Our Trip to Washington D.C.

I have been wanting to take a mini trip somewhere with the family. Aaron and I debated over the coast or Washington D.C.

In the end, D.C. won, as he and the kids had never been and there is tons to do there.

We had plans to leave after church Sunday morning...

But something happened.

Many, many years ago, I lived in Manassas, Va and we were planning on traveling through that area. I called my dad to see if he could remember the exact house address (I knew the street but not the house number) to help me in finding it easier. He didn't recall it, but that's okay, it was easy enough to find. I got off the phone with him and was loading luggage into the car. I happened to glance down at the front passenger's tire and noticed that it was exceptionally low on air. Upon further inspection, it was downright flat.

Three options were available.

1) Repair the flat.

2) Rent a car

3) Cancel the trip

Cancelling the trip wasn't an option... I had already paid for the room on priceline and didn't pay for cancellation insurance. This trip was GOING to happen!

Renting a car was going to be way too expensive.

So we drove the car to the gas station, filled it with air, and then took it to the only place in town that was open (Sears) and could fix the tire.

One could look at this in one of two ways.

1) We got a flat and weren't supposed to go.

2) Becky noticed the flat before she had a blowout on the freeway.

I choose the latter.

At any rate, the tire was damaged inside beyond repair. (Of course)

So, we ended up buying two new tires for the front of the car. ($$$)

After our car drama we began our trip. It was 6-7 hours of "Are we there yet?, Is this Washington D.C?, Are we still in Virginia?, Our movie is over!, and I'm HUNGRY!! The last hour of the trip was the looooongest. We were in gridlock traffic at 11pm on a Sunday night! It was INSANE! It took well over 30 minutes to get 1 mile. I could have walked it faster than that!

We finally arrived with the help of our GPS we have lovingly named Dashboard Debbie (when she directs us the wrong way she is Ditzy Debbie).

We went to the White House Monday morning. After driving in circles for 15 minutes I decided to jump in a garage and park so we could finally get out.

This guy from Timbuktu tells me that it is $17 to park there. (*Cough cough*) I told him the sign said $9 for an hour (still spendy!) He looks at me in disbelief, as if "why is she thinking she'll only be an hour?". He says I must pay now. I tell him I have a debit card, but I don't have any cash on me.

He then says I can pay when I get back. Then he takes my car and wants to park it.

(I did get back within an hour even after getting disoriented and almost lost on our walk back... for some reason I didn't take the same path back.)

We haul our butts 3-4 blocks to the White House. Not an easy task considering we are semi disoriented without Ms. Debbie to help us, have 1 hour (I'm not paying $17!!) a man recovering from a broken leg, and two children that walk every which direction but the one you are going. The analogy "herding cats" comes to mind when thinking about it.

We made it and took some pictures...

Benji was the only one to leave 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. with a souvenir. As we walked away, he handed Aaron a piece of yucky chewed on white gum. Apparently he found it on the ground and thought it would be good to chew on. He had little white pieces of it stuck to his lips. (SO GROSS!) I mean, of all the places to pick up gum... ewww!

We drove near the National Monument a few times (in our crazed effort to find parking), but by that time Aaron's leg had swollen to twice it's normal size and we were still headed for the zoo so we opted for not visiting.

The zoo was great! Hilly, but great!

Benji screamed after we left the Reptile House. He wanted to see the snakes again.

Lots of animals were out and the kids enjoyed seeing all of the ones we were able to see. We only made it through 2/3 of the zoo due to the aforementioned swollen leg.

We met up with some friends that night and went out to eat. (Hi Stephanie! If you're reading this!)

On our way out this morning we went through Manassas and stopped at a few of the places I remember from living there over 20 years ago.

Here are some pictures.

Our home... somehow, it looks much smaller or maybe it's just that I'm much bigger. And the current occupants haven't kept it in great condition... oh well.

My Elementary school. I had hoped to let the kids out to play on the playground equipment, but the grounds were torn up and there were a lot of tractors and such repaving and fixing the grass.

My older siblings middle school... Just like I remember it. I think.

This was the only landmark in town that I recognized. I'm not sure if the sign has changed from 1987, but I recognized the name of the store. :)

It was a great trip - and we are quite happy to be

home now.