DC | lincoln & natural history museum

On our second day in DC, we got an early start and wandered by the Ford Theater, where Abraham Lincoln was shot, and his home (where he died, and which is directly across the street). 

 Savannah pretended to be dead also ;-)

 Smithsonian Museum of Natural History -- amazing that this is free!

 Aunt Karen got to see dino bones for the FIRST time ever!

 And, we spent a surprising amount of time standing in front of the tropic fish tank watching Dory & Nemo, as well as this giant clam, who was opening & closing. Beautiful  :-)

 We sprung for the butterfly house because -- well, what kids don't like to have butterflies land on them? 

 The man at the entrance told them that if they stayed still, the butterflies would be more likely to land on them. Gage was VERY patient, but no one landed on him.

 But...then his smart sister found her technique. She picked a flower and would stick it right in front of a butterfly that was sitting on the flower. The butterfly would crawl to her flower, and then onto her hand. Brilliant :-)

 Gage even mastered her technique!

For the record...if you ever go here, wear a green shirt. The people wearing green were covered in butterflies.

DC | the mall

As a great surprise, Aunt Karen volunteered to drive back to AL with us to keep us company on our long trip!  Our first stop on the way back was Washington, DC.  Savannah has been so excited to visit DC, but after spending the afternoon walking around the mall, she promptly declared that she had "no idea that DC would be so boring." Apparently, looking at all these buildings was less exciting than she had anticipated.

 The WW2 Memorial

 

 

 And the VERY long walk to the Lincoln Memorial. The Mall is very deceiving. It doesn't look like it's that far in between monuments, but just ask Gage (who was crying about being tired because we left the stroller in the hotel room , which was really dumb on Mommy's part). All they wanted to do was pick up poop covered duck feathers on the whole walk along the water.

 Savannah was SO excited for the Lincoln Memorial, but once she got there, she wasn't that excited anymore.

 

 We got caught in some rain as we headed back, but saw some sights along the way

 The next morning, however, was sunny and beautiful!

 

 The Jefferson Memorial

 

steam train

On the way home from Mystic, we stopped by Essex for a  ride on the old steam train. The train is about 100 years old and cruises along the Connecticut River

 We checked out the old circus train

we may have broken the rules by letting Gage sit up here

 

Savannah was our picture taker along the ride - in fact - there are probably 100s of pictures still on my phone that she took along the ride. Gage, well, he was riding for about 15 minutes before he fell victim to the rocking and creaking of the old train -- he fell asleep. 

 

into the mystic

We spent the day yesterday in Mystic and Essex, along the coast of CT.  First, we stopped at Mystic Seaport, and explored the old whaling history of CT.  First we stopped at the ship preservation yard, where they are restoring the Charles Morgan, a 142 year old whaling ship. This was them boarding

 and exploring below deck, where they used to store the whale blubber

 This is looking across the harbor, which is home to some gorgeous boats

 

 

 Mystic Seaport is also home to an old New England village, with an oyster company

 

 a lobster fishery

 

 

and lots of other replica businesses, like fishing tackle stores, sail makers, etc.

We were also excited that as we approached the Joseph Conrad, a full rigged ship, we head singing.

  It turns out they were hoisting the sails...

...and Gage got to join in with some other kids to stand in a line and pull the rope to hoist the sail as they sang.  Savannah could have also, but she was VERY cranky -- the Dramamine got the best of her that day.

  

Cranky Savannah did find it amusing that the life saver that Grandma Rooney gave her looked like, well...a life saver :-)

 

quassy

Unable to break tradition, we spent one night at Quassy, but this year, it was with Matthew & Ryan in addition to Elizabeth! 

 These kids are growing up...Savannah rode the Wooden Warrior roller coaster (several times) and Gage rode a bunch of "not baby" rides

 Of course, we rode our old favorite, the train, a bunch of times. This is most of the group getting ready for our ride. Notice that they all look happy and normal. But then comes the tunnel

 As we get to the tunnel, everyone puts their hands up and starts screaming like banshees

 and keeps screaming through the whole tunnel! 

Back to more tame ride...the merry go round...I actually sat this ride out because I feeling a little yucky from riding the umbrellas, which spun around much too fast for me.

 

 Old enough to ride the helicopters by themselves - where does the time go?!

 I see this happening in about 10 years, but  in a different car ;-).  I love that the amusement parks is set on the lake

 The boys were getting a little silly

 Wow...they were all looking at me again!

 I think they had too much fun;...they landed in jail :-)