Washington D.C.

Day 6 - June 2^nd, 2014

Monroeville, PA – Washington DC

229 miles – 3 ¾ hours

We left the Steel City by 8a.m. – eastbound and down for D.C.  We pulled into the National Zoo (after driving around in a panic for almost 30 minutes, looking for a place to park) by noon.  We rendezvoused with Uncle Lance at the Panda Exhibit.  Uncle Lance looks great and Audrey and Hunter were very excited to see him (Cammy didn’t remember him and Bear didn’t let on what he rememberedJ).  We spent two hours touring the zoo, which is beautiful.  It comes close to beating New Orleans (Audubon Zoo) as our favorite.  The kids were very well behaved and Uncle Lance was in for our next stop!

We drove over to Arlington to see all the Kennedy grave sites and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  By the time we got to Arlington, it was hot and the kids – Camden in particular – were tired.   I was a little nervous, because Uncle Lance is very into military and ceremonies, so I was hoping the kids would keep their acts together.  Unbeknownst to me to me at the time, Lance had bribed all the kids to be quiet.  Apparently he offered them quite a bit of coin, because they were very good.  After we saw the changing of the guard, we also witness a funeral procession, which was very moving.  The flag covered coffin was carried by a horse drawn carriage.  Wow.  There were hundreds of people there, and everyone just stopped.  All you could hear with the houses trotting.  Just, wow.

I hadn’t visited Arlington since Ted Kennedy died.  His grave is off to the side of JFK’s, like Robert Kennedy’s.  This was the first time that I saw Joe Junior’s grave at Arlington.   I truly didn’t remember that he was buried there.  Do you know if he was moved to Arlington in the last fifteen years?  I could have sworn he was buried in Massachusetts.

The kids and I checking into the hotel and we had a little bit of drama, involving the children, which I may or may not write about at a later date - but the last two days and the added tension of kid drama wiped me out.  I was all set to relax – but then I realized the room was not de-feathered as requested – and we ended up changing rooms.  Then I noticed the time and we had to scramble to meet Lance for dinner.

We had a delicious meal and took a walk afterwards – in a cool little retail area that had a Barnes and Noble.  Score!  We all chill out when we’re in a bookstore.  It was a nice way to end a crazy day!