The Slimdown Cometh!

After the nerve racking drive from Boston to Virginia, we quickly settled into our tight parking quarters in the beautiful BlueGreen Resort in Gordonsville, VA and looked on to our next east coast adventure, Washington D.C.

After the long drive down the east coast we arrived at the resort around 1:00am on Sunday morning. Waking up on Sunday we knew the clock was ticking. There was already plenty of talk around the looming government shut down. We were not sold on driving into D.C. on Sunday after getting in late the night before. We were really hoping to have a recovery day before heading into the Capital city. With news of the shut down coming on Monday night we knew we didn't have much time.

Both Katherine and I have been to D.C. before (at separate times) and we knew that there was more to do in D.C than could be squeezed into a day or two so we piled the kids into the truck and made our way into the city. Before heading out on Sunday I talked to a local that was parked next to me at the resort to get the inside track on commuting into the city. He suggested driving in on Sunday and taking the subway during the weekday to stay out of the crazy rush hour traffic that D.C. has to offer.

Taking his advice we drove in on Sunday and found a parking spot right outside of the Library of Congress. Since parking is mostly free in the capital on Sunday's this worked out pretty well for us. We spent the day touring a couple of the Smithsonian museums, the Air and Space and Natural Science museums. If you have the opportunity to visit the Capital I would certainly recommend visiting on the weekend when traffic and the general ebb and flow of the city is pretty slow. It made for a nice visit. After spending a good part of the day in the Capital we headed back to base camp for the night in Virginia.

Day two was a much different experience getting into the city. We drove from the resort in VA to a subway station just about 15 miles outside of the city where we took the Metro into the city. All of the kids except Sidney enjoyed the experience. Sidney was a nervous wreck and didn't like when the subway went under ground. I could almost see her hold her breath every time the subway went below ground.

The second day we had a tour of the capital building that Katherine had setup in advance with our congressman Sam Graves. The tour was great, but the best part was the tour guide was an intern on her 3rd day of the job! She was great and did a wonderful job, but we did get lost a time or two in the maze of tunnels that criss-cross underneath the city. While we were standing in the rotunda a group of Democrats came parading through which including Nancy Pelosi. They were giving a press conference on the status of the budget negotiations with the republicans and trying to prevent a government shut down. If you were watching the press conference you would have seen me pass in the background behind Nancy at the 25 second mark. I'm the guy in the red shirt. Here is a link to the video. http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/CRCo

Since our time was limited and the slimdown was imminent our final activity in the capital was a tour on the Big Bus, a double-decker open top bus. The kids loved it and it gave us the best bang for our buck to see as much of the city as we could in a very short period of time.

Our Spot at the BlueGreen Resort in Gordonsville, VA.

The kids striking a pose in front of the Capital.

The kids on the porch of the Wright brothers house at the Air and Space Museum.

The kids first Subway ride!

At the museum of Natural History.

Best way to get from point A to point B in the capital! A little scary when they are weaving in and out of traffic.

In the capital building with the tour guide. I'm not sure what she is pointing at, but the tip of her finger was just fascinating to me!

Yep, a photo bomb by yours truly!

Standing on top of the tomb that was built for George Washington.

Checking in with our Congressman Sam Graves.

In front of the Capital.

The open top Big Bus Tour we went on.

The house across the street from Ford's Theatre where Lincoln died.



The White House


"In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
-Abraham Lincoln



God Bless,
Seth and Katherine