Washington, D.C.!

We're here, 

in the nation's capitol!

On Sunday, we pulled away from our house

at about 10:30 in the morning.

The drive was very scenic...

long but not too long,

and at about 3:30 that afternoon,

we saw our first glimpse of D.C.

Right in the center, if you look very closely, you can see the National Monument.

When we moved to North Carolina,

it was obvious to us that the east coast way of life

was a lot busier...

many, many more people 

and a lot more traffic.

It's even more so in Maryland.

Yikes.

It's hard to see exactly what it looks like here...

in mid-January, things are so gray

and it's a bit frigid here right now.

I'm also a bit too distracted reading road signs

and making sure I'm going the right direction

to see much of the scenery. :)

Our first day in D.C. was a busy one.

The kids and I got to the metro station without a hitch

and thus began our D.C. experience.

The first thing that we saw after getting off the metro

was this:

and it was awesome!

Our first stop was at the Smithsonian Castle

Visitor's Center.

It was frigid outside

so we went quickly!

After seeing the beautiful castle,

(and Kristi Yamaguchi's skates)

we headed back out again.

I love this shot.

We saw this on our walk to the Nat'l History Museum.

You can see from the picture how cold it was.

The Nat'l History Museum.

Rawr!

After we saw the dinosaurs at the

Nat'l History Museum,

we took a very cold walk down 12th Street

toward Pennsylvania.

We saw the IRS Building on the way,

(very exciting....or not)

and stopped and stayed awhile

at the Old Post Office Pavilion

and clock tower.

Scott asked me why Ben Franklin's face

looked like a muffin.

I didn't really have an answer to that,

but I did have to admit

that I could see what he was saying.

Hopefully that was an artist interpretation.

He was too extraordinary a man

to look like a muffin.

Inside this building is a huge food court

and a bunch of shops.

We met one of my old high school friends, Beth,

and her hubby and little girl here.

I hadn't seen her in about 22 years.

It was awesome to catch up with her again.

We rode an elevator up into the clock tower

and saw the city from 12 stories up.

It isn't nearly as high as the National Monument,

but the view was spectacular nonetheless.

After lunch, we went back to the Mall

and visited the American History Museum.

We saw Dorothy's ruby slippers 

from the Wizard of Oz.

We also saw some of the first of Jim Henson's Muppets,

and a more modern version of Kermit the Frog.

It was pretty cool to see the skates

that Brian Boitano wore in the '88 Olympics,

and we saw this cool guy there, too.

After seeing The Star Spangled Banner exhibit,

(which was beyond amazing,)

we headed back to the metro and our hotel.

The kids were unnaturally quiet during the 30 minute ride.

I think I wore them out.

Mission accomplished!