In August, we took a trip to Washington D.C.! It was a two-fold mission to see the city and visit the Quebe Farm. It had been several years (at least!) since we'd made a trip to the farm, so we were really excited to see everybody.
{19-hour delay in Charlotte 😱}
We have never had a travel experience as disastrous as this one. What should have been a routine layover in Charlotte turned into a complete nightmare. We arrived in Charlotte around 2pm, and then our flight got delayed and delayed and delayed until 8pm. All the while, we planed and deplaned three different times, sitting on the tarmac each time. Soon after that, our flight was cancelled. Oof. I quickly re-booked us onto the soonest, next flight (at 10pm) thanks to the help of a friendly passenger in the same predicament.
Flight attempt #2 was also delayed...again and again. We were still at the airport at midnight when I finally told the gate agent that we couldn't do it anymore. She was in the middle of telling me that the next available flight to rebook wasn't until the *next evening* when suddenly the board behind her flashed that our flight #2 had now been delayed until 7am! It's pretty tragic when a delay to the next morning is the best news you've heard all day...but hallelujah! I begged her for a hotel, and within fifteen minutes we were out of there.
12:30am taxi ---> 1:30am sleep ---> 4:30am wake-up ---> 7:00am flight delay ahhhhh ---> 9:00am TAKE OFF!!!! I am no quitter, but when we came back to the airport in the morning and our flight was delayed again, I was close to giving up on the whole trip. Truly. I'm still both shocked and grateful we made it out.
We went through aaaallll the emotions in Charlotte...tired, exhausted! Asleep. Crazy. Crazier! Slap-happy. Crying, sobbing, unconsolable. Frustrated. Angry! So so tired...and finally, relief!
Honestly, the kids handled the whole situation like champions, given the circumstances. The only real meltdown they had was in the morning when we woke them up after only three-ish hours of sleep. They both scream-cried for an hour and a half straight, from the minute we woke them up until the minute we made it through security at the airport. I started crying with them in the security line, so we were quite the show. Everybody around us was so kind, with the exception of TSA. They were, as expected, emotionless robotic robots from robot land.
{We made it!!!}
These sleepyheads crashed in the airbnb immediately. V cute.
While everyone slept, it was a run to the monuments for meeeee!
{Dinner with friends}
My dear, wonderful, childhood friend Marissa lives in West Virginia now, so I was not expecting to see her this trip. She texted me on the first day we arrived and told me they were in D.C.!!! We shifted plans and squeezed in dinner with her family. She's special to me, and I always love seeing her.
{Monuments at Night Tour}
We booked a Monuments at Night Tour in a fancy red golf cart, and it was a really fun experience for everybody. The kids would've been thrilled with any vehicle remotely related to a golf cart, so it was a big win for them. 10/10 we would do this again.
{National Air & Space Museum}
The next morning, we met Aubrey and the kids at the National Air and Space Museum! It was so fun that they came into the city for the day. They are D.C. pros, so they showed us all around the museum, took us out for sandwiches at Potbelly's, and meandered through the Botanical Gardens on our way to the Capitol.
Highlights of the Air & Space included a real Star Wars X-Wing (for Auggie, of course!) and the planets exhibit.
{Botanical Gardens}
{Capitol Tour}
Philip and Penny joined us for the Capitol tour in the afternoon, which was really fun! Owen fell asleep right before the tour, which couldn't have been more perfect because it allowed us to listen to some of the audio with Auggie. It seems like the tour is stricter than it used to be? Hmmm. We were not allowed into the Senate and Chambers which I was really hoping to see. All in all, the history and rotunda did not disappoint though.
Political side note: On January 6th, 2021, a bunch of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. It was scary to see it happening on the news, but even more eery and unnerving to be standing in the building where it happened, thinking about it! Nobody asked for my opinion, but what do I think? In a blog nutshell: Trump is a really, really bad dude. And storming the Capitol was not ok.
{Smithsonian Museum of American History}
Our neighbor told us that the American History Museum had quite a few real trains on display in the basement exhibit. After seeing the X-wing, we felt it was really important to make time for our train-loving O's to see his most favorite thing too! The trains were spectacular, and Owen was in train heaven. It was worth the trip just to see his excitement.
And we made Auggie's dreams come true yet again...R2D2 and C3PO in the pop culture section for the win!
{Top of the Washington Monument}
Because of the delay in Charlotte, we missed our Washington Monument Tour. Several of the workers were so kind and gave us tips on how to get in anyway. Very glad we followed their advice! Sure enough, after explaining our predicament to the last-tour-of-the-day's tour guide, he added us into his group. Good luck for us and up we went!
{Dinner in Georgetown}
We unexpectedly stayed an extra night in Georgetown after a really fun, late dinner with one of Don's friends from med school, Dan Asay. Georgetown felt like a great way to close out our time in the city, then it was off to the farm in the morning.
{The Quebe Farm!!}
It was so fun to finally be back at the farm. We had such a great time seeing everybody again, and the kids had a blast with all the animals and outdoor things to do! We met the chickens and all the sheep (it's finally in my head that they aren't goats}, picked wild berries, saw the garden and the pastures, and ate apples straight off the tree!
{St. Mary's Wilderness Hike}
My kids have officially named this the "rain hike". We were on the way to a hike when it started raining decently hard outside. When we got out of the car at the at the trailhead, everybody was a little unsure. But we yolo'd it anyway because #yolo! We ended up feeling perfectly warm, and I think the kids will remember the rain hike fondly for a long time.
{Beautiful country running in the mornings!}
{Frontier Culture Museum}
Aubrey took us to the Frontier Culture Museum the next day, which is a really neat interactive museum with replicas of homes from cultures all around the world. I love this cute picture of Owen smashing pottery...he was so enthusiastic about it!
{Date Night w/ Spiderman sighting}
On Friday night, we joined Philip and Aubrey on their weekly date night. They have a tradition of a ramen and movie night for the kids at home while they go out to dinner. We drove into Staunton and had a great time, complete with a sighting of the local Staunton Spiderman!
Aaaaand a quick lil' filter with Penny before heading to the airport. We had such a fun trip and can't wait to come back. Until next time, D.C.! Never again, Charlotte!
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