"Camping" in DC

Last weekend we stayed at a KOA near Washington DC. It was their "Camp with us" weekend, so we got a free night on Saturday with a paid night on Friday. We stayed in a cabin again so that we could fit in Luke's pack n' play and so that I had a bed. It was a nice little trip. We chose DC so that Jared and I could finally get to the temple again and so Amber could see some of the sights in DC. I say some of them because Luke can only last so long.

The drive up was pretty good except for the fact that I have to use the bathroom every 30 minutes. I mentioned to Jared about 1 hour into the trip that I could make it about 30 more minutes but no more than that. Over AN HOUR later Jared finally pulled over to let me go at the nastiest BP station I have ever seen in the worst part of Maryland I can imagine. The bathroom was so dirty that I didn't want to touch anything. I pulled off a sock to wipe because I wasn't about to use their tp that was sitting on the back of their nasty toilet. I then used a ton of hand sanitizer to wash up in the car because I didn't want to touch the faucet. Yuck! And the last 30 minutes Luke had enough of the car and kept screaming for a swing.

This is in the woods at the KOA.

We were so happy to get there and get out of the car!

The KOA had a really nice set up. It had a big play ground and basketball court near the office. There was also a giant outdoor chess board and pieces that looked kind of like wizard chess from Harry Potter 1 except not quite so big. It had 2 nature trails and of course bathrooms. There was also a pool, but it wasn't open yet. When we got there we unpacked and then played outside until it was time to start the fire for dinner. After we ate our yummy tin foil dinners Jared and I headed off to the temple and Amber stayed to play with Luke and put him to bed.

The next morning we got up early-- Luke's doing, of course, and got ready for DC.

Luke ate his breakfast in his sweatshirt and rain boots.

Loving the flowers

Smelling the flowers

We drove to a Metro station and took the Metro into DC. It was pretty fun to be on a metro again. I don't think I've ridden one since my mission. In Korea we took the metro everywhere. We came out right by the Washington monument and then walked to monuments from there.

World War II Memorial

Korean War Memorial

I hadn't been to the Jefferson memorial since my family came there when I was 12 (if I even went then), so that's the one I wanted to see the most. I also have never seen the FDR memorial. We could see the Jefferson memorial across the river from the Washington monument, and it didn't look too far. Wrong! It took so long to get there, and I was exhausted by the time we made it.

This is how far we walked!

And by the time we got there Luke was yelling for food, so we got to snap a few fast shots and then trek back to the metro. We actually saw quite a bit in 3 hours. We saw all the main monuments (although still no FDR-- where IS that one???) and we didn't go into any of the Smithsonian museums. But overall we were pleased with our trip into the city and proud of well Luke handled it.

We stopped at an Arby's for lunch. Long story why, but the gist of it is that when I was really sick with this pregnancy I would dream about food, and one of the foods I would dream about was Arby's curly fries. Since there isn't an Arby's in Williamsburg we had to get the fries while we had the chance. And then we spent the rest of the day playing at the camp ground. I love that kind of camping. Clean showers, clean toilets, a bed to sleep in, and pretty much nothing like camping except roasting marshmallows.