Pre-Trip Report: It's Going to be a Capitol Vacation!

[Charleston Princess]

Welcome home!

 

[jillyb]

Two Days Before Departure: August 11 & 12

I had lots of plans for the day before we left. I needed to run some last minute errands, do a couple of last minute house cleaning chores, do laundry and start packing. That all got pushed further ahead by a phone call on the 11th setting a job interview at 2:00 on the 12th. I started the laundry immediately and was up until midnight cleaning the house.

The morning of the 12th I get directions for my interview and other stuff I’ll need to take with me. Alison’s Mom was supposed to be dropping her off at our house at noon and my Mom had agreed to watch the girls while I was at my interview. Noon comes….but no Alison. 12:15….no Alison…12:30…no Alison. So, at 12:40 I call. Ex: “Hello”, Me: Hey, this is Jill. I thought you were dropping Alison off at 12:00.”, Ex: “Oh…I’ve got some stuff in the dryer. I can check it and see if it’s dry yet and if it’s dry I can drop off Alison”, Me: “No, that’s OK. I’ve got some errands to run.”, Ex: “I can drop her off at 2:00.”, Me: “Well I’m going to be out for a while. I’ll just call you when I’m home.”, Ex (in a very happy voice): “OK!” I knew she was going to play this stupid game. I get ready for my interview, drop Hannah off at my Mom’s and off I go. I get there a little early so I’m waiting in the parking lot when I get a call from the Ex….Ex: “When you get home give me a call on my cell phone.”. Whatever

Two hours and 45 minutes later my interview is over and I’m headed home. I call the Ex when I get to my Mom’s to let her know I’m home. She drops Alison off about 6:00 and tells me how they went to IKEA for lunch and Alison had already had supper. Yeah…there’s a shocker. Clay gets home from work and we get settled in for the night. The washing machine and dryer are going and I start packing. Clay gets his clothes out and I take them into the spare bedroom where the packing operation is in full swing. We get the girls in bed around 9:30 or 10:00. Clay goes to bed shortly after the girls. I’m still packing. I make myself notes of the last minute items that need to be packed because I am determined I will not forget anything for this trip. Around midnight I get to bed and, surprisingly, have no problems falling asleep. Wake up time: 6:00! My goal is to be out of the house and on the road at 8:00.

Departure Day: August 13

I wake up before the alarm goes off. I didn’t want to go back to sleep so I got up about 5:45 and hit the shower. Clay woke up about 15-20 minutes later and went downstairs to get the coffee started. While I finished getting ready he woke the girls up. Everybody is up and ready and we’re pulling out of the driveway at 7:57. Woohoo!!!!!

Then Clay says he wants to stop at Bojangles and get some breakfast…and he wants to eat inside. ARRGGHHHH Why do they always have to mess with the schedule??!! LOL OK…deep breath…we don’t have any big plans today so just go with the flow. Fortunately we’re not too far from a Bojangles so inside we go. Everybody hits the bathroom before we leave and we’re on the road at 8:30. Not too bad! At 10:00 I stop at the rest stop in Alamance County for a potty break and so everybody can stretch their legs then back on the road. The girls are starting to get restless and asking how much longer. Fortunately I had a great boredom buster.

A couple of months before the trip I bought a really cool book at Food Lion for about $2.00. It’s called “KidChat, 222 Creative Questions to Spark Conversations”. I grabbed it, handed it to Clay and told him “Find some questions!” The girls loved this! We finally had to tell them “OK…we’ve had enough of this for a while!” LOL We stopped at Exit 4 just over the Virginia line for drinks, a potty break, stretch our legs and back on the road.

I really wanted something from Starbucks but not that bad! LOL We stopped at a Wendy’s for lunch and arrived at the Embassy Suites at 3:30. It was a very lonnngggggggggggg 7 hour drive! We were in Room 607.

Our room:

Hallway view from our room:

Work area:

The girls’ “room”:

Bathroom:

I start unpacking, Clay lays down (and falls asleep!) and the girls are watching TV. After I’m done unpacking the girls put their bathing suits on to head to the pool. I grab my book to read. Clay wakes up from his brief nap, puts on his swimming trunks and we’re off to the pool. We let the girls swim for about an hour then we head back up to the room so they can get cleaned up. Fuddrucker’s was just around the corner so where we went for dinner. Alison had a hot dog and BBQ beans, Hannah had a cheeseburger and apple slices, Clay had an ostrich burger with FF and I had a chicken ceaser salad. After dinner we drove to the Dunn Loring metro station so we’d know where we were going in the morning. We got back to the room by 8:00. Alison and I went to the gift shop so I could buy laundry detergent and dryer sheets. We were all in bed at 9:30 for our first full day in Washington, DC!

