Day #13 in DC: Shopping, BBQ, and Military Concert
[Photos from 11 AUGUST 2015, put on line 31 October 2015. For completeness.]
Our last full day in the Washington DC area wasn’t very fancy. Elsa went with Anna and myself to go shopping at an outlet mall south of Washington in the morning. In the afternoon we then made our way downtown to eat at a crazy Texan-style BBQ place with all the other Icelanders. As we were walking to our cars, we heard music, and stumbled upon the end of an open military concert. We toyed with walking to the White House, but decided against it in the end, and just drove to home base. (6 images total)
Fueling up at the outlet mall.
Day #12 in DC: The US Capitol
[Photos from 10 AUGUST 2015, published on 28 29 October. Probably. Definitely.]
Our hosts were a little worried that we’d never make it downtown to see the touristy sights, since we seemed to be in no hurry whatsoever to do so.
And, yes, they were right about the reluctance, because aside from the San Francisco Exploratorium, we’ve derived relatively little joy from visiting museums with small children in the past, even highly rated ones like the New York Natural History Museum.
But, our hosts figured out a way to trick us into touristing, which was to book tickets to visit the US Capitol (aka the US parliament building), and then offer up a sacrificial adult to babysit the hoard. There was no way to say no, so downtown we went! (45 images total.)
Finnur with the US Capitol building behind him.
Day #11 in DC: Washington National Cathedral
[Photos from 09 AUGUST 2015, posted shortly on 28 October 2015. Aaalmost there!]
The main events I recall from this day were me going shopping with Anna, and then all of the Icelanders driving over to visit the Washington National Cathedral, which looked like so many other cathedrals, except for being weirdly young. (29 images total)
Hey, look, it’s a huge building!
Day #10 in DC: Adventure Park, and Girly Dinner
[Photos from 08 AUGUST 2015, posted online 25 October 2015. Distance in time is sometimes good.]
Conscious of how much fun the kids had at a tree climbing park in France, I sought out a similar park in the US, where one traverses a course that has been created by stringing cables/planks/ziplines/objects between tall trees, while securely harnessed. Tickets were booked, and this time I (Hrefna) was the one to take them, and not Finnur.
I’m not quite sure if this trip goes down in the books as a good one or a bad one, but Bjarki will probably remember it forever.
Why? Well, Bjarki and I went on one last course, while Anna waited on the ground because she was tired. We chose a difficulty above the ones we’d done that day, and somewhere along the middle, we ran into our first elevating-plank walk, where Bjarki got scared, and wanted to quit. It took such a long time for help to arrive though, that he changed his mind and decided to keep going, thinking that the crazy-long zip-line two tree-hops over, was the end.
We made it to the zip-line, but since Anna was on the ground photographing, he had to traverse it all by himself. Previously, Anna had always gone first, catching Bjarki and stopping him, with me following. Since we hadn’t really trained him, he failed to stop at the tree, sliding back, at which point he panicked, let out a loud scream for help, and the assistants came running.
One of the guys managed to get through to him (my voice wasn’t cutting it) and told him to “make life harder for the guy about to come help him, by moving towards the middle of the line” which Bjarki apparently decided was a stupid idea, because he promptly started dragging himself towards the landing-tree, disembarking the line safely. He then got himself over a tree-hop, and to the assistant guy, who then helped both of us to disembark the course by one of those things that lets you slide vertically down slowly.
Anyway, the moral of the story I tried to impart was that a) he’d been very brave, overcoming his fears, and pushing his own boundaries, b) that it was ok to panic, but c) that it was fantastic of him to overcome his panic and get himself to safety. He himself seemingly came away with knowing it was ok to cry in front of strangers, so who knows?!
In the evening, I got picked up by my friend Margrét who lives in the area, and we went out to dinner. Elsa joined us later on for drinks and a fun chat. It was nice not to have to deal with a kiddie dinner and/or bedtime!!
