We set our alarms early on Monday morning since we had an ambitious agenda ahead of us. After the three oldest kids and I were dressed, we raced down to the hotel restaurant’s breakfast buffet while Erika finished getting herself and the baby ready. Most tables were occupied by what looked like business folk (or in this town, perhaps lobbyists?), but we found a cozy nook where we wouldn’t be too much of a distraction to others’ news reading and hushed conversations.
Soon after filling up on pineapple, yogurt, and eggs, we loaded up the car and made our way to the Bethesda metro station. My cousin Jana pulled into the garage right after us with her girls, Ella and Samantha. After a few last trips to the restroom and some playing in the fountain, we proceeded down the exceedingly long and steep escalator to catch the metro. Jana mentioned that this was one of the longest escalators in the world, but I didn’t realize how famous it was until after seeing it in a couple movies over the following weeks. This was the first time the kids had been on a subway, and they thought it was great.
After emerging onto the National Mall, we stopped for pictures with the Washington Monument and Capitol building serving as backdrops. At Jana’s suggestion, we selected the Smithsonian of Natural History as our primary destination for the morning. We were not disappointed. The kids enjoyed all of the exhibits, and Erika discovered her new favorite animal, the Okapi. I had fun seeing all of the animals from the Ice Age movie. Little feet were tired by lunchtime, so we sat down in the museum café to eat. Jana needed to get back home by that point, so we said our goodbyes at the café before beginning our own casual exit out of the museum. The kids demanded that we stop at the gift shop on our way out, where they thoroughly evaluated each piece of merchandise in the shop.
On our way back to the metro, we made obligatory stops at the Mall carousel and a restroom in the information center. After the ride back to Bethesda, we loaded up the car and headed for the LDS temple. Erika and I explained to the kids that we had married there about ten years earlier, and had met each other on a trip there ten years before that. Needless to say, the Washington DC Temple is a very special place to our family. The kids were excited to finally see the building whose photograph maintains a prominent place on our bedroom wall. The visitors’ center featured a breathtaking exhibit of images taken from the Hubble telescope. We took pictures of our own with the Christus statue and in front of the Temple.
While leaving the parking lot, I thought it would be fun to explore a bit and drove around behind the sacred building down the service driveway. I falsely recalled that one could drive all the way around the back and come out in the parking lot on the other side. While turning the Happy Van around near the dead end, a security guard came from nowhere, blocked us in with his car, and pumped us for information to get to the bottom of why a highly suspicious family would dare drive behind the temple in the middle of the day. Phew. Crisis averted.
We then headed for Philadelphia, where we planned to sleep that night at my parents’ home. We stopped at an Olive Garden on the to feed our famished children and finally use a gift certificate we had received about a year earlier. Our energized and perhaps somewhat obnoxious presence was clearly not appreciated by guests and wait staff alike. We enjoyed the breadsticks and pasta anyway and finished our trek to Philly. The grandparents were both away, so we had the house to ourselves for about ten hours before we would leave for New York the following morning. This sure was fast paced for a relaxing vacation!
Update: Seeing how I have struggled to complete the record of our road trip in a timely fashion. I will spare you the level of detail provided so far and just try to get some of the better photos posted with some textual context.
New York
Our third day began with an early wakeup and drive to NYC. We first stopped in Jersey City to see the Statue of Liberty from the park. We watched some fishermen there and climbed around on the fun playground.
We then headed for downtown and crawled through traffic for a few hours. This was the first time the younger kids have been in the center of a major city before, and for the older ones it has been about four years since they were last in Boston. Highlights included seeing the tall screens at Times Square and driving the elevated street around Grand Central Terminal.
We stopped for lunch at Green Café before heading into FAO Schwartz. The kids had a blast and each came away with a new toy. We were all impressed with the life-sized Lego statues. We then started out for Camp Linwood MacDonald, where we arrived in time for dinner with Grandpa.