April, 12 Washington D.C.

Now that we've gone over where Bamboo has gone, I thought I would share some of the experiences that the humans had on the trip. (Although the last day of the trip, that might have been a little bit of a stretch for me-I was feeling a little bit grumpy).


On the 11th, I checked Emma and Caleb out of school early at 1:30 to catch the flight. Brad came home and checked Rachel out of school. All this depended upon lightning quick response time and impeccable timing, so true to character, the Miller Family and my mom and Ed all arrived at our house within minutes of each other. We packed our car and headed for the airport.


Brad came up with this wonderful idea. We didn't want to leave my car at the airport for over a week so a plan was devised where we would pick up Caroline, Brad's sister, at her work at the Real Estate Commision and she would come to the airport with us. We would get dropped off and she would take my car back to work with her. When her dad got done with teaching his class, he would pick up the car and take it to his house. When it came time for us to come home, someone would take the car to the airport and park it in short term parking. So, thanks Carly and Wood for making this work.


We got to our hotel in Springfield at about 11:30 Eastern Time. The next morning after breakfast, we all loaded up into the "tissue box" car and drove to Mt. Vernon.

It's a beautiful place. I can see why George wanted to retire and spend all his days at home. I would love to sit out on the back porch with a good book at stare out at the Potomac. The grounds were huge and immaculate. Rachel with her off-kilter sense of humor (where did she get that from? Her mom and dad aren't like that at all), got a kick out of the huge compost shack next to the stables. She was singing "The Poop Shack is a little ol' place where we can get together. . "to the tune of the B52s "Love Shack" for the next hour.

Things we learned at Mt. Vernon:

1. The new visitors center and museum are really cool.
   


2. The museum is more enjoyable when you've had lunch.
   


3. George Washington's nephew was named Bushrod Washington. Poor man.

Next we went to Arlington Cemetery. I think everyone including the kids felt a little overwhelmed at all the graves of the people that have served our country. It makes you realize how much people have sacrificed so we can live like we do. We saw the changing of the guard at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Very cool. Ask Rachel and Emma to show you how it's done sometime. They do a pretty good reenactment.

After we drove to the Washington, D.C. temple in Maryland. We got there right around sunset so it was a beautiful sight. We actually had a hard time getting to the temple. We could see it but it took us a while to actually get there. I guess living in a state that orients its street on a North/South axis has spoiled us.



Oooh, pretty! I love visiting the temple, there's always such peaceful, loving spirit there. After we left the temple grounds, that peaceful spirit left and the kids were grumpy (lack of food in the tummies again). Luckily everyone fell asleep (with the exception of Brad, that wouldn't have been so lucky) until we found the restaurant that we were going to eat dinner at. One of Mom's friends recommended this Chinese restaurant in Maryland to us called Mark's Duck House. Very yummy food. Of course one of our dishes we ordered was Peking Duck! Mom and I got an ego boost because the waitress guessed our ages to be 15 years younger that we really are. Aww shucks. After dinner, we drove back to the hotel and slept well knowing we had a good day.