Photos! (20 images total)
All harnessed up and ready to go!
Day #9 in DC: Kiddie-Gym, Playground, and Bowling
[Photos from 07 AUGUST 2015, posted on 25 October 2015. Hurrah for the way-back machine!]
After the somewhat strenuous trip to the beach in Delaware, we decided to have a rather quiet day.
Just to get out of the house though, we took the kids to the kiddie-gym again, then we revisited the Cabin John Park Playground, before spending the rest of the afternoon bowling with our hosts and other Icelandic visitors. (13 images total)
The most important photo of them all! Let it be forever known that I (Hrefna) got four strikes IN A ROW!
Day #8 in DC: Outlets, Water Park, and Annapolis
[Photos from 06 August 2015, put online on 10 October 2015, or thereabouts! This entry was started while sitting in the Saga Lounge at Keflavik airport, about to head to Canada for a week, and finished quite a few hours later in a hotel room in Spruce Grove, Canada.]
On our second and last day out by the coast, we decided to split up the gang. Finnur and Elsa took all the kids to a water park (Jungle Jim’s) while Þráinn and I hit the outlet malls right next to it (separately, our needs didn’t exactly line up). I think it was three hours until Finnur asked to be rescued, at which point everybody got picked up, and we went back to home base.
There we packed our stuff into the car, and left for our other home base back in Bethesda. We stopped in Annapolis for dinner and a small stroll, which was lovely. (21 images total)
By the entrance to the water park.
Day #7 in DC: Beachtime!
[Photos from Wednesday 05 August 2015, written up on 04-05 October 2015. It’s looking very autumny out there! ]
We followed our hosts to the town of Lewes in Delaware, about three hours away by car. (33 images total)
Our trip to the beach, which took about three hours with stops.
Day #6 in DC: Swimming with Torie & the Twins
[Photos from 04 August 2015, posted on 03 October 2015. How’d it get past midnight already?!]
While our hosts were frolicking on the beach (that we would join them on the day after), we accepted Torie’s invitation to go swimming with her and her twins at their local pool. (Todd was at work, poor thing.) (13 images total)
Cars loaded and ready to go! We stopped by downtown first to get some Greek food for the grownups for lunch.
Day #5 in DC: Home Alone, Cabin John Park Playground and Shopping
[Photos from 03 August 2015, posted online on 03 Octorber 2015. Almost makes me weep!]
Our hosts took off with their other friends and left us all by ourselves for a couple of days (at which point we drove and met up with them).
Since the day before had been kind of hectic, we took it easy by visiting a nearby park/playground, eating lunch at a restaurant, napping a bit, and then venturing out again for some shopping. (12 images total)
On the train in Cabin John’s Park.
Day #4 in DC: Brunch, Zoo, and Musical
[Photos from 02 August 2015, text from, ahem, 01-02 October 2015. How’d that happen?!?!]
It was a warm Sunday, and me and the kids followed the other Icelanders down to the Adams Morgan neighborhood to have brunch at a trendy cafe. Our hosts and us then walked/hiked (it was hilly!) to the National Zoo (free entry!), where we walked around in the crowds for a bit before giving in to the moaning children, and walking back.
I went on an emergency shoe trip, since we were going to see a musical at the Kennedy Center that night, and I only had sneakers. The only drawback: my feet grew a size last winter, and I’m now a US 12/European 43. This means I can walk into most shoe stores, ask if they have anything in my size, and generally walk right back out again.
Happily, I did score some nice silver sandals at one store, so all was not lost. But, we ate dinner outside at a restaurant by the Kennedy Center where, as I would discover a few hours later, some flies took advantage of my uncovered feet and went to biting town. Grrr!
The Book of Mormon musical was a lot of fun, probably made even funner by the fact that we got to know quite a few Mormons when we lived in California: Lovely people all of them, but just ever so slightly different. (37 images total)
A street in the Adams Morgan neighborhood.