Shortly after we moved to Virginia, we spent a couple of days in Washington D.C. seeing a very small portion of the sights there. Another visit to DC was on the top of our list of things to squeeze in before our time in Virginia runs out.
Our first stop was at Mount Vernon, home of George Washington. It was a little cold that day, but the house and grounds were beautiful.
It is a working farm, complete with animals and gardens. The sheep had brand new lambs, which made Sarah very excited.
The tomb of George and Martha Washington - a very reverent spot.
Checking out the piggies.
During nap time, we drove to the temple. After Sarah woke up, she and I got to hang out in the visitor center while we waited for Kelson.
We finished up our first day at a nature preserve near the temple. There were some deer that came just across the creek from us, which made Sarah very happy. In her words - a mommy deer, and a daddy deer, and a baby deer!
We had some yummy dinner and retired for what we hoped would be a relaxing night at the hotel. As it turned out, it took 4 hours to battle Sarah into going to sleep, and then we got to listen to a domestic dispute in the room next to us for most of the night. It was not restful.
We spent most of day 2 at the National Mall. Kelson spent several months as an intern for a Congressman in college, and he called his office to get us a tour of the Capitol. We thought we were being really smart by parking by the Jefferson Memorial, which seems to always have empty spaces. What I didn't realize is that we were almost 3 miles from the Capitol, ending with a hike up Capitol Hill. We were running late, so we had to rush the whole way, which was rough with my morning sickness. We made it, though, and the tour was great.
The rotunda was being renovated, so we only saw a little bit of it.
Apparently this is how Sarah feels about the House of Representatives.
Library of Congress
Sarah was totally tuckered out by the time we finished the Capitol and the National Botanical Garden. She slept through all of the Air and Space Museum.
Look! Evidence that I was there that day too!
About the time the Air & Space Museum closed for the day (signaling that it was time to hike back to our car), it started to rain. The further we walked, the harder it poured. I felt awful for Sarah as she huddled in her stroller through almost 3 miles of downpour. She didn't fuss at all. What a trooper. Of course the sun decided to come out as soon as we got to the parking lot.
We ate dinner at the same restaurant both nights because it was across the street from our hotel and had the best service we have found in Virginia/Maryland. (Truthfully, that isn't saying much. Customer service isn't really a thing here.)
We started off Friday morning with brunch with Kelson's best friend from college, Pablo, and stopped to smell the flowers on the way back to the car. After breakfast, we escaped the city before rush hour started so we wouldn't spend a million hours stuck in traffic.
We stopped off at the Richmond Botanical Garden halfway home to get some wiggles out. Sarah was a big fan of the fish pond.
Sarah loves springtime.
We randomly found what appeared to be Snow White's cottage inside of the greenhouse. I don't know what it was doing there.
What a fun mini-vacation!
