Friends in Town for a Couple Days: Whirlwind tour of DC

 It's been hard to catch up from our Utah trip.  Five days after we arrived home my old roommate and her oldest boy came to stay with us for a few days of their Easter break.  I created a very intense itinerary to help them see as much of the local Washington DC sites as possible to cram into 2 days.  We were exhausted at the end :) But we did ALL the fun things.

Here is what we did:

Thursday

8:45am leave home for the DC temple. Drive 45 minutes to:

Washington DC Temple 10 am baptistry/Initiatories- 12 noon bag lunch on the road

I hung out with the littles while Tiffany and the big kids were in the temple. They accidentally dropped a monster truck in the fountain. Oops. Then we went into the visitor's center to see the exhibits.

Drive 1 hour to:

Mt Vernon 1pm - 3pm

Drive 30 minutes to:

Arlington National Cemetery 3:30pm- 4:30pm

We visited the Kennedy family plot and watched the ceremonial changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Drive 30 minutes to: Washington National Cathedral - Evensong at 5:30pm (parking?)

Drive 10 minutes to:

 Das Ethiopian Restaurant 7-8pm (open until 9:30pm)

Drive Downtown for evening lights walking tour: 

Park on Constitution avenue, North of the Mall, near the Lincoln Memorial

First visit Vietnam memorial, then the Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, MLK Memorial, FDR Memorial, (Choose to continue or not), Jefferson Memorial, Washington Monument, WW2, and possibly walk up to the White House.

It was sooo late by the time we finished and very cold. We were running between monuments to stay warm. 

I think it was very appropriate that after visiting the FDR memorial park, the kids were able to give out two of the homeless kits that they made at church to a woman sleeping on an air vent near where we parked. 


Friday

Drive down to the National Botanical Gardens (1 hour drive, park there)

11 am National Botanical Gardens

I was soo glad that my buddy was as excited to explore the National Botanical gardens as me. We made that our first priority stop for the museum visiting day.

12:30pm National Museum of the American Indian (Eat lunch there)

I was hoping for crocodile or one of the other more unusual meats, but we had to settle for buffalo burgers, SW steak, and venison sausage.

2:30pm American History Museum

THE Star Spangled Banner that Francis Scott Key saw, was hanging over Fort McHenry during the war of 1812. 

3:30pm Air and Space museum (Turned out to be closed for construction :(

4:30 pm Natural History Museum (most of the Smithsonian museums close at 5:30pm)

Possibly continue to National Portrait Gallery (open until 7pm) or stop for New England style dinner at Luke’s Lobster -open until 8pm - they also do carry out. (lobster roll or clam chowder) 

No pictures of this, but we had some yummy lobster rolls and lobster bisque there! :)

If there is extra time, (or substitute in these for other planned Smithsonians…)

-Museum of the Bible

-National Archives

-National Postal Museum

-African American Museum

-International Spy Museum

-National Museum of Asian Art

Saturday

We met Tiffany's brother and his family down in Southern Maryland at an Amish area with a flea market and auction. I was trying to hit one more highlight, but it was rainy and not many people were there. We did find a very authentic Amish dry goods store. I bought 50 lbs of oats, mushroom popcorn, and some wheels of cheese.

Trip to Utah: Skiing and Visiting Family

We made a big trip to Utah to visit hubby's grandma for her 100th birthday. Our original plan was to drive to Utah since airfares to SLC were far too expensive for the 7 of us. Luckily, a friend suggested we try finding flights into Las Vegas.  We found some very inexpensive tickets to Las Vegas, rented a car and drove from there. 

Big Sister A had seen a fancy doughnut (her favorite dessert) shop on YouTube and was SUPER excited that we were going to be in that neighborhood (Vegas).  Our flight was delayed and we had a very short night sleep at a local hotel.  Then we headed over to sample the wares of this fancy doughnut shop.  The brioche dough and fancy flavors (creme brulee, millefeuille, hazelnut creme...) did not disappoint. 

We made it to Aunt S's house in time for a yummy dinner. 

The kids had fun getting to know their Utah cousins. And it was great to finally see their house and her preschool in person.

We did a couple of my favorite kind of projects while we were there -- helped get her garden planned out and seeds started! I brought some comfrey and elecampane cutting for her (hopefully) future herbal use. This sweet little niece, K, was happy to get her hands dirty in the seed trays. 

On our way to visit Grandma B we stopped at a Mexican Restaurant and were served some huge platters of yummy foods.

We had a wonderful visit with Grandma B. It's hard to believe that she is turning 100.  Her mind is still very sharp. She told wonderful stories about her life and all the places that she lived. 

I loved the stories about their farm in Indiana. There was so much that I could relate to.  They grew corn and hogs and cut hay.  What we would call a diversified small farm, was to them (and her) a small hog (10 sow) hog raising operation. They grew what they needed to raise the hogs and feeder pigs.  It was her job to feed the pigs. :) I can imagine how loud they were when they saw her coming.  Grandma B said that she mostly did indoor chores since she was so fair skinned (red headed) they were always worried that she would burn.  And she did get a very bad burn once when she had to go help drive the tractor.  She was all covered except that it was so hot she unbuttoned the top two buttons of her collared shirt. She said that she thinks it was a second degree burn. 

There was quite a bit of snow everywhere we went in Utah.

Baby A was glad to play in it at Grandma's house.

It was a real treat for me to see all of Grandma B's sewing projects.  She is an extremely talented quilter. She also showed us some treasures/family keepsakes that she had stored away. This sunbonnet was her grandmother's! We think it is from around 1905.  It had a a lot of details that modern replicas lack, like the neck flap and the extra ties. 

I tried it on and also made a pattern from it. I hope to copy it one day soon.  Grandma B said that it was her Grandma's own spin on the bonnet. I hope I can match it. 

She also showed us her mother's wedding dress!

It was from around the time of the Great War.  She thought around 1919. So beautifully made, albeit yellowed with time.

What got us started talking about these clothes was a conversation about 4H.  She told us that she was in 4H when she was girl and entered many projects and goodies in the county fair. 

This is a dress that she sewed in 4H when she was around 10 years old! (1933). It was so fun to see the style and early machine stitching. 

She also had her grandmother's 8th grade graduation dress.  It was still snowy white and the lace was beautiful. It was tiny, but would have fit big sister A. 

Baby A showed Grandma B his new squishy water tube toy. He really loved playing with that and her exercise ball. 

A few days later, we visited BYU and had lunch with hubby's uncle A and nephew S.  

We went to watch our friends cross-country ski race.

They really love cross country skiing.

We also went to Brighton to enjoy the huge snowpack and do some downhill skiing and snowboarding.  It was Brother S's first time snowboarding and he had a great time. There was so much snow to enjoy even on the "learner" level runs.

We borrowed most of the gear from our friends. We travelled very light to save on luggage costs. Our W family buddies are excellent thrifters and had lots of extras to share. 

The boys we sooo happy to see eachother again and spent many happy hours building robots and hot wheels tracks. 

We went to the Provo Temple one morning so that the kids could do baptisms and the moms could do sealings.  There was a couple in our session celebrating their 62nd wedding anniversary. 

A wonderful trip. We enjoyed all of our visits so much. Hubby, unfortunately had a proposal to work on most of the time. We've been working hard to catch up on all of our schoolwork and spring planting since we came home.  It was worth making the trip though!