what a vaca

     We had a fantastic vacation in August driving to Atlanta & DC, which I had done in '94 with my family and wanted to do again. We packed a lot into a week, with a lot of driving, but it was so worth it. On Saturday we drove to Meridian, Mississippi and got a hotel room for the night. The boys set off the fire alarm at 7:00 am, so we packed it up and scooted out of there Sunday morning and drove to Atlanta.
  You may know, we do the MLB ballparks around the country on our road trips when we can, and we got in three on this trip. We first caught a Braves game (ballpark #10).

 After the game, we tried to check in but the rooms weren't ready, so we drove around and found an old Confederate cemetery in the area.

After dinner and some downtime, we went to Stone Mountain, which is a giant granite rock with a huge carving on the front. You sit on blankets on the grass and they have a laser light show set to music. The music is very patriotic and southern. Jacob wasn't sure about all the noise at first, but he quickly got used to it. The other three boys dialed in and enjoyed.

On Monday we drove to Washington D.C. and settled into the house we rented very close to the Capitol. On Tuesday, we thought we would walk to see the National Mall, but quickly realized how much walking that actually was. We walked to the Library of Congress, The Capitol, and then made it to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. (Side note, Jacob got a massive blister on his foot from his brace. :-( We found some gauze and band-aids, took off the brace, and he kept on walking and kept on smiling. :-) ).

On Wednesday, we drove to Annapolis, MD (which is a very cool city), where we had lunch and walked around the Naval Academy. We then drove to Baltimore, MD where we walked to the Inner Harbor and had steamed crabs at Phillips Seafood on the water, while Luke and Ryan Pokemon hunted. Next was the Orioles playing the Rangers (first time we managed that!) at Camden Yards (ballpark #11).

Thursday was full-on DC time! We learned that Uber was our new best friend, and managed to get around quite well from then on. We Ubered to the Washington Monument, then walked through the WWII Memorial, the Reflecting Pool, Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam Memorial.

Still more walking, and onto the White House, and then the National Archives to see the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution (which my history buff husband found frustrating because you are made to stand in line, a guard barks orders about not standing in lines once inside, not to touch anything, and not to fully read anything but to look over briefly... not what he had in mind for his viewing of these important parts of our history...).  We also met up with my parents and nephew who were also traveling on vacation, and drove over to meet up for a couple of nights.

Friday morning the whole crew headed over to the Arlington National Cemetery, which I found to be one of my favorite sites to see. We got to witness the Changing of the Guard, which if you ever have the chance to witness is pretty moving. Robert E Lee's house stands at the very top of the hill in the center, JFK and his family are buried there, and thousands upon thousands of tombstones. Not to mention the view over the National Mall is beautiful.

We then Ubered over to Ford's Theater, had lunch at a pizza place and checked out a gift store, then walked down to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. By this time, everyone was whipped, so we went back to the house and had dinner and rested a while. That night was the Washington Nationals game (ballpark #12).

Saturday and Sunday were two very long days of driving, but we made it. Thank goodness school didn't start for me for another week, and the boys the next. We certainly made the most of this trip though!!