6 days in washington, dc

we returned home from washington, dc on wednesday night and i'm finally sitting down to finish this post. i had my laptop along so i could do my bookkeeping work, so i made sure to write down what we did each day in blogger (my hack!). overall our trip was a huge success. the last time i was in DC was 2003 and it was only for a day, so i was excited to visit again. cedar moved to dc last april as she joined the foreign service and she and jack are living there for a year before they go overseas. the kids were pretty good ages for all the museums, walking, etc. though ashford was battling a lot of anxiety on the trip, so that made it hard at times. the weather was nice for the most part. 30s and windy the first couple days, but the rest of the days were in the 50s and sunny. 

we had to get up super early for our flight last thursday morning. the flight was fairly long (5 hours), but it wasn't too bad. i got to sit across the aisle from the rest of the family, so it was quite relaxing for me ;)

we arrived at dulles airport in virginia at 5pm (it's still crazy to me that you lose an entire day traveling from the west coast to the east coast). we took the shuttle bus and train to get to arlington, where cedar and jack live. they met us at the train station. we hung out at their apartment that night and ordered pizza for dinner. we booked a hotel that was just a block away, so it was super convenient. as always, the kids were thrilled to get to spend time with jack - their cool older cousin :) 

friday morning cedar and jack had work and school, so we were on our own. we grabbed coffee and pastries from a lovely rwandan owned coffee shop across the street. 

then we took the train into the city and went to the smithsonian museum of american history. the museum was awesome. my favorite parts were seeing michelle obama's 2008 inauguration dress and the american flag from 1812 that inspired the star spangled banner. 

it was really cold this day. the temp was in the 30's but the wind was whipping and it felt pretty miserable. we took the metro to navy yard and had lunch at shake shack. then we walked along the river. at least the sun was shining! 

we also walked past the white house

we went back to cedar and jack's apartment. cedar had a valentine's date, so we hung out with jack for the night. thatcher picked up dinner from whole foods and we watched "national treasure." 

saturday morning we met cedar and jack at a bakery in their neighborhood called "bayou". then we hopped on the metro and went into the city to the smithsonian museum of natural history. it was really cool too. all of the museums in DC are beautiful - and free! 

we also walked by ford's theater

we went back to their apartment for lunch and relaxed for a couple hours. then thatcher, the kids, and i took a bus to georgetown area and walked around, went in some shops, including a cookie dough bar where we bought a jar to have for dessert (it's egg-free and uses pasteurized flour). we planned to meet cedar and jack for dinner in dupont circle, so we talked there from georgetown and got to see all of the beautiful historic homes.

 we had dinner at "thai chef" which was delicious - and spicy! 

sunday morning we slept in and lounged around the hotel room for a couple hours. i went and picked up bagels from a shop nearby. we took the train to the smithsonian museum of air and space.

 it was the busiest museum we had encountered. we had to wait in line for about 20 minutes to get in. thankfully the weather had warmed up! 

the museum was cool. we spent a couple hours there. then we took the train back to cedar's. 

monday was president's day, so cedar and jack were off. thatcher and i dropped off the kids with them and then took the metro to a coffee shop and a gluten free bakery on the other side of town. we got a little walk in too. it was nice to have some time with just him, as vacationing with kids is not the most relaxing. 

we decided to take a break from museums and check out old town in alexandria, va. we all took the metro there. there was a parade going on for the holiday so we watched most of (it was pretty cheesy and the kids were disappointed in the lack of candy). we grabbed some lunch after the parade and took the train back to arlington. 

tuesday morning thatcher, the kids, and i stopped by the rwandan coffee shop again (so good!) and then then took the train into the city. 

we went to the museum of african american history, which is super popular, but thankfully we are here in the off season, so we got right in. it was an amazing museum. such powerful history, i'm so glad we got the opportunity to take it in.

when we were walking to the train, the roads were all blocked off. before we knew it, president trump's motorcade was driving by. it was cool too see even if he is far from our favorite president ;) 

we took the train to NoMa and went to "union market" for lunch. it was a big building filled with various food vendors. thatcher and i got arepa sandwiches and they were so delicious! 

 we made our way back to arlington, and stopped at "nice cream" for a treat. 

wednesday was our last day! we went back to "bayou bakery' near the hotel because i really wanted to try the beignets...and they did not disappoint!

then i took the kids to "rocky run park" near our hotel and they played on the playground. 

we checked out of the hotel and decided to take the train to tysons corner mall to kill time before we needed to be at the airport. we had an evening flight and got back to seattle at 8:30 pm which felt really late because we had adjusted to eastern time. 

now we are wrapping up the rest of the kids' mid-winter break before they head back to school on monday.