Capitol with a capital C

This District of Columbia is fabulous and has worn out my little family.  We have enjoyed it very much but it is clear to me we are ready to be finished with big cities for a while.  Stacking up Boston, NYC, and DC has been pretty tiring.

While my mom is here in DC she is staying in a lovely hotel in the city.  She has allowed each of the girls the opportunity for a sleepover with her.  The first night was Addie's turn.  So yesterday we drove to meet them at the hotel.  We all took a quick drive over to the National Cathedral.  It is a beautiful Cathedral and I am so glad we were able to see it.  It was damaged in the recent earthquake and it was interesting to see the pieces that had broken off and fallen on display on the ground close by.  They are working to restore the damage.

We also did a quick drive by American University where my dad, Tim Scates, attended Law School over 40 years ago.  I know my mom was disappointed that the streets were so crowded and we didn't find an easy way to park and look around.  She and I would have liked the chance to walk and talk without so much busy life going on around us.  My sister was born here in DC so the 3 of us will need to repeat a trip here in the coming years so my mom can retrace all of those steps for us again.

We stopped for a quick picnic lunch before heading onto Washington's home, Mount Vernon.  I loved it!  In fact, I think we all did.  It wasn't too hot and we had plenty of time to walk the property and the mansion and really get a feel for Martha and George's wealth and lifestyle.  One fact that stood out was that in a single year the Washington's would have hosted over 600 house guests in a single year.  Dave thinks that sounds awful but I think it sounds fantastic!  The Washington's had several hundred people working for them on the property so I am thinking all we would have to do is talk, eat, drink, and play parlor games.  I could do that for sure. 

Of note, the day gave me and Maggie our very first opportunity to view a Magnolia tree and a blossom.  Yep, beautiful.  Just like my precious version 4.0.

Dagny liked the day because she was able to pet sheep, pick up leaves and flowers, save bugs from certain death in spider webs and she even found a snake skin.  Each day reinforces her love of plants, animals, and insects.  I am even more certain now that she should be a CSU Ram and pursue a degree in horticulture, biology, botany, or something in which the Aggie's specialize.

Lehigh and Delaney were able to be with us again so I think Addie and Alastair would have said that they liked playing on the grass on the Potomac side of the mansion with Delaney the most.  They liked the ha-ha wall (a low brick wall that is tricky because you can't always see where it ends on a grassy hill so sometimes children fall off the wall making them laugh) and swinging each other around by the arms.

My mom and I both think Martha was pretty unattractive.  A picture of her in her downstairs parlor was not so pretty.  But Martha had as much wealth as General George, and frankly I don't think he was much of a looker either, so maybe they were a match made in heaven.  Pretty cool that they are both buried right there on the property and that we have been able to learn so much about our Nation's number 1 President.

We said goodbye to Lehigh and Delaney and drove a little bit back to Becky's house to see Bill and Kris and Becky one last time.  My mother-in-laws are amazing cooks and even when Kris doesn't cook she buys really yummy stuff.  Last night we had an indoor picnic of yummy shrimp, olives, pate, breads, cheeses and my new most favorite food in the whole world.  Some sort of blue cheese pecan pie filing apricot preserve deliciousness.  Heaven!  I am pretty sure I am making this when I go back to Denver.

Last night was Maggie's turn to sleep over with my mom and she was so excited.  When you are 5, 6, and 10 you look forward to the following as it relates to hotel room stays with Grandma: a cab ride, room service, soft robes, bubble baths, and the fact that Grandma lets them watch TV before they fall asleep.  I would have liked to have been invited for a sleepover too.  That all sounds REALLY good to me too.

This morning the RV crew slept in really late.  We are starting to have too many late nights pile up on each other and we are tired.  Some mornings just start of badly and mine was not a great start.  Silly little things like forgetting to pack things I needed in my bag and having to turn the car around to go back and get them.  Making wrong turns and doing an overall bad job of driving.  I put my skirt on inside out and had to ride the entire subway ride into the city with my skirt inside out (not kidding).  Once we got to the Capitol half of the items in my day pack were considered hazardous items and I had to throw them out. 

Good thing we had such an awesome tour.  My mom managed to arrange a tour for us through Senator Michael Bennet's office.  She knows him because of her career in DPS and a really lovely and knowledgeable intern from his office spent the afternoon with us educating us about the Capitol.  She obtained passes for us to view both the Senate and House from the Galleries and I think that was very interesting as well.  A great experience.

We walked about a mile to the Air and Space Museum.  It has been on our list of places we didn't want to miss mostly because we thought Alastair would like it.  It is a very good museum and has tons of great exhibits and hands-on activities.  We sat in on an interactive demonstration about the international space station.  It was fantastic!  As usual, 2 out of 4 McLains were invited to participate in the demonstration.  We all laugh at this phenomenon.  We think it is because we sit front and center but we are pretty sure it is because we just have a greater chance of being selected because of the 4 kids.  It happens all the time and it is funny.  It really reinforces the kids love of learning because of the experiential element.  Plus, it makes for good photos.

Oh yeah, guess who I ran into at the museum?  Lehigh, Max, and Delaney.  I have seen them more in the past 3 days then I have in the past 3 years.  Giant kisses headed out to them again. 

Tonight Dagny is having her sleepover with Grandma.  Without a doubt I am sure they are having a great time.  The rest of the crew is settling in and I hope they all sleep late and catch back up on some z's.  Speaking of Z's, tomorrow we get to move south and have plans to meet up with the Zelinsky's (my mom's only sister and her family),  We don't get to have enough visits with them so I am really looking forward to some time with them in their hometown.

Thanks Washington, D.C. for delivering.  You are beautiful, educational, historical, and I am so glad we could spend these few days here learning more about why the U.S.A. is the greatest country in the entire world.  Love it.

Jll