Washington DC 2011

In April we signed up for a complimentary weekend at the National Harbor Resort in Washington DC from September 9-12. We were so exhausted from the move that we really weren't super excited about sleeping in another bed but it was a great weekend overall. We drove down Friday morning and saw that our hotel was beautiful and right on the Potomac River. We got settled and took a stroll around the harbor. It was so beautiful!!! We had a free meal at McCormick and Schmick's and then we all had Ben and Jerry's at the harbor.

 

On Saturday morning we headed into the city and were at the Air and Space Museum when it opened.  Noah had a cursory interest in the planes and sailed through the museum.  He had a small peak of interest in Mars and going to another planet, but for the most part he was not super enthusiastic about much!  We did try some Astronaut Ice Cream which both of the kids loved!  After the Air and Space we headed to the Natural History Museum which was a completely different story.  Noah sprinted from room to room naming the animals and which era they came from.  He wanted to see every angle of every creature and he was thrilled to be there.  We had a lovely lunch on the National Mall and drove to see if we could spy the new Martin Luther King memorial.  We quickly double parked and took turns to go see it.  It was very beautiful and inspirational!  After that we headed home for naps.  

 

We spent a great afternoon at the amazing pool at the hotel and then we took the ferry to Alexandria for the evening.  We walked the beautiful old streets and had a lovely dinner outside.  Noah was thrilled to keep tally of the dogs and babies that passed by as we ate.  After dinner we had more ice cream, got great balloons from a street vendor and took the boat back home.

Sunday we decided to take it easy and walked around the harbor.  The neighboring building was a large convention center that had indoor fountains so we did some shopping and watched the amazing fountain shows.  

All weekend our hotel window looked out onto a giant pirate ship that had a zip line and climbing structures attached to it.  Noah was begging to go so we looked into it.  He wasn't old enough for all of it but he did climb to the top of a 25 ft. light house on a rock wall and got to do some rope climbing.  Paul did the zip line and had a blast.  In the meantime Maeve and I hit the pool again.  Of course, on the elevator back to the room she stripped and refused to get dressed again.

On Monday morning we packed our bags and then headed to the DC Zoo for the day.  We had a wonderful time looking at the animals.  We are always amazed at how different each zoo is and which animals act differently.  The gorillas were amazing at DC and performed all kinds of funny family pranks on each other.  The lions were amazing... lots of cubs chased each other and played tag!  

After a long long day we finally headed back home!