Just a Perfect Day. Problems All Left Alone. Weekenders On Our Own.

The street we stayed on in DC. My girls thought it was silly of me to take photos of that neighborhood, but I did it anyway.

Here is where I write long-winded posts with ridiculous amounts of photos about our Christmas, Washington D.C. vacation.

We headed out of Iowa City by 7 am on the Friday before Christmas. We made good time and we all took turns driving. After all of those road trips doing all the driving by myself, it was so nice to have help. Even if that meant my girls were EXTREMELY critical of how I drove when it was my turn. Sigh. Damn kids...

We made it to Frederick, Maryland at 9:45 on Friday night. We were supposed to check into our AirBnB the next day after 2, but the AirBnB host guy texted me to tell me that they were out of town for Christmas and the place was ready for us. So, we were able to get up on Saturday morning, drive to our apartment and unload all of our crap before we headed to the Mall.

Christmas Eve was our first day in Washington D.C. and it was pretty incredible. We had no idea what we were doing and it could have turned out very badly for us, but instead it was magical. We took the free trolley to Union Station and figured we'd have to take some kind of public transportation to get where we wanted to go. Trains and buses looked pretty pricey, then Coadster suggested we walk through Union Station, go outside and see where the buses were. What we found out when we went outside of Union Station, was that the Capitol was right across the street and that we could walk to almost everything we wanted to see.

We walked into the Capitol and it was really pretty. It was also closing in 20 minutes for Christmas Eve, so we walked around a little and looked at exhibits quickly before it was time to go.

We went toward the Mall, but damn if almost any building we looked at didn't have incredible architecture and every area didn't have a cool sculpture in it.

Here I am pretending to get trampled by the horses statue. Rest assured there was much rolling of eyes from my daughters...

So, here's the beginning of a weird story. A woman with a daughter who was about the same age as my girls came up to us at this place and asked if we would take their photo. She was crazy and fun and at one point, she said, "Yeah. These bags are making us look fat, could you hold these while your daughter takes our picture?" I took their purses and said,

"Wow. You are very trusting..." She said we were both moms and she knew we wouldn't screw her over. She also asked Coadster to take a close-up since they were pretty adorable. Of course, we all loved her.

After we left the awesome mom and daughter combo, we headed right for the food trucks. We all decided quesadillas were the thing for us and we sat on a bench in the path to get to the Washington Monument and had our lunch. How cool is that?!

After eating, we headed to the science museum and it was incredible. We spent over 2 hours there. At one point, we were getting ready to head out, when Stinky yelled and pointed, "Mummies and dinosaurs!" Yeah, we headed right over and checked it all out.

Finally, on our way out, we came a across the being that Coadster and John must have evolved from - the Croeyerollermagnum man.

After we finally left the science museum, we headed to the cafe by the ice skating rink and sculpture garden to get some hot chocolate and watch the skaters on Christmas Eve. You know, because we're seasonal and festive like that...

We saw some paramedics and as we headed to the rink, we realized that they were there for the woman who asked us to take her and her daughter's photo earlier in the day. What are the odds? Out of all the people in D.C., it was the one woman we actually spoke to. The world is a weird place, isn't it? Anyway, she didn't look too badly hurt. She must have fallen while skating. She was walking to the ambulance holding her arm. What a drag for her holiday.

Since the museums were closing, we headed to to the monuments. The Washington Monument, looked sooo much bigger on TV.

Coadster is a huge World War Two buff, so she appreciated that monument the most.

Look at the lovely scenery...And the Lincoln Memorial isn't bad either...

We did love the Lincoln Memorial. It was so big and overwhelming in a good way.

We were told not to miss the Korean War Memorial and it was pretty eerie and cool looking as the sun started setting over it.

We headed toward the White House to check out the Christmas Tree there, and on the way, we got to check out the Vietnam War Memorial. The Christmas tree was full of cards and photos of family members who lost their lives in that war. It was very intense.

We finally made it to the White House Christmas tree. There was a huge line to see the train underneath it, but we were so tired by then, we just wanted to get a photo and then forage for food.

By the time we walked downtown we were starved and tired and our dogs were really barking. We checked out the menus of restaurants we passed and all of them were way to pricey for me. Finally, Stinky got on her phone and found a place about a block away. Their menu wasn't half as expensive as the other places. They told us there would be an hour and a half wait, but that we could wait in the bar. Perfect. We had a drink and it was only about 35 minutes later that we got a table. The food was excellent, the service was great and the joint was all dressed-up for Christmas. Old Ebitt Grill felt like something out of a movie. Our perfect day had turned into a perfect night. We got an Uber back to our AirBnB and watched a girl movie before we all passed-out. I can't imagine what could have made our day any better...Except winning the lottery, I guess.