Lindsey/Caleb/Cassidy/ and Mother in DC

As many of you know, Lindsey, Cassidy, Caleb and Mom came down to visit me the weekend of the 21st. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and I'd like to think we managed to do some different things during the trip. I'm going to try something different here and rather than post pictures, I will try to post an album. So let me know how you guys like it compared to a regular posting of pictures.



Day 1:
One of the things that Lindsey told me straight away was that they finnaly wanted to go up the Washington monument. So on Friday morning I took the metro into DC, leaving a little before 7, and got some tickets for the monument. I got there a little before 8:00, and already there was a line. The ticket booth first open at 8:30, and by then the line had pretty much tripled. But the tickets were free, and I had my choice of pretty much any time during the day.

The Monument was pretty cool. As many know, the law in DC is for nothing to be taller than the monument so that you can always see it on the skyline. As such, it is the highest point in all of DC and no better view of DC is to be had in my opinion. It was definitely worth getting the tickets early in the morning.

We also got a chance to visit the Holocaust museum. I would definently say that this is one of the best laid out, and moving museums I've ever seen. The museum started at the beginning setting the stage for how the holocaust started, what motivated it, and then followed through the the end, as the camps were finally liberated and the allied forces freed the surviving jews. It was well laid out, and powerful. The only concern we had was how well Caleb would understand and handle it. Luckily there was a children's area we brought him through before so he got a brief overview of what it was before we went into the main proper. Once in there.... its hard to say how much he understood. I think a lot, but I"m not sure how much sank in. I would definently say it is worth going to, and plan on spending a few hours there, as there is tons of material. I felt like we barely scratched the surface.

After that museum, I managed to meet up with Ken, Becky, and Samantha while Lindsey, Cassidy and Chrsity played the local scene with a jazz thingy in the sculpture gardens. Samantha's brother recently got a job with an airline, and so as family she gets discounted tickets. So she came down to visit Ken and Becky, and they brought her up to DC to hang out with me. Which was a blast, it was very nice to meet up with old friends. We grabbed Caleb and browsed through the air and space museum, while the girls went to the jazz, and managed to find a pitcher of sangria. After we browsed around for a bit we headed back to a restaurant, had dinner, and ended a rather fun day.

Day 2:
The day started out with me going to Karate for a few hours, I had my private lesson, as well as needing to help out with Kid's class, and teaching a couple of kids their own lessons. Caleb was able to join as well, and by all accounts he seemed to have a blast. He was definently sweating at the end, and says he had a really good time. Now everyone just needs to remind Lindsey to enroll him at a local school now that she is on a more set schedule :-p.

After I got back from Karate we all jumped in the car and headed down to the Shenandoah national park, to skyline drive. Basicaly what it is is a 100+ mile long road through the mountains int he Shenandoah valley. The views were pretty amazing, and there were camping grounds, rooms to rent, and more hiking trails than you can shake your fist at. I loved this drive because there were tons of overlooks, and Mom was able to join us and experience the beautiful drive through the mountains. At one point Lindsey, Cassidy, Caleb, and I did a short hike down to a waterfall. The waterfall was quite nice, and was well worth the all up hill hike back to the car :-p.

Day 3:
On Sunday I managed to get everyone up early so we could head down to Baltimore. Once there we went to the science center. The great part about this place was that it was all hands on activities for Caleb. They really had some fun exhibits set up, and with admission came free imax tickets (we saw a movie on the grand canyon) and planetarium. The planetarium was pretty amazing, I don't remember the last time I have been to one, but I had forgotten how much fun they were. Everyone else agreed, as we went to two shows :-p.

After the science center, we headed down to the harbor there and found a restaurant. After convincing everyone that they didn't really want to go to the pretty much all sea food restaurant.... we found a nice little restaurant and had a good meal. Caleb even managed to get the waitress to give him some free ice cream! After dinner we headed home, only getting lost in Baltimore briefly...... as a side note, gps's are cool.

Day 4:
After a slightly lazier morning.... I got everyone to head out to a hiking trail. The trail was called the Billy Goat trail, and is located near the Great Falls park that I had taken Dad, Sara, and the kids earlier in the year. Once we were there Lindsey's friend Christy and her husband Perry met up with us and we did the 3 mile hike. The great thing about the Billy Goat trail is that there are lots of rocks to climb. It was a blast, and, I think a good workout. Caleb seemed to be having a particularly good time climbing over the rocks. My favorite part I think is the 30-40 foot rock climb about midway through :-p. At the end though, I just love the fact that here is this very great and fun, and scenic hiking trail.... all located within the beltway.

Later that day, Christy's husband Perry gave us a tour of the Pentagon. We started off walking through the 9/11 memorial which was very touching and well put together. Then we got a brief walk through the pentagon. To be honest, for some reason I thought it would be bigger... But that being said, it is massive. I'm pretty sure it would take me about 3 minutes to get lost in there lol. The tour more or less took us to a couple different areas where the different armed forces had hallways dedicated to them. Overall it was a pretty cool place to be able to visit, and I'm glad that Perry was willing to take us through there.

After the Pentagon visit we ended the evening at PF Changs with some great Chinese food. And hopefully, ended everyones visit quite pleasantly.