 

[jillyb]

At the pool:

The inside view from our room:

Silly girls!:

Sisterly love:

Girls at Fuddrucker's:

 

[Charleston Princess]

"They" just love to throw our carefully planned schedules off, don't they?

The Embassy Suites looks really nice and very roomy!!! How far were you from the Metro station?

 

[jillyb]

"They" just love to throw our carefully planned schedules off, don't they?

The Embassy Suites looks really nice and very roomy!!! How far were you from the Metro station?

Yes they do! I thought about you alot on our trip! LOL

The Embassy Suites was pretty nice...nothing real fancy but it suited our needs. It was VERY nice to have a room to get away from the girls! It took us about 10-15 minutes to get to the Metro station.

 

[jillyb]

Day 1 – August 14:

Our itinerary for today was: National Archives at 10:45, lunch, Library of Congress and International Spy Museum at 4:00. Yeah…here’s what really happened! Not sure what time the alarm went off this morning. Clay got up first and I got up around 7:30. The girls got up and dressed while I was in the shower. We were downstairs for breakfast at 8:00 and left Embassy Suites about 8:45. The Dunn Loring Metro station has all day parking. To get out of the parking lot you have to have a SmartTrip card to pay so Clay and the girls got one day tickets and I put $25.00 on a SmartTrip card for my fare and to pay for parking.

First problem: I didn’t realize that when you buy one day tickets that you can’t use them until 9:30. We walk up to the turnstile, Hannah puts her ticket in…nothing. It’s then we realize we have to wait until 9:30. I was the only one that would be able to go in before 9:30. So, of course, Clay starts with the griping and generally being a jerk. This day was turning into a “fabulous” day already and we’re just getting started. The girls made good use of the time by waving at all the commuters as they went under the pedestrian walkway. It was cool to see people waving back at them. I’m sure they made the drive a little more pleasant for some people that day!

Mr. Cheerful

We weren’t the only ones that didn’t know you had to wait until 9:30 because there were several other people that came behind us and tried to do the same thing. One lady even tried to get one of the Metro workers to let her in but he wouldn’t. As it got closer to 9:30 people started crowding up to the turnstiles. It looked just like rope drop! LOL At 9:30 everybody is off like a shot. The girls and I go through, Clay inserts his ticket and……nothing. He tries again….nothing. Now the ranting and raving kicks in and it’s my fault for trying to use the ticket before 9:30. He tells the attendant his ticket isn’t working and he waves him through a gate. We catch the 9:38 train and get to the National Archives with time to spare.

National Archives was very interesting and I would have liked to have spent a little more time there but Clay and the girls were way ahead of me. Clay called me on my cell to tell me they were in line at the Rotunda and that I needed to get over there because they’d be going in with the next group. So much for me getting to see some of the other things I wanted to see. *sigh* I meet up with them and we finally get to go in and see the big three…the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It was pretty awesome to see these documents together and read the history behind the history. Hannah was a bit too young to understand the significance and Alison didn’t really seem to “get it” or care. I could understand Hannah but Alison is older. With Clay’s grouchy attitude and the girls’ “who cares” attitude I was already beginning to regret this whole family vacation thing. LOL At some point Clay and the girls walked out (while I’m still looking) and they are sitting on a bench waiting for me. Clay looks like a thundercloud and Hannah looks like she lost her best friend. Not sure exactly what happened as I didn’t see it but Clay made the comment about Hannah “thinks this is Disney World” and said she was beating on the case that held the Constitution. I know I was engrossed in looking at everything but how did I miss the sound of someone beating on a glass case? At that point we headed out of there, with a stop at the gift shop first. I bought a book called “A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men and the Making of the United States”. It’s pretty interesting!

Stop! Thief!

No wonder Hannah thought this was Disney World!

It was about 1:00 when we left the National Archives and headed for lunch at the Cascade Café in the National Gallery of Art (East Building). As we’re walking, we pass the sculpture garden for the National Gallery of Art. Hannah wanted to go in there but we told her we needed to get to lunch first and then we’d discuss it.

The Cascade Café was a bit like Sunshine Seasons. There are several stations with different food offerings and you can pick what you want to eat. Clay and Alison were together and Hannah was with me. I went to a sandwich station thinking that would be a safe bet. Hannah chose a turkey sandwich. Only thing is, I wasn’t paying attention that it had brie and mustard on it. She doesn’t like mustard. After I’d already gotten the sandwich for her I saw there was a grilling station with chicken. That would have been a much better option for her. She chose some corn-on-the-cob from there to go with her sandwich.

