1st Day in DC

We arrived in DC on Saturday. All we did was make our way to the hotel then go eat. We found this Mexican restaurant which was reasonable and terrific. It was so good that we are going again on Wed. The kids will go trick or treating in the mall. We will either eat first or last. Anyhow, the next day we decided to go to Mount Vernon for the day. We had a great adventure.

On the metro going to Mt. Vernon we saw this and Will wanted to take a picture of it. This is The George Washington Masonic National Memorial. This is in Virginia. Ok, I looked it up to tell you more about it but it is to much to write.

Here are the kids in the visitors center at Mount Vernon, Washington's Plantation.

Here is our 1st presidents house. Up close it looks like large bricks but actually it is all wood. It was really interesting.

Washington's gardens were amazing. He had flower gardens, vegetable gardens, just rare plant gardens and medical use gardens. I am aspiring to have a vegetable garden like his. A matter of fact there were some nice egg plants growing and I told the kids what they were. Audrey asked me if that is what eggs look like before they get them to the store before we buy them. I did explain to her no, that she is thinking of chicken eggs.

We saw history while we were there. We were fixing to enter the house when fire alarms started going off. They made everyone clear the house. The alarms were going off in the basement and that since the entire house was wood it may all go up. They said that this was the first time ever that an alarm has gone off and the fire department has had to come out. Don't worry it was a false alarm. It will still be there whenever you would like to visit.

Now this is the smoke house. Mark was really impressed with this.

This is a picture on the wharf behind Washington's house. It was just pretty absolutely no significance of any kind.

I gave Will my old digital camera to take his own pictures so he could write a report and use it for the social studies fair.

He was really getting into it. He was learning to zoom and everything. He even started watching for light.

While Will took pictures Audrey sat down and put her lip gloss on. That's my princess!!

She wanted to pose with the sheep. The sheep just would not cooperate with us. This is the best we got.

Will running in the maze. They had so much fun.

My family, I know not the best light but at least I captured them.

We are now back in the visitor center. This is part of the museum.

Audrey poses as one of Washington's step children.

After we left there we took the metro to Crystal City. The Marine Corp Marathon was that day. So they had a celebration and of course Audrey got all into it. You won't guess what band was playing. I will give you a hint: It was an 80's band.

If you guessed the Spin Doctors you are right. It was the Spin Doctors. Well at least two of them are from the original band.

Still the Spin Doctors.

and still the Spin Doctors. These two pictures are the originals players. This day has been my day. I will explain later on that comment.

I turn around and son like father. They are enthralled in the music. I was mighty proud of Mark it is the first time in 14 plus years that he hasn't talked to me about the sound system. Even though after this many years I have gotten to know a little about it.

Audrey took my camera and started taking pictures. This is one she took not bad. She also took a lot of the audience.

She took this one of me rocking to the great 80's music!

Will and her decided to take a picture of each other taking photos. Mark and I decided to get into the action.

I finally got my camera back and got this great shot of Mark and Audrey dancing. Mark never could turn down a pretty girl.

After this we left to go eat at Legal Seafood. We only waited 15 minutes. And then we were seated. We were going to order Scrod but they didn't cook it like they do in Boston so Mark took control and ordered for us.

Yes, this is my dinner. It consisted of lobster, steamers (clams and mussels), corn on the cob, sausage (not sure why that) and clam chowder. No, I did not eat all of that, but if you look by my mouth you will see butter on my face.

I told Mark I would order for myself next time. We both agreed this was to much food.

Audrey ordered lobster off the children's menu. I read it twice to her and she was determined to get the lobster. I should have got a children's lobster.

Will got clam chowder and he almost ate it all.

The day was great all of our trains were there when we got there. The bus was there when we got there, no long lines, free 80's band concert, great food short wait. Now this was a day my Dad would be proud of. Mark said only in Jots world would this happen.