Day 1 in Washington DC

This morning on our way to DC, we stopped at the rest area in Virginia for a photo shot of the kids with the Virginia state sign. Of course I got my picture but let me tell you that this was the ultimate kid friendly rest area that I had ever seen. All my life I have loved to travel and if you travel by car a lot with kids, then you know that you are always looking for some type of play area so that the kids can run some energy out. Well, this rest area had a play area/jungle gym for kids and while my kids were close to being to old for it , they still enjoyed a few minutes of play before getting back on the road.
Thanks Virginia for thinking of our kids!

It was also at this rest area that Phillip found a brouchure on a scrapbook store in Fredricksburg and of course, being the wonderful husband that he is, told me about it and even stopped when I insisted that we did not have too. I am glad we did though, it was an awesome store. Everything was organized nicely and easy to find. I spent a little money but not too much. I did find some really cute travel paper and poka dot paper, I could not resist!


Jonah wants YOU!! While at Union Station Jonah found several different "Uncle Sam's" Hat and tried a few on for size. When he put this one on he pointed his finger just like those posters of Uncle Sam.













We ate at Johnny Rockets tonight at Union Station. I had forgotton how large Union Station was' three floors full of shops, restuarants and even a movie theater.







Right after we left Union Station, we headed to the Mall, no not the shopping mall but the where Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the National World War II Memorial is. It is suggested that you see these monuments both at night and during the day. We had no sooner found a parking place and both kids spoke up saying "is there a bathroom close by." Now let me tell you this, I had no clue where a bathroom was, we had just put $$ in the parking meter and there was not a gas station or a food place around. So we crashed in on a party at the Organizations of Americas. No one spoke english and everyone was dressed nice. Here we stood in jeans and totally stood out like a sore thumb. But the doorman was nice and allowed us to used there bathrooms, lucky for us they were near the front door.

My picture of the day, possibly the trip. I have no clue how it happened, I was not even trying to take this photo. I simply rolled down my window, Phillip was driving kinda slow and I did have my camera set on night time and as I snapped the picture a tree got in my way of the Washington Monument. Cool Picture, don't you think, I could probably never do this again.
I am sure that there is somebody out there who knows just how this picture happened.



















Lincoln Memorial at night is just breathtaking and with today being President's Day around the bottom of Lincoln's stature were wreaths of flowers and roses laid on the steps. Well I guess, I need to call it a day. We have an early morning tomorrow, starting when my alarm goes off at 6 a.m., we need to be heading into the city by 7 a.m. for a 9 hour tour.