John and I have talked for at least a year about how we would like to take the kids to Washington, DC. We knew we wanted to wait until Clayton was at an age when he could actually enjoy elements of the trip rather than just being drug along for the fun, and I think we picked the perfect time.
After we had a very successful Spring Break trip to Chattanooga being "on the go" the entire time we were there and seeing how awesome Clayton was(and how it felt like travel with 4 kids had gotten easier now that they're a little older), we decided to start seriously planning our trip. Around the same time the kids started talking a lot about riding an airplane. Dawson hadn't been on an airplane since he was one (and obviously didn't remember it), and the other three kids had never flown. We decided we this would be a perfect trip to fly for, since it was quiet the drive and we didn't really need to have a vehicle once we were in DC.
So the planning began! I had SO much fun planning this trip! We planned for months. John's job was to take care of the hotel and get all of our info submitted and coordinated with our state representative so we could go on a tour of the Capitol and of the White House. I made a GIANT list of everything we could possibly want to do in Washington, D.C. If we had done everything on that list we would have had to stay 10-14 days-there is so much you can do there! Then John and I went through the list and narrowed it down to the places we were most interested in seeing and showing the kids. John and I both went to D.C. as kids and both have great memories of those trips so we wanted our kids to have the same...and we wanted to make it worthwhile and see the most things in our time there. After narrowing down our list, I used google maps to plot all the locations and then planned our days based on what was close together. I really did enjoy all the planning this trip took. All of the planning really paid off because we were able to see A TON of things, and everything really worked out perfectly! I'm looking forward to another trip (nothing planned as of now) we were get to do this much planning and sight seeing-it's just a different kind of vacation and it was fun.
So now, on to our trip....
We decided to fly out of Knoxville rather than Huntsville, so on what I'll call day zero of our trip since it wasn't really day 1 of the DC trip we drove to Knoxville. John worked a half day. When he got home after lunch we loaded the van and drove to Maryville-the first leg of our trip-travel by van!
The next morning Lolly took us to the airport at 4am-THANKS LOLLY! Dawson was super excited to get up earlier than he had ever gotten up before-he's such an early bird. Everyone was so excited that it wasn't too hard to get everyone going.
Here we are on the travel by van portion of the trip.
Goodbye, Alabama...here we come DC!
Being dropped off at the airport at 4am. Everyone was SO excited.
We managed to travel with one suitcase, one backpack, and the umbrella stroller.
We were trying to limit luggage because we had so much travel ahead of us that we didn't want to be lugging a lot with us on our future modes of transportation.
Nora Kate had an idea to take a selfie in the airport...then she said she wanted to take a girls selfie everywhere on our trip...so we have lots of silly girl selfies, sweet girl.
The kids were thrilled when we finally got to board our plane. It was still dark out!
On the flight there I sat with Carter and Clayton and John with Nora Kate and Dawson.
As we were about to take off the sun began to rise over the mountains.
SO beautiful.
We had gum to help with popping ears.
The kids never complained once but we tried to keep reminding them to yawn, swallow, pop their ears. I think I made Clayton paranoid about it as you can see him touching his ear here.
We told the pilot that it was the kids first time flying.
They got wings and got to check out the cockpit.
After we flew from Knoxville to Baltimore, we entered our next mode of transportation...BUS!
We rode a bus from the airport to the train station.
Once we got our train tickets, we waited on the train.
Look at Clayton's excited face that we were watching for our train.
(look at John's grip on Clayton's arm-we were on the platform so close to the train...made me slightly nervous for Clayton, so we kept a very tight hold on him)
Train is here!
Aboard the train with our tickets.
First train ride
First train ride
ALL ABOARD!
After taking this selfie a nice lady on the train gave us some recommendations on touristy things to do in DC-how did she know we were tourists? Do locals not take a million pictures and selfies on the train!? HAHA
We took our train into Union Station. Wow, so beautiful!
The entire time we were in DC, I kept pointing out all the beautiful architecture to the kids.
Union Station is just so pretty.
Our plan was to then take the metro/subway, but we wanted some coffee (remember we had been up since 3am!?), and we knew that Mark Batterson's coffee shop was really close to Union Station. We just finished a book by Mark Batterson, and we really wanted to stop by his coffee shop and grab a cup of "coffee for a cause" since we were SO close. So we did..
Walking outside Union Station
There's the coffee shop
Then we walked back to Union Station
We then waited on our metro/subway.
For some reason, Nora Kate decided to show some attitude in this picture.
Silly selfie waiting on the subway
So, we traveled by car, plane, bus, train, subway...the final part of our journey was to travel by foot.
Our hotel was about 4 blocks from the subway. So we walked through the beautiful Foggy Bottom area (look at those herringbone brick sidewalks!) to get to our hotel.
After going up the super steep escalator at the subway stop with a stroller, backpack, suitcase, and 4 kids I was really glad we packed so light-I can't imagine lugging much more around!
We made it to our hotel!!!!!
We dropped off our bags at the hotel, had lunch, and then headed straight over to the Capitol.
We were thrilled when it worked out to get a private tour of the Capitol by our state representative!
We started out in his office. Since he's from Alabama (obviously) the kids thought it was neat to see what kind of Alabama decoration he had in his office-we liked that he had a piece of Alabama cotton just like grows all around our house, a UAH hockey puck, Alabama peanuts-we always point out the giant peanut as we drive through lower Alabama, and many other things.
Clayton who was in his stroller for the tour decided this was a prime time for a nap. This actually worked out perfectly. I can't remember the last time he fell asleep in the stroller but this was great because he slept through about 1/2 of the tour.
Lincoln missing an ear to show how he was unwilling to listen to opposing views on slavery
In the Capitol.
This was about the point where Clayton woke up on our tour and it's funny because even though he only saw about 1/2 of the Capitol he talks about the Capitol all the time!!!
Our private tour of the Capitol was GREAT!
Capitol
Capitol
After the Capitol we saw the Library of Congress (behind the boys here)
The Capitol
Then we went to the Supreme Court
Walking back to Union Station
We headed back to our hotel at dinner time. Nora Kate enjoying a Shirley Temple at the hotel.
In several pictures the kids have on these sticker police badges. It seemed like every officer we passed in DC talked to us and many gave the kids stickers. I think I still have some extras in my purse! Haha! Along those lines, we couldn't get over how friendly everyone was in DC-definitely a friendlier area that I had anticipated!
Having been up since 3am, we had an early dinner and went to bed so that we could be rested for Day Two!
The kids enjoyed all the big and little things on our trip. One of the little things they enjoyed was the elevator in the hotel.
Ready for Day TWO!
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