read that there would be some tight security into the mall so i was worried about bringing too much or not enough. In the end, we brought the perfect amount. A lot of water, a blanket and some snacks. We spent the early afternoon in the air and space museum and then around 7pm headed toward where we thought might be a good spot for the show. We ended up in the best spot possible. I couldn't have planned it better if i had tried. We sat directly in front of the Washington monument with the Lincoln memorial straight in front of us with the white house at our direct right. The fireworks were the best ever (Steve thinks Bostons 4th of July fireworks were better). But how can watching a great fireworks show all set to patriotic music on the Mall in Washington DC not be the greatest place to be?

God Bless America!

If I had any regrets about what i missed in DC it would have to be not going up in the Washington Monument (tickets go early every morning) not seeing all of the Holocaust Museum and not spending more time in the air and space museum. As it was, we stayed an extra day to do some of the things i mentioned.