Washington D.C. Trip

Every year the J. Ruben Clark law society has a meeting somewhere in the U.S.  This year it was in D.C.  Marc had talked about going, but was kind of on the fence.  Then he was contacted by an organizer of the event asking if he'd be on a panel of corporate lawyers for a Q and A session.  He said he would, and asked if the girls and I would come with him.  I wasn't too sure at first, but eventually he convinced me to go.  It helped that one of his co-workers was also going with his wife and kids.  Sara and I were able to meet up and spend the days at the museums while the guys went to their conference.  In the end I'm happy we went...although there was a point in the Museum of American History when Avery was lying on the ground kicking her arms and legs and screaming bloody murder that I may of said otherwise...but in the end, I'm happy we went.  ;)

We took Amtrak out, and I have to say it's a pretty good way to travel.  Clean, spacious seats.  It was a lot of fun.

 The Air and Space Museum

 The best part of the trip for Hailey was the Inaugural gowns at the American History Museum.  She was obsessed.  So much so that we went both days to see it.  The first day we saw it she went to bed before Marc got home, but he was working in the middle of the night and she woke up and told him all about it.  She woke up and said, "Dad, I got to see the dress Michelle Obama wore!" (she's obsessed with the Obama's BTW.)  "It was beautiful.  It's white with one sleeve, and it has beautiful silver flowers and spiders on it."  When she said that I thought spiders??  I don't remember that, but the next day when we went back it does have little designs on it that do look kind of like spiders.  I get it now.  Then she went on to say, "She had beautiful white shoes, that she wore so long you can see her toe prints in them.  And she had lots of bracelets, and beautiful long dangley earrings!"  She went on equally long about some of the other dresses.  At some point she started following a tour guide around and told me that one of the first lady's saw her husband killed.  I'm guessing Lincoln, but I'm not sure.  She's such a funny/sharp little girl. 

 The girls in front of Hillary Clinton's gown.  It's really beautiful.

 Avery, Hailey, and Grace in front of Michelle Obama's gown.

 Hailey and Grace in front of the Hope Diamond.

 We saw the flag that was the inspiration for the Star Spangled Banner.  Hailey has become a mini expert on the war of 1812.  She was watching a video about how they set the white house on fire, and she looked at me and said is this real or pretend?  I told her it really happened a long time ago, and she looked shocked.  She also told her dad that night about how this fort was being attacked, and these people were shooting canon balls at it and the flag got a few holes in it, but it never fell, and we won the battle.  Whenever she talks about the white house being burned she always says, "and these people fired the white house!"  So funny.

The museum of Natural History was great!  We spent a lot of time there, but still probably only saw half of it.  The girls had a great time.

Then on Saturday we spent some time in the train station and then came home.  I felt an overwhelming love for New York when we arrived at Penn Station and walked outside and hailed a cab in 1.2 seconds.  When we walked out there were of course huge buildings everywhere and a sea of yellow cabs, and I just was so happy to be home.  I really do love New York.