summer

I have found when you don't blog enough, then the blog posts are just jumbled posts of what we have done instead of interesting stuff. But in order to document out summer, I must tell what happened the last couple of weeks.

Jess came back from leadership camp and is very "inspired". He has spend the last couple of weeks hanging out with friends and planning activities to keep him away from home. He is going to friend's cabins and hiking trips that will help him obtain his goal of not sleeping in his own bed more than a few days this summer.

Joe has been to golf camps the last couple of weeks and is "all golfed out" so he hasn't been able to show me how improved he is.
The weekend of July 9-10 we went out to Stretch Island and had a fun time but the weather wasn't the best. We still haven't been to the beach on a weekend where we could go swimming yet. hopefully Aug 6-7 will be nice. Jess and I finished the weekend for dinner Sunday at the Bite of Seattle.

Last Saturday, Joe and Meg and I hiked Rattlesnake Ledge in the morning, had lunch at the Renton River Days. Meg and I then went to dinner in Seattle and watched the "Stoutpounders" Irish band with our friends. Sunday I took the boys to summer camp up near Mt. Vernon. I have to work Monday and Tuesday but then I will spend the rest of the week up there. After dropping the boys off up North, Meg and I went to dinner down on the Fed Way waterfront at Saltys. Great to eat on a deck and able to take an after dinner walk and watch the sunset over the water. We are both sun burned from the weekend.

Today, I rode my bike all the way from home again (54 bunnies). By the way, I don't think I posted that the new all time record is 77 bunnies. I am going to ride to Seattle after work and meet Meg for dinner. Again- I like the one way riding and I always make sure that the bike rack is on Meg's car.

Home Again Home Again

We made it home last night after a long afternoon/night of traveling. The weather yesterday was still pretty hot but it was rainy and thunderstormy. We did a few more museums including the National Gallery art museum and then took the bus back to the hotel to pick up our bags around 5pm. We then walked to the Metro with our bags and had to take 2 subways to get to Union Station. It seems like the escalators at all D.C. metro stations were broken and we struggled to carry our bags everywhere with all the heat and humidity. At Union Station we then took a commuter rail to the Baltimore airport and then a shuttle bus to the airport gates. Check in was hell. People were everywhere that don't know how to use a check in kiosk. We were way early but after check in and security we didn't have time for the long Mcdonalds lines so we just got on the plane. Air-Tran only gives out pretzels. We were dehydrated and hungry for the night flight and that probably contributed for Joe throwing up everywhere half way through the flight. But we survived and now we are home looking at our weeds in the lawn. Joe feels just fine this morning. I will try to get pics posted on flickr today.

It is HOT!!!

This was our hottest day yet and we spent a lot of time walking in the heat. Took a huge loop around all the monuments starting in the morning- Jefferson,Korea, FDR, Lincoln, Vietnam, WWII. Many stops to get water and ice cream but it was just HOT. Ended up at the Air and Space museum and spent a couple of hours checking out the planes and space stuff. I was hoping to see the space shuttle and the bigger planes but they are at a different Smithsonian that is 45 miles away. That will have to wait for another trip.

We struggled back to the hotel and spent an hour floating in the pool cooling off. We had heard that D.C. had the best Ethiopian food so we found a place on Yelp that had great reviews. We took the subway to a neighborhood that tourists don't go to. It was awesome. Great platter for 3 over injera with 2 beers and 2 wines for less than $50.

Tomorrow we are heading home but our plane doesn't leave until after 8 so we have most of the day to see what we haven't seen yet. Need to see some art, the archives and maybe some other minor museums...

Aaaahhhhh!

We took advantage of the WWII memorial to dip our feet in cold water.

Now at air and space museum.

Monuments

Spent the morning walking around the monuments. Neat, but scorching hot. We kept sucking down water and gatorade, which quickly converted to sweat!!

I'm just a bill...

"I'm just a bill, sitting here on Capitol Hill..."

The morning was spent at the international spy museum - very cool! Then we took Jess out to the U of Maryland, where he will spend 6 days at leadership camp. He couldn't wait for us to leave!

Bill, Joe and I checked out Union Station, the Postal Museum (seriously), then walked past Capitol Hill. We didn't tour the inside, maybe today or tomorrow.

Then we headed back to the hotel, and cooling off in the pool. After dinner, Bill and I watched a funky old school jazz group in the lounge of our hotel, while Joe relaxed in the room.

DC continued....with Baseball...

Meg let me write on my blog today...
I let them all sleep in today after last night's fireworks so we got a bit of a late start. We started at a Waffle shop across from Ford's theatre and next to the house where Lincoln died. By the way, I am a little behind on my yelp reviews....
Next we wanted to go to the Spy museum but it was crazy busy so we are going to put that one off until Wednesday morning.
Instead, we went to the American History museum and tried to see as much as we could before we needed to head to Georgetown University to do another college tour. We ended up splitting up and Jess and I went on the tour while Meg and Joe shopped around the Georgetown neighborhood and made their way to the White House.
After lunch we met up and went to see the Washington Nationals vs the Chicago Cubs. Michelle Obama threw out the first pitch so now we can say we say the first lady in Washington D.C.
Tomorrow- After the Spy museum, we will drop Jess off at his camp. It will be weird to have our foursome down to a threesome for the next 3 days. Jess is really excited about the camp...

Culminating in fireworks!!

What a day! Left Williamsburg fairly early, headed north. Stopped at Mount Vernon Gristmill & Distillery for brief tour, kinda interesting. We intended to go to Mount Vernon too, but it was crazy busy with holiday activities, so we bailed on that plan.

After getting rid of our car and checking into our hotel, we set out to explore. Hit the Mall, crowded with lots of people, religious nuts, hare Krishna festival, and horse flies the size of hummingbirds that liked to dive bomb us.

It was so hot and sticky. We ended up diving into museums just foe the AC. Saw the majority of the Natural History museum, and just a bit of American History. After grabbing dinner, we staked out a piece of grass right by the Washington monument To wait for fireworks. Worth the wait, they were tremendous!! Back in hotel relaxing....Joe's pedometer had us at 11.7 miles walked today! No wonder my feet are sore.

Julia Child's kitchen at the American History museum

It's HOT on the Mall!

Lots of cold liquids...it's hot (92) and humid.

Natural History museum

Williamsburg

Spent the last two nights in Williamsburg. Yesterday Joe and Meg spent the morning in Colonial Williamsburg (restored period buildings, with associated people in period dress, little shops such as the coffee house where Joe got hot chocolate). Meanwhile, Bill and Jess went to see Jamestown. We met back up mid-afternoon, then all went to see Yorktown (final battle of Revolutionary war).

Beaches and other fun

We spent the morning on the beach on Chincateague Island (Virginia part of Delmarva peninsula). Boys wanted to stay all day, but Bill and I were going to get scorched. On the way out of town, we stopped for lunch at the Crab Shack - soft-shell blue crabs, hush puppies, fries, oh my!

Then we continued south, over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Ah.Maz.Ing! 17.2 miles across, so cool!

Tonight we are Williamsburg. Tomorrow will be some combination of Historic Williamsburg/Jamestown/Yorktown sightseeing.

By the sea

Stopped in Philadelphia this morning, saw the liberty bell. The historic area downtown was packed with throngs of people. We skipped the Independence Hall tour, as the next tour was a few hours away.

Headed into Delaware, down the DelMarVa peninsula. Found fun Atlantic beach town, complete with boardwalk and arcade games. Boys swam, I got my vitamin D.