Finally the Vacation Continued...

I believe I left off in Edgewood Maryland. The kids did love the indoor pool at the Hampton Inn. Personally I found it boring, but we made the best off it. On Friday we headed off to DC. We were following the directions from Mapquest. I exited according the directions only to quickly realize I had exited to soon. What the heck it was a scenic drive. Oh No! The traffic comes to a screeching halt. Almost 40 minutes later we discover that the two lane highway was reduced down to one lane because they were trimming trees. You would think they could do that at night or during off hours.

We made it to our destination, JW Marriott. JW Marriott is located on Pennsylvania Blvd. What a treat! For a second I thought about trying to find a place to park that did not cost $25/day. After that one second of thought I concluded we would not find a better deal nor one that was convenient. Valet parking it is!

Now I am such an astute traveler that I know all about tipping. Not! A man takes the luggage out of the van and puts it on a luggage dolley. He wheels it into the lobby then says someone else will take it to your room. I tip $2. We check in then someone takes our luggage to the room. I tip $5. I am thinking that I am going to be nickeled and dimed to death. The room is very nice! We check out the view from the 10th floor. We are staring right at the Washington Monument. Incredible! We did have a 3:00 PM appointment with Congressman Ron Paul's office for a Congressional tour of the Capitol. HINT: Call you congressman and arrange for this tour. We decided to walk! It was drizzling, but no big deal. We walked a couple of blocks and the kids begin "I'm hungry!" We stop in the old post office building. Security is incredible! Everything must go through the metal detectors. They had a food court downstairs and we enjoyed sandwiches while the kids had hotdogs ($30).

After lunch we continued on our journey observing the architecture. All the kids wanted to do was walk on the stone garden edging, fighting the entire time who was going to lead. Par for the course.

We made it to Ron Paul's office where we were greeted by Amanda and then meet our tour guide, Corey. We were able to leave our things in the back office so we did not have to tote anything but the camera. That is nice because there are numerous security check points. We got to travel through the underground tunnels to the Capitol. Pretty cool having a personal tour guide for the four of us! I think we spent two hours on the tour. We learned a bunch of interesting tidbits. I was fascinated by the architecture and the paintings on the ceilings. Little did I know the Rotunda would become a significant place the following week.

After our tour I got my picture taken sitting in Dr. Paul's chair. They gave us each a souvenir pocket constitution. I think the kids really enjoyed it.

Next we walked to the Natural Sciences Building. Kids loved it! We spent 2.5 hours looking around. I really liked the collection of meteorites and the gems. The Hope diamond was on display. There was so much to see. Everyone was hungry so we headed back to the hotel. We knew the food would be expensive at the hotel so we were looking for a place to eat. We came across the Reagan Building and decided to go in. They had a very nice food court. This location became our favorite dining place. The kids and I capped off the evening at the pool and we turned in for the next days adventure.

I will continue day two in another post! My brain is fried! :o)