Today I realized I haven’t blogged since the 9th.  I knew it had been a couple days but I didn’t realize it had been about a week. 

So sorry.  I was so exhausted the night we got home from our Night Tour and I decided not to do a blog post.  Then every night after that I was completely exhausted.  While we were there someone asked me why I wasn’t updating the blog and I threw my arms up and said, “because I’m so tired by the time we get home!” and my dad (being totally unlike himself) said, “Lissy no one cares if you’re tired.” 

Where the heck did that come from???  I’ll blame in on his stroke :-)

So anyway, I’m back now and I have lots of actual/ full blown/I put on my proffesional photographer pants type of photos.  I will also share some funny moments from the trip that have happened since my last post. 

Tuesday we did the White House tour and I didn’t have my camera.  I already told you that.  I have no idea why I decided to repeat it :-)

Wednesday we did the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Korean War Memorial, WWII Memorial, etc.  

Here is a funny/annoying/incredibly ignorant thing that happened on the metro that day.  So….we get on the VERY crowded metro and Caroline and I end up standing right in front of two girls that are sitting in seat together.  I’m not judging (maybe later I’ll talk about how annoying I find it when people say, “that person is just being judgemental” and use it as an excuse to get away with anything and make themselves be feel okay about what they’re doing)  I could really care less whether or not you like to shower, care to wash your clothes, care to use any common sense, etc.   I just want to give you an idea of what these girls were like.  They were to caucasian girls with dreadlocks (dirty dreadlocks), dirty clothes, GIANT attitude problems and self-proclaimed itchy skin.  So here is how the scenario went:

Caroline and Lissy enter crowded metro and end up standing in front of two girls

Lissy isn’t paying attention to what they’re saying, but Caroline is….

 

Girl1- “I hate these F-ing tourist!  They always crowd our metro.  Why are they even here?  I bet you they’re F-ing republicans, democrats don’t come to D.C. as tourist”

 

Then she starts talking about how a group of african americans were apparently protesting Obama as president because they said we (apparently she meant white people) took him away from them.  I’ve never heard of such a thing happening, but apparently it did.  So anyway, she goes on complaining about it and says this:

 

Girl1- “We won him fair and square.  He’s the f-ing president, have some f-ing respect.  He’s doing the best he can with the f-ing mess f-ing Bush left him.  Give him a f-ing break.”

Caroline: (totally ticked off at this point that this girl was so rude to us on the bus even though we hadn’t even said a word to her.  She was just mad at us because we were tourist.  Caroline (and everyone else in the area) is also annoyed with her overall lack of courtesy for those around her):  “Hey lissy, get a picture of this for your blog”

Girl2 (whispering to crazy girl1)- “did you hear what she just said”

Girl1- “yeah I did and if she takes a f-ing picture I’ll stab her in the f-ing throat.  I’ll ask her if she has something sharp”

Girl2- (I’m guessing she had enough sense to change the subject) “my skin itches”

Girl1- “I know, so does mine.  I have these little read spots all over me”

ummm….maybe you have lice & flea’s.  Just a guess. 

We got off the metro and it ended up putting a huge damper on our (me and Caroline) day. 

Seriously….I bet Obama would be super proud to see those two representing him.  Dear lord, people can be so stupid!SO anyway.  this was also the day I lost my jacket & my camera battery went dead in the middle of the day.  I still got some pretty cool pictures.   I don’t have any day pictures of the Korean War Memorial, but I was able to get some ones from our night tour.  

Here are some pictures from that day along with some Washington Monument pictures tossed in.  Enjoy!

The night tour was so cool and our guide was AWESOME!!!  I seriously don’t think there was a question he couldn’t answer.  He knew everything.  no joke. 

The next day we went to Mt. Vernon.  We ended up getting a late start and the metro was super crowded.  So crowded that Caroline had to wrap her arms around some guys waist in order to keep herself from falling out of the cart when the doors shut.  It was awkward and I attempted to get a picture of her :-)

Then we missed our bus

but we were able to get a taxi ride.  We got to Mt. Vernon and soon realized we were SURROUNDED by 8th graders.  8th graders that dress like this and think they’re super cool and show off the entire 1 hour and 10 mins we are in line. 

So in order to distract ourselves we decided to have Molly make funny faces and see if we could get a picture up Caroline’s nose. 

Funny story from that day:  the little foreign lady behind us.  Caroline was kinda slap happy while we were waiting in line.  The lady behind us made her son and all his friends line up for a picture with one of the “characters” at the mansion.  She had annoyed us the whole time because she just kept yelling at her son and bossing him around when he really wasn’t doing anything.  She was the one being a pill.  So anyway, Caroline was feeling goofy and decided to lean into the picture.  The lady caught her and did not think it was as funny as we did and said, “excuseeeee me!”   You can’t hear my voice when I do my impression so you won’t find it nearly as funny, but believe me…it was.

We finally made it to the tour and then I was told there was no photography.  WELL THAT’S JUST GREAT!!!!  SOOOOO happy I lugged around my massive camera. 

I got over it quickly.  That place was insane to me.  It was like its own little town and to know that he had all the foresight to do all that was just nuts.  Plus you also get more of a feel for what George Washington was like as a person and around his family.  It was probably one of my favorite places.   ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL as well.   Oh, we also found out that the two house slaves were named Caroline & Molly.  They were the Washington’s favorite and they were responsible for maintaining the household.  Naturally we got a picture of Caroline & Molly in front of their quarters and my dad informed them that they were now in charge of the Kirksville household as well, ha! 

Enjoy!

 

That night we met up with my mom’s niece (our cousin) Donna for dinner at Front Page and it was very yummy!   Thanks for coming to visit with us Donna and let me know if you need bailed out of jail during your sisters weekend in St. Louis :-)  haha

The next day was our last day and we had to be back at the house by 3:00 to get ready to leave for the airport.  It was drizzling, kinda chilly & cloudy so I opted not to take my camera out.  We went to the Museum of Natural History & the Archives Museum.  We planned on going to the Library of Congress but decided not to since it was miserable outside and we needed to head back to the house.  Both Museums were very interesting and i think we all could have spent the whole day at each of them.  That’s the thing with the museums….the facts and information suck you in :-)  I didn’t really expect much of the Archives, but it was AWESOME!  So much information. 

Here are some more pictures from out trip that I didn’t get to put in earlier.  Enjoy!

More National Basilica pictures

So there you have it!  That’s what i’ve got :-)

We made it home safe and sound late Friday night.  Our flight ended up getting delayed an hour, we had an unusual amount of turbulence, a poor girl across from my mom got sick, our flight attendants were hysterical and our pilot was cute.  It all worked out :-)

THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM AND DAD!!!!  I know it took a lot of research and a lot of organizing and I know it wasn’t fun having all of us say, “so what are we doing today?” after you had spent a tremendous amount of time preparing an itinerary that you put on our bathroom mirror.  I know we’re annoying, but we’re your kids and you love us anyway :-)  Besides…who else is going to provide the entertainment???

GUESS WHAT’S TOMORROW?!?!?  Monday’s with Bella!!!!!!!!  I missed that little sassy chunk so much :-)