This is the last summer that we will all be together as a family for a couple of years, so I wanted to plan one last awesome family vacation. Trips have become some of our favorite family memories over the years. We have wanted to take the boys back to NYC for awhile, so we decided to make it an epic east coast trip, hitting DC, NYC, and the church sites in Palmyra. We started planning late (by my standards), so it all had to come together pretty quickly.
We flew out of SLC on July 30th at around 8:30 in the morning. Everything went very smoothly on the first flight, but our second flight out of Chicago was delayed almost two hours, so we arrived at DCA around 7:00 pm. Luckily, we didn't have anything scheduled that had to be done that night, so we weren't stressed. We grabbed an Uber and headed to our hotel. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Downtown, and I was happy with the accommodations. It is always a tricky balance getting a decent hotel for a decent price. I had no complaints about this one.
On Wednesday morning, we got up bright and early to go to the National Zoo. I have been to DC several times, but never to the zoo, so it was a fun new thing to try. We decided to make the zoo our first stop because we knew it was going to get very hot and humid later in the day. It ended up being a good decision because by 11:00 am when we left, it was already nasty. We were sweaty and gross pretty much the whole time we were in DC, but we didn't let that slow us down.
Our favorite things at the zoo were the huge elephants and the Amazonian habitat building because it reminded us of Brazil. At the end, Hyrum had to stop at the gift shop (this was a recurring theme throughout the entire trip). He decided to buy a stuffed lemur with his money. He was so excited about his lemur. Then I realized that we were headed to the White House immediately after, and we weren't allowed to bring anything in because of the tight security. He had already pulled off the tag, so we couldn't return it. We decided to go and hope that it wouldn't be a problem.
The whole Uber trip to the White House, Hyrum was worried about his lemur. We devised some strategies of what we could do... hide it in a bush outside and hope no one took it, leave someone behind to hold the lemur, throw it away, etc. When we arrived at the security desk, we decided to just act casual and hope that no one thought that an 11 year with a stuffed animal would be a security threat. As we were passing by the armed guards, one of us turned to us and said, "raccoon?" We laughed and told him it was a lemur, and he said, "I've never seen one of those come through here." Then he motioned us to continue on. Hyrum was so relieved and talked about sneaking a lemur into the White House the whole rest of the trip. He named him Lincoln Lemur because of his little escapade. It was pretty funny in the end.
The White House tour was really cool. We had to arrange for it 2 months in advance through our congressman, so we got lucky that there were some tickets available. We toured several of the rooms and saw lots of famous portraits and memorabilia from past presidents. One of the funniest parts was when we walked into the red room and notice that Andrew's outfit perfectly matched the room. We got a good laugh out of that. Then we headed to the outside to take some pictures.
By that point, it was extremely warm, and we were all dying of heat and exhaustion. We decided to head to the Smithsonian Museum of American History to escape the heat. We started to look around, but the kids were grumpy and tired, so we changed plans and went straight to the cafe in the basement and rested for a while. That was the right choice because everyone was much happier after our break. My favorite exhibit from the museum was the transportation area. There were lots of cool trains and cars, and we got to watch a short movie about transportation in Hollywood movies through the years.
Next, we went next door to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Once we found the hall of gems, we were hooked. They were beautiful and so interesting. Andrew was particularly enthralled. He took selfies with tons of the cool rocks. We never would have guessed that he would love them so much. The hope diamond was incredible to be sure, but our favorite was the spectacular Dom Pedro aquamarine from Brazil. It was so gorgeous.
We were starving, so we decided to head back to the hotel and stop at a famous bbq joint on the way. It was hot and humid, and we had already walked 15,000 step that day, but we finally made it to Hill Country BBQ. Jonathon had been there on a work trip and wanted to share it with the rest of us. It was delicious and just what we needed!
Jonathon had been experiencing a pretty bad earache ever since getting off the plane, but he had tried to ignore it. Finally, it got to the point where he had to go to an urgent care. We found a CVS Minute Clinic near the hotel, so while we went back to the hotel to rest, he went to the doctor to get some medicine. Turns out he was diagnosed with swimmer's ear, and they prescribed him some drops to help with the pain. The medicine didn't kick in for a few days, but he was a real trooper.
After it cooled down a little, we grabbed an Uber and went back to the National Mall to explore some more. The next few hours were my very favorite in DC. We started at the Lincoln Memorial. We hiked up the stairs, got some good pictures, and then got to see the view from the reflecting pool.
Next, we rented some Spin scooters and cruised up and down the mall. The kids LOVED riding the scooters. I was a little nervous about Hyrum driving one alone, but he did awesome. We rode up to the Washington Monument and then back down to the World War II memorial. That is the way to travel in DC! The sun was setting, and it was such a lovely evening. We got some ice cream and boba smoothies from a food truck nearby and sat at the memorial for a few minutes to watch the sunset. When we finally arrived back at the hotel, we all had over 20,000 steps and easily fell asleep.
The next morning we got to sleep in a little bit, which was helpful because Jonathon was still in pain from his ear infection. We headed to the capital building at around 9:30 am for our tour. The tour guide was excellent, and I really loved their system. Each person got a headset that was connected to our tour guides microphone so we could easily hear everything she was saying. It was very loud with so many different groups there at the same time, but we could hear perfectly. We got to walk through the different areas and see the many statues from different states. We found Brigham Young in one of the wings and got a picture. The rotunda and painted frieze depicting scenes from the history of the United States was spectacular.
Next we went to the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The boys love National Treasure, so they were pretty excited to see the documents in person. Christian even bought a replica Declaration from the gift shop so he could film funny videos with it. While we were there someone asked the guard what question he got asked the most. He replied, "Is there really a treasure map on the back?" Haha! I guess we weren't the only National Treasure fans that go through there.
Our last stop in DC was the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. In past visits, this was one of my favorite stops, but this time over half of it was under construction. We got to see a few exhibits (some planes and the space section), but we were sad to miss so much of it. I guess we will have to go back some time!
We headed back to the hotel, grabbed our luggage, and went to Moynihan train hall in Union Station to catch our train to New York. We haven't ever really ridden trains much, so we weren't sure how it all worked. We grabbed some food to take with us, and then got in line. The food took longer than expected, so we were at the end of a very long line. By the time we got on, there were no seats left together. Jonathon asked a nice young adult if he would be willing to switch seats to allow us to sit together. He was kind enough to oblige, so four of us sat facing each other, and Christian sat a few seats away until some seats came available. We definitely learned our lesson for the next train ride, but it worked out just fine.
The train was great! We ate our dinner, played some games (Head's Up on the phone), and enjoyed the scenery. We arrived at Penn Station in New York City at about 9:30 pm. My kids all said they much prefer trains over planes. It may take a little longer by train, but it is way less stressful and so nice to be able to get up and walk around whenever you want.
DC was great, but it was only the start!
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