Washington, DC

I just got back from DC, where I spent 4 days with Beckie and the kids. Ok, technically, I'm not back, I'm on the plane, typing this up on my new OQO model 2. But, only the geekiest among you (and there are a few) will be following the OQO link right now, and most will be wondering how our first vacation together went. In a word: Great!

Beckie had to go to Baltimore for 2 days for work last week, which meant she was being flown up and had a hotel room, so she figured why not pay the additional money to fly the kids up and stick around to see DC? After a little schedule rearranging with my client, I decided I could join them, so on the 3rd day of their trip, I met them in Baltimore. I rented a car, and after a trip to the aquarium (always a great place) and dinner, we drove down to our hotel in Georgetown. Getting there was a challenge, due to some crappy directions from both Avis and whoever answered the hotel phone the 1st time, but the 2nd person got us there.

By the way, to follow along in pictures, see kyleandbeckie.com.

The first day (Wednesday) was monument day, and was particularly hard on Katie who, at 12, doesn't really give a rat's ass about all the history we saw. First we went to the Lincoln Memorial, which is at one end of the mall. After taking in the views there and at the reflecting pool, we hit the Vietnam Memorial. This time it was just as sobering as the last time I saw it, but not as depressing, because there weren't crying vets sitting on the ground every 30 feet. Next up was my favorite of the trip, the WWII memorial. I had never seen this one before, and it has an appropriate nickname: the jewel of the mall. Very cool memorial. Next, we hung a right at the Washington Memorial and went down toward the Jefferson. We rented a 4 person paddle boat and took in the sights of "The Jeff" from the tidal pool where the cherry trees are (they weren't blossoming). After that, we did our first museum... the Holocaust museum. I did that one years ago when Joyce visited me while I was living in Alexandria, and it was just as shocking and depressing as I remembered it. By this time we were damn tired so we headed back to the hotel for a rest before dinner. Unfortunately, by dinner time we got a hell of a thunderstorm so we were stuck eating dinner at the hotel's shitty restaurant. The food was expensive and awful. Don't bother eating at the Georgetown Holiday Inn. Trust me.

Thursday was museum day. We picked up where we left off on the mall by taking the metro to the Smithsonian stop. From there we walked to the Air & Space museum, which is still my favorite stop in DC. Leaving there, we walked the rest of the mall down to the Capitol building, then circled back to hit the Museum of Natural History. Unfortunately, the line there was very long with lots of kids on school trips, so we decided to hit the National Archives. Yeah, so much for that plan... the line was just as long. So, we skipped it and hit my new 2nd favorite: the International Spy Museum. Very cool. I highly recommend it, and it was even interesting to Kate. Leaving there, we went back to the hotel for the kids to swim, then ate at a so-so mexican restaurant.

With museums and monuments out of the way, what does that leave for a Friday in Georgetown? You guessed it... shopping. In this case, it was window shopping, because no one found anything to buy. After walking all over G-town, we took a much needed nap before taking the car out to the Arlington National Cemetery. Every half hour at the Tomb of the Unknowns, they do the changing of the guard ceremony, which takes nearly 10 minutes itself! After that, we did a driving tour of some of the DC sights we had missed before heading out for dinner. We had a great meal at Cafe Romeo's on Wisconsin Ave in G-town (check it out!) before collapsing into bed exhausted.

Saturday -- departure day -- we went to the National Zoo. I was actually pretty disappointed with the low number of animals present, and the number of exhibits that were closed. We intended to stay there until 3 o'clock, which is about right to catch a 6 o'clock flight from BWI, but we ran out of things to look at and decided to go to the airport early. Bad idea. Our flights back (me to Dallas, them to Houston) were delayed for 2 hours due to severe storms in Texas. Actually, their flight was pushed to 8, so we went to the bar for a drink... and at 7, the screen suddenly updated to show their flight leaving at 7! And we weren't even through security! They barely made it. My flight finally left around 8:30.

It was a great trip, and an important milestone. Not only was it the first vacation together for Beckie and me, but it was with the kids and I survived!