Yes, I survived. Yes, it was fun. But yes, it was stressful! The Girl Scout troop's trip to Washington, DC...
We started out on the afternoon of Easter, right about the time that the rain began. And yes, it rained for the next six hours and 300 miles! We stopped about halfway down at a Sheetz to feed our girls, and everyone laughed at my Fizzonator. Man, they just didn't get it! ;-)
We rolled into Adelphi, Maryland around 8:30 Sunday night and got settled into our condo. Once we figured out our sleeping arrangements and got unpacked, we got the girls into bed and made our plans for the next day; then it was bedtime.
The next morning we all packed our lunches and headed to the Metro station, and headed to the National Zoo for the morning.
The girls loved seeing all of the animals, and we ate our lunch right there in the zoo. We spent the afternoon walking around the city, took the girls to see the White House where we met a security officer who grew up in Vestal, New York - only 45 minutes away from our town! On our walk back to the Metro station, I saw a friend that I hadn't seen in well over 20 years! She was walking past me with her family and I instantly recognized her. What were the chances?? We stopped and chatted for a while and Miss Sassypants took a photo - at an extremely unflattering angle, I might add. We look like we have more chins than Chinatown! It was wild, though. They had just been to the annual Egg Roll at the White House.
Anyway, we went back to the condo and made dinner, then we piled into the vehicles and drove to northern Virginia to the American Girl store. This was clearly the highlight of the girls' trip! It was part of the itinerary, so they were prepared for it. :-)
The next morning, we trekked to the Capitol building and got a tour. It was great! We were actually there all morning, and by the time we were done, it was time for lunch. We ate lunch in the courtyard of the Capitol - the view was pretty amazing. The Capitol in front of us and the Supreme Court building behind us!
We spent the afternoon at the Museum of American History, which was amazing! We saw so many unbelievable things... Items belonging to George Washington, Civil War artifacts, beams from the World Trade Center towers, dresses belonging to the First Ladies, and of course Archie Bunker's chair and Dorothy's ruby slippers!
Afterward, we promised the girls dinner at the Hard Rock Café, so we headed up there. They told us that it would be an hour wait, so we went to the gift shop across the street to kill time. We spent about 45 minutes over there and came back to the Hard Rock to look in their shop since it was almost time for our seat... or so we thought. Almost another hour passed before we were actually seated. In the mean time, other (larger) groups were being seated before us, which led my co-leader to go off on one of the managers. After our meal, the General Manager took all nine of us into his office. After apologizing to us again for the way things happened, he then let us all have our photos taken holding autographed guitars of our choice, then handed each oh the adults $50 in Hard Rock gift cards. I thought that was pretty classy. He also asked us to e-mail him so he could send special patches to the girls for their vests. :-)
After that experience, we returned to the Metro and then to our condo, then got the girls settled in so we could rest up for our last day and eventually our drive home.
Wednesday we were up early once again; this time to pack up our gear and "check out," so to speak. We loaded everything into the vehicles and headed into the city to visit a few monuments. First was Lincoln, which we had never seen in the daylight... Then we drove to Jefferson. I was very impressed by the giant statue inside! Afterward, we drove to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and were lucky enough to get parking spaces right in front of the building! We spent a few hours there before setting out for home.
Wow, what a difference driving in the daylight without rain!
We made it home around 8:00 that night, and holy cow, were our hineys dragging! And the worst part? I had to work the next morning! But it was totally worth it. :-)
