DC Trip - Day 1

***Text in this color authored by Shena***

Work & Play - LLano Update - Arellano Update (all combined)
No Work...YIPPPEEEEE!

Not the kind of work that makes us money...the kind of work that COSTS us money. We wound up taking dad's Jeep, instead of our car at the cost of about 14 mpg (which averaged out to about $35 extra). We decided it was worth the cost for more space and a better highway ride. We didn't think we would be able to get the DVD player set up in the Nissan (how in the world DID the Pioneers cross the country without a DVD player for the kids?). We left at 6:00, so that we could try to be to DC by Noon. The ride up was pretty uneventful. We found out that we had tossed the cigarette lighter power cord for the DVD player (when we moved from the old office to the West Wing - trying to get rid of some junk), so we only had a 2 hour battery to hold us over. It wound up being no big deal. The boys were really good. We stopped for breakfast at about 7:30, stopped at a rest area at about 10:00, then got into DC at about 12:30. Mom, Lettie and Kathy Jensen rode in mom's Explorer, my family and I followed most of the way. Bad thing was Lettie was diving as we got into DC, and she was all over the speedometer and the lanes. She went anywhere from 55 to 80 on the 55 MPH 495 Beltway around DC. She swears they weren't talking, but Shena and I know better. I'm sure they were in the car just chatting away and Lettie wasn't paying attention. They missed the exit they wanted, so we got off and turned around. By this time the boys were getting restless, so I was getting frustrated. We finally stopped in at the LDS bookstore for a few minutes, changed the boys out of their PJ's, then headed to the hotel to see if we could check in early. Luckily they let us, so we could dump all of our stuff off in the hotel and then go sightseeing like we planned. We took the Metro (which was pretty amusing...a bunch of hicks from NC trying to figure out how to buy passes to get on the Metro...it was pretty obvious we were tourists). We rode the Metro all the way into the city to the Smithsonian stop. We wound up splitting up at this point. Lettie came with us to the Air & Space Museum, while Mom and Kathy went to the WWII monument. We hadn't had lunch yet, so we went straight to the food court. Ouch. It costs us $20 for two Happy Meals, a coke and a Boston Carver sandwich. We were hungry, though so we didn't care. Our other option was to eat at some kind of "Ethnic Diversity" crap at the Mall where the Hot Dogs were $6 a piece. After we ate, we walked around the museum for about 2 hours or so. The boys were still ok...but they just had so much energy from riding in the car for so long that they were hard to control. Kelson was running around like he was in a gym. I told Shena I'm going to go back to that place one day when I can go by myslef and look as long as I want. Every time I stopped to read or look at something, Cade was wanting to go. We headed outside to go down to the WWII monument so that Lettie could see it. I saw it last year right after it opened when I went up to DC to visit an old mission companion who's wife was doing an internship there for one of the senators (or representatives, can't remember which) from Idaho. Anyway, we had already walked what felt like a lot going from the Metro to the Air & Space museum, but the monument was probably another mile and a half away. It was about 95 and 80 degrees humidity, no wind. Not a fun walk. Luckily Shena had thought ahead (like she always does) and we brought two strollers so that one of us wouldn't have to pack Cade or listen to him whine when he got tired. They were both asleep in their strollers by the time we got to the monument. Shena and I sat down and rested while Lettie looked around the monument. We looked at a map to decide where the closest Metro station was, and realized that we were about as far away as we could get in the DC area, so we decided that instead of back tracking, we'd head towards the White House and get on the closest Metro stop there. We weren't paying very close attention, and wound up seeing the back of the house instead of the front. By the time we got up to where the front was (Pennsylvania avenue), we were too hot & tired to care. So we got back on the Metro at, get this, 5:00 on Thursday afternoon. To make it worse, we thought we were getting on at a stop (Farragut NORTH) that would take us directly to where we wanted to go...but of course, we got on at the wrong stop (Farragut WEST), and had to ride the Metro back to the main station and switch trains there. When we got to Metro Center, it was crazy. We had to wait about 10 minutes for the next train, and by that time there were people about 20 deep behind us. When the train pulled up, it was absolutely packed. Luckily one of the doors stopped right in front of us (which I didn't realize until right now) and that saved us. We moved a bit to let people off, then it became a mad house. I was literlly pushed sideways as people shoved to try to get on. Luckily the boys and Shena and Lettie all got on together in front of me before the bad pushing started. I wound up getting on, but I was about seven or eight rows away from them. They were also lucky enough to get a seat. We then rode the train back up to our stop (about a 30 minute ride). All in all, it took us over an hour from the time we went down the escalator to the time we got off. Not fun. I'm glad I don't have to take mass transit very often...especially not in DC. NY's didn't ever seem that bad to me...and it seems like we rode the subway around quitting time there, too. For sure it was never like DC's. DC's stops are also really boring. Every single one of them looks the same, the only difference being the sign identifying where you are. In NY, they have different color tiles and murals besides a physical difference in the stops. Might be crazy to hear, but NY's subway seemed better to me. So how you liking this run on paragraph so far? At least I am using punctuation. Don't complain. When we got back to the hotel (Bethesda Marriott), the boys were screaming to go swimming, so we decided to take them real quick before dinner. When we got down there, Bobby Yow was getting ready to get in too, so we talked to him for a bit and tossed the boys back and forth in the pool. Kelson loves swimming, but doesn't realize that he could get hurt. He just jumps whether you are ready for him or not. Cade is much more cautious and won't jump if he doesn't think you are close enough to catch him. After swimming, we went upstairs and all took baths and showers, then headed to grandma's room (they were three floors up from us) to eat Papa John's. It was getting a little late, and the boys were getting a little fussy (Kelson was just being a terror...he even rolled into the pizza (luckily we were all pretty much done eating) and got sauce all over his pj's. We went back down to our room and put the boys down. They only had king size bed rooms available (which means only one bed), so we brought a little two man Mickey Mouse pup tent that boys had and their sleeping bags. They both pretty much went right down. They were excited to be sleeping in a tent and in their sleeping bags. Kelson got out once or twice, and wound up falling asleep on the bed next to Shena, but he really was pretty good about staying in bed once he settled down.

Christensen Update
None that I know of.
Daily Report
LAST NIGHT:
Sleep: 11:30 - 5:08 - had to get up early so that we could be on the road by 6:00.

TODAY:
Breakfast: McDonald's - bacon egg and cheese mcgriddle, hash browns, oj

Lunch: Boston Carver (from Boston Market) sandwich, coke...some of the boy's french fries

Dinner: Papa John's Pizza - one slice of ham and black olive, one slice of pepperoni, coke - which surprisingly didn't keep me awake...I guess I was so tired from the last couple of nights I could have slept through anything.