We came, we saw, we missed Obama...

So we got home from our trip to DC this week and ohmygoodnessitwasamazing.  We had such a good time and Kieran was a dream the whole time.  For being completely out of his element, sleeping in a strange crib, being dragged around from 9am till 10pm and a 22 hour round trip in a car, he was just amazing!

This is going to be a super long blog post, but I'll make it up to you as soon as it's done.

On Friday night, almost as soon as we got into DC we checked into the hotel and went straight to the Marine Barracks for their evening parade.  It was stifling hot...I'm talking almost 100 degrees before the humidity and the air was so still, not even a slight breeze.  I ended up stripping Kieran down to his diaper and leaving to walk him up and down the street to keep him cool.  From what I was told though, the parade was awesome.

Saturday we got up bright and early and left to take a tour of Washington.  From the Washington Monument, to the WWII Memorial, over to the Lincoln Memorial, and down to the Vietnam War Memorial, around to the White House and finally stopping at the Willard Hotel, we sweated through our morning.  This place is full of history and absolutely beautiful!

The afternoon lead us to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. What a place! So much cool stuff to see.

Sunday we put ourselves through more punishment...I mean, touring (Oh my word it was soooo hot there! We were just dying!) We went to check out the Capitol and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial (in case I haven't mentioned it before, everyone in my family except my mom and Kieran are involved in policing somehow, so this place was super important for us to check out!)  The U.S. knows how to put together some beautiful monuments - Canada should take a lesson or two from them.

We tried to stay cool in the afternoon by going to the Natural History Musuem and showing Kieran all the animals and dinosaurs.  He was more interested in making friends.

Monday morning we took a break from walking and went to the Arlington Cemetery.  If there's one place you have to go in the DC area, it's the Arlington Cemetery - especially to see the changing of the guards ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns.  What a moving place!  It gave me chills to see it in real life.

In the afternoon we headed out to Alexandria and stopped at the George Washington Masonic Memorial.  My dad is a mason and John is thinking about becoming one, and it was somewhere they really wanted to stop.  Unfortunately I spent most of the time trying to keep Kieran occupied, so I didn't get to see too much - but I can tell you that there were a lot of pictures of George Washington there...and the green couches are super comfy.  If you ever get a chance to sit in them I highly recommend you do it.

Tuesday, our last day of the trip before heading home (I bet you're thankful for that! This blog post is going to end soon!)  We started out at the Library of Congress.  I would marry the Beast if I could have a library like that.  Incredible!  And seeing the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in person was super cool.

(Excuse John's wardrobe in this photo...I let him dress himself that day)

That afternoon we split up.  The guys went to the Air and Space Museum and the ladies went to the Art Gallery.  Picasso, Monet, Rembrandt, Renoir, Degas...Incredible!  Unfortunately Kieran had a bit of a melt down and I had to get out of there early so he didn't bother anyone, but what I saw just blew me away!  On the way back to the hotel we got to stop and dip our feet in a fountain (there's no way we'd be able to do that at home!) and take a quick walk through a sculpture garden which was neat.

Oh and to make up for Kieran and I missing the parade the first night, we got to go back on Tuesday! This time it was in a park right in front of the Iwo Jima Memorial.  They couldn't have picked a better spot for it.  I have to agree, it was phenomenal!

And that was it - the 5 days flew by fast, but it was so worth it. Kieran loved DC so much that he decided to stay a while.  He joined the Navy.  Then he found out how much hard work it was and decided he'd just stay a tourist.

Washington is just an incredible place all around and we can't wait to go back.

Now, as a thank you for getting all the way through this post, I'm going to post about something entirely different....but I'll start a new post especially for it.  Can you hold on a second?  I'll be right back!