The boy and I have safely returned from our trip, it got a little crazy there....and we used up ALL of our digital data.....so here is a recap! On the second day of DC, Buddy had really wanted to go to all of the Smithsonians, but we only had time for one because we had so much on our agenda, so he picked the Natural History Museum....
Gonna be honest, neither of us were huge fans. Maybe it was better when I was a kid, but it wasn't that great. At least there were a ton of ice cream trucks outside so we could eat all of our cares away! We then trucked it over to Ford's Theater where I had bought us tickets to get in....
We spent $3 for our tickets and it was the best $3 ever spent, although I'm not sure I should talk about money in the same sentence as talking about Lincoln's death.....it seems very wrong! The park ranger in the theatre was a fantastic storyteller, we learned a lot, and got a lot of pictures,
Buddy even got a top hat to commemorate the occasion. We then skedaddled quickly to Capital Hill where we had our next reservation (the awesomeness of Covid is now everything requires a reservation, and the non-awesome thing is I wish I had been smart enough to look at a map before making them....or had a crystal ball-that probably would have been more helpful)....
The Capital Hill tour was amazing...
Again the tour guide was amazing, however we lost all of our snacks that I had shoved in my purse because we weren't allowed to bring anything in. Not sure if they were worried that I'd feed the wild senators and get them hooked on my granola bars???? Oh well, it was all replaceable, but kind of sad that I lost it all. Anyway, after we were done with that, we took the subway to the Pentagon (seriously, the fact that you can just take the subway straight to the Pentagon to begin with is a little mind boggling), where a very old friend met us to give us a personal tour. Holy banana's, I think this was Buddy's second favorite thing! Obviously, we couldn't take a bunch of pictures since things are a bit hush hush around there, but at least we got to take a picture of our important emergency announcements....
and Buddy's presentation of his imaginary "Medal of Valor"
Afterwards we viewed the outside 9/11 memorial park....
It was so beautifully done, I'm not usually a fan of memorials (visually, that is) but this seriously brought tears to my eyes it was so gorgeous, then to see all the details that the artists put into each piece. Beautiful, really just beautiful. To think, we got to do a private tour because I had a crush on a little boy when I was 6.....
Although, I will say it's the least he could do since he crushed my school girl crush when we were 7. I think he's finally paid me back now! Buddy and Vincent (our tour guide) chatted it up all about the military, guns and all the "boy stuff" during our tour. I made Buddy pay for everyone's dinner at the Pentagon, since I thought that was the least he could do....he has kept the receipts in his wallet since it says Pentagon on it. I'm not sure who he's expecting to impress with his Pentagon cafeteria receipts, but he's ready!
The next morning we had to wake up super early (3:30 am) because we were trying to catch the 6 am flight out of DC to Salt Lake City. I say try, because we were standby...Flying standby during the summer out of DC after everyone has been cooped up in their homes not travelling for two years was kind of a mistake. Buddy and I didn't get on the first two flights heading west, and quickly noticed that everything was overbooked and the airport was PACKED!!!!! I hurriedly tried to buy tickets to get us out of DC and everything was sold out until Monday!!!! I made the split decision to hurry and rent a car and go visit my Aunt Jean in Kentucky. I quickly reserved a car online, that is after looking at 4 different rental agencies and finally finding one lone, very huge SUV that was available for a one-way trip, and then we went down to the rental booth. Holy poo, were the rental agencies overcrowded and everything was booked out. Matter of fact, by the time it took us to walk downstairs and to the counter (less than 4 minutes), they were no longer taking reservations for one-way cars. Unbeknownst to me, the night before multiple flights had been cancelled and thousands of travelers had been stranded, and everyone was trying to make it out of there!!!! Thankfully, I had reserved the car when I did, and didn't dilly dally on whether we should drive or not. I mean, we could have stayed in DC, but then we would have missed this....
That would be a ramble in the woods above my aunt's house....Complete with blackberries
side note, Buddy refused to eat the blackberries until we confirmed with Jean that is exactly what they were because he didn't trust me (can't say I blame him).
Buddy loved the hike, he also loved pretending like he was trespassing.he's a teenager, who knows what they are thinking!
Jean even took us to go see the first school that my mom ever taught at Lower Millcreek School...
School is definitely not in session! Then my other aunt and uncle dropped by to say hi!
After our fiasco with overbooked, oversold tickets...and looking at the availability of flights and cars to get west, I bit the bullet and bought us tickets to see my favorite old man....we even got to see him on Father's Day. I told him that was the only present he would be getting from me!
I took Buddy and his cousin to a cat cafe, it's a cafe where there are supposed to be a ton of cats that want to hang out with you while you drink your drink and eat your pastry like in Korea...it was lame, unlike in Korea! To make up for the lameness, I took them out for sushi and then to Buddy's favorite shooting range!
Sara tolerated it, Buddy loved it! Then Donna took us on a hike named the "Butt Crack"...
Best "Butt Crack" I've ever been up! We loved it so much we did it the next night...This time, Buddy took a film camera that Donna let him use (he loves it, I've got to find him one)
and of course our favorite model, Sara....
I've been needing to get a haircut for a long time, and since Sara took some cosmetology classes in high school, I figured she'd be the perfect one to help me out. Since she was doing such a great job, I asked her if she could style my hair AND do my makeup...
Talk about getting the royal treatment!!! It turned out to be the perfect thing, because later that night I got to attend an impromptu birthday party, with a very special guest....
I would like to say the special guest was the birthday girl, but she got sick and couldn't even come to her party. Sara and I made sure to make up for that downer by donning on our princess attire and taking full advantage of the photo ops!
To end the night of awesome animals, Donna added some lambs to her farm.....I'm sad that we left the next morning because the guy dropping them off suggested leashing them and taking them for walks to get them used to the place!
Talk about best advice ever!!!! Could you imagine going past someone walking their lambs on a leash????That would be amazing! Anyway, after a long day of flying yesterday (yes, I bought the tickets because everyone and their dog is flying and I wasn't going to chance not being able to get home until October), we are finally here! So all in all a super fantastic, happy to sleep in our own beds and our own rooms, day!
