My First Trip to Washington D.C.

OK, so it wasn't MY first trip but it was my first trip in six years and the boys' first trip! They had a blast. I think Nolen even understands that Washington D.C. is a special city because the president lives there. Nolen had the day off from school (parent teacher conferences) and with the Columbus Day holiday I was hoping there might be less traffic because of all the federal jobs that would be off for the day, so it was a good chance to try our little adventure! We drove up to the Metro station to park only finding the Metro station took me about 30 minutes of driving around in circles. I gave myself a tour of SE D.C. which I wouldn't highly recommend. I DID get a beautiful view of downtown when I came over a hill on the Suitland Pkwy. I drove onto Anacostia Naval Base and said hi to some sailors...then made it back down to my original hunting area...Southern Ave and S. Capitol St. I finally found A Metro station, although it was not the one I was intending to find. In all of my excitement and relief that this trip would not be a total bust, I failed to double check WHICH Metro station it was (although at this point, I still thought I had found Branch Ave). We made it to the National Zoo which was a lot of walking for the boys and a lot of fun. They were more interested in fallen leaves, escalators, riding the subway and the educational displays at the zoo than in the actual animals. We did spend awhile watching the Fishing Cat. He is the size of a big house cat, with leopard spots and he stands at the waters edge trying to catch fish. We also watched a sloth bear, some lazy otters, and a clouded leopard.

I've always enjoyed the challenge of finding my way around a new city while on vacation and I had fun with it again yesterday. About ten minutes in however, it occurred to me that for the first time ever, I was doing this with two children and no other adults. That was a little weird. We did fine. I will be sure to plan better next time or take along another adult. The kids were very patient through my confusion and of course, well behaved at the zoo and on the trains. I always tell them that the reason we get to do such fun things is because they are so good. I'm a lucky mama!




Walking onto the train like pros! It was fun to tell them all about the trains going both ways, the different color lines, making sure we catch the right train, standing back from the edge of the platform, standing on the right side of the escalator so that people can walk past us...and Nolen told me at one point, "Its a good thing I like riding subway trains!"