Our First DC Trip

What a fun, and action packed Saturday we had! For the past 3 years we have lived within an hour of Washington, DC; and yet we have never taken the trip--until today.

Now, I have been to DC plenty of times on grade school trips over the years, but this was the first trip for Garren and Gracie.

We got up this morning and drove to Vienna, VA where we caught the Metro (a train). None of us had ever ridden the Metro, and I was little worried about Gracie freaking out in the small dark space--but she seemed to enjoy it. She made "choo-choo" sounds as we made the 30 minute trip to our destination.

We had decided ahead of time to take her to the Air & Space museum. I knew that Garren would love it, and she would enjoy seeing the planes and space ships. We were also meeting up with my high school friends Heather and Becky, and Becky's husband Mike. [Thanks to them our trip was went much more smoothly, and I was much more stress free!] We met the trio at the L'enfant station and headed for the museum which was only a couple of blocks away.

Gracie had alrady had her thrills for the day. Within 45 minutes she had gotten to ride on a train and watch a pidgeon! She was very excited about both the train and the bird, so I wasn't too upset when about an hour in to the museums exhibits, we realized that Gracie wasn't having much fun. She seemed to be nervous around the crowds and all the commotion. So, we decided to take a lunch break. After lunch, Becky & Heather told us we should probably try the Museum of Natural History, since it may have more things Gracie would be interested in, and it wasn't far from where we were.

The hike to the next museum was beautiful, and we passed through the National Mall where we saw the Capitol building on our right and the Washington Monument on our left. Pretty cool.

The museum of Natural History did have a lot more to offer Gracie, but she was just too tired to really enjoy it. We looked at the elephant exhibit, the mammals, the dinosaurs, the Hope Diamond and even finished up our visit with a trip to the souvenir shop (where she got an overpriced, but adorable baby panda cub). We stopped for a few more pictures before heading back to the Metro with a very sleepy baby.

What a wonderful day! It was great to catch up with old friends and take a new adventure with my family.

You can take a look at the pictures we took by clicking here. My space-enthusiast husband is responsible for all the airplane/space craft pics! Oh, and a side note--the musuems we visited today were free, and the train rides were less than $10 total! So, with lunch we had a very reasonably priced outing.


**Top: family picture at the Air & Space Musuem. Bottom: Gracie first ride on a train (ours too!)**

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