We get our drinks and wait for Clay and Alison to catch up with us. We get a table and next thing I know Clay is fussing at Hannah. She doesn’t like her sandwich because of the mustard and brie. Now granted, for the four of us, this meal was pretty expensive so I can kind of see where he was coming from. But seriously, you don’t have to be a total jerk. He keeps on and on at her and once again I’m wishing I’d left them all at home (or at least left him at home!). She eats her corn-on-the-cob and takes the turkey off the bread and eats it.

I pull out the itinerary to discuss what everyone wants to do next: Library of Congress or the sculpture garden as there was no time for us to do both. We decided on the sculpture garden and we’d figure out later how to work in the Library of Congress. We browsed through the gift shop on our way out (conveniently placed right there at the Cascade Café! LOL). Clay’s sister loves Dali and I found a large book with prints that can be pulled out and framed so Clay bought that for her and a book of frameable Edward Hopper prints for himself. We walked through the sculpture garden and took a break at the fountain. I don’t know what it is about water and/or fountains but every time the girls see one they HAVE to go check it out.

Reason for the name Cascade Café: this is a window on the bottom floor. The fountain is up at the top and the water runs down in front of the window. It was very cool!

Me and the girls up top:

Sculpture Garden:

The reason Hannah wanted to go in to the Sculpture Garden in the first place!

This was very cool! If you stood there long enough it "moved"! Also, depending on where you were standing it looked different.

Waiting for me to stop taking pictures:

When we left the sculpture garden we still had time to kill before we had to be at the Spy Museum. We walked around for a bit and found a spot in the shade so Clay could look over the map. We were close to the Library of Congress but didn’t have enough time to go through it. We decided we’d check out Ford Theater so we hopped on the Metro to Chinatown/Gallery Place. When we got to the Ford Theater the line was very long; plus you needed to have tickets to get in. Since it was hot and we were right there we decided to just hang out in the a/c at Spy City Café until time for us to enter the Spy Museum. We got some drinks, found a table and just sat and enjoyed the a/c. We also browsed around in the gift shop until time to enter the Spy Museum. We promised the girls they could buy something on our way out. Interesting sidenote: Clay’s great, great Grandmother was Mary Surratt. Her son, John Surratt, was involved in the plot to assassinate Lincoln. John fled the country so they arrested his Mother. She was the first woman to be hanged by the U.S. government.

Waiting to go in to the Spy Museum:

Can you tell I was hot??!! LOL Not a very flattering picture of me.

It was finally time for us to enter the Spy Museum and it was busy! It was interesting but it wouldn’t have hurt my feelings if I’d missed it. I mainly followed Hannah around and let Clay and Alison do their thing. There was some sort of computer thing that Hannah and Alison were playing and they have head phones on. I walked up and there was a man standing beside Alison. He’s also wearing head phones. Clay was behind Hannah. I’m standing there watching Alison when all of a sudden this extremely rude man reaches over and pushes a button on the screen of Alison’s computer. WTH??!!! I’m standing there looking at him, look at Clay and look back at the man. And he does it again!! I look at Clay like “Aren’t you going to do something???!!!” He doesn’t say a word to the man. WTH??!!! We finally get out of there and the girls are ready to pick out something in the gift shop.

Clay goes to the rest room. I needed to go as well but the girls hadn’t picked out what they wanted yet. I made them come with me and we passed Clay in the hallway. He told me he’d meet us outside. OK…no problem. Hannah picked out a laser light that has different settings on it. Alison was taking f o r e v e r to decide. She finally picked a small notebook with a pen. I pay for their stuff and as we’re walking out the door Clay calls me on my cell and in an aggravated tone of voice asks me where we’re at. Uh…we’re walking out the door dude. Once again, Mr. Cheerful raises his ugly head. Thankfully we’re done for the day and we grab the Metro out of there.

We get back to the hotel, change our clothes and head to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. It was awesome! I got Bang-Bang chicken and shrimp (delicious doesn’t even begin to describe how good this was!), Clay got jambalaya, Alison got mini corn dogs with french fries and Hannah got her standard chicken and french fries. We were too stuffed to eat dessert so we bought it to go! Clay and Alison got chocolate mousse cheesecake, I got key lime cheesecake and Hannah got Linda’s chocolate cake (it was HUGE!). When we got back to the room we discussed our plans for the next day (while eating our scrumptious desserts!). The plan was Arlington National Cemetery, lunch, Washington Monument at 2:30 and any other monuments we could see that day. Clay asked Alison if