Things I Learned on Our Trip to Washington D.C.

1. If you look up at the Washington Monument from the base, it looks like it’s going to fall on you. My favorite moment was when we were with our friends Jon & Sarah and Jon, Tyler & I had just finished discussing how it looked like the monument was going to fall on us by looking up at it when Sarah looks up and goes “Whoa, guys! It looks like it’s going to fall on us!”. Silence.


2. I am one of those mothers who uses food to entertain, pacify, & reward my child. The only way we got through the 6 hour drive, metro rides around the city and touring a few museums was by me sitting/walking next to Landon’s stroller feeding him every last saltine/graham cracker/raisin/cheerio I could find in my purse. Maybe next trip I’ll move onto Funyuns.

3. Barack is in the Hizzouse. Flag is a’waving.


4. Our friends Jon & Sarah are going to be awesome parents. As are Bryant & Mary, my brother & sister-in-law, who were so nice to open up their home to us. Landon misses them all!


5. I may be D.C.-raised, but I have been grafted into the house of Ohio with pride. Go Bucks!


6. This is what Tyler and I would look like as Neanderthals. I think we would have been the Brangelina of the cave.


7. There is absolutely NO running up the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial. I thought I was being all Rocky-like by sprinting (okay, more like a hectic prance) up the stairs to get there before Tyler until my super-athlete fantasy was dashed by a green-uniformed park ranger dropout with Short Man Syndrome. To add insult to injury, he called me Ma’am.


8. Great Falls Park is so cool, I don’t know why I didn’t go there more while growing up. I grew up in Great Falls, Virginia and just a few miles from my house was Great Falls National Park where George Washington helped build a canal to facilitate commerce with the Ohio territory (it worked! I’m here!). I had forgotten how beautiful the falls were and how amazing it is to be surrounded by history at every turn.


9. I had awesome memories as a child. Even though my family moved away from Great Falls 10 years ago, I took Tyler and Landon to see the house I grew up in from ages 6 – 17. I expected to be a little depressed that someone else owned MY home but I was really just excited to share with Tyler some of my favorite memories like the pathway through the yard my brother & I had worn by riding our bikes down a little hill, where we used to play roller hockey in the cul-de-sac, how my brother taught me how to throw a football in the front yard, how my mom used to sit out on the front step in the summer evenings and watch us catch lightening bugs, how my brothers used to let me play “around the world” with them in the driveway (although I got to start closer to the hoop), how all the azaleas along our walkway would bloom just in time for my birthday. Which also brings me to the next thing I learned…


10. I miss having a real home. It’s been 10 years since we moved away from Virginia and I’ve lived in 5 different places (in 3 different countries) since then. I miss coming home to a place, even just to visit, and having it feel familiar. And not just familiar in the sense of I know how to get to the grocery store from here but familiar in the over there is where I skinned my knee after riding my first two wheeler or here is where the miniature horse bit me (that’s a story for another time) kind of way. I have loved all the experiences I’ve had in the last 10 years but there’s also something to be said for coming home.



11. I miss dancing. We visited my dance school and I got to go back to my favorite place on the barre where I spent so, so many hours. As cheesy as it sounds, I miss feeling the music and being able to move my body in any way that I wanted it to. It doesn’t listen to me like that these days.


12. When you order crab in Annapolis, they don’t mess around. Bryant and Mary took us to this awesome crab place on Main Street in Annapolis. I was completely grossed out by breaking the shells and pulling out the innards, especially the squishy lungs. On the other hand…


13. Landon loves playing with dismembered crab legs. I’ll remember that for his first birthday.


14. Don’t eat the mustard. Almost every time you open a crab, there’s this green stuff that looks like a paste of some sort. Mary kept saying that it was seasoning the restaurant injected into the crab, so we asked our waitress.

Us: What’s this green stuff?

Waitress: It’s mustard.

Us: Oh, so how do you guys inject the mustard in there?

Waitress: Actually, it’s the crab’s mustard.

I think air quotes were needed here, but thanks for the euphemism. Gross.

15. Growing up, I definitely did not appreciate how cool this place was. I guess that means more trips will be in order to fully appreciate it now. We may have to fly next time if we want Landon to be able to still see his feet by age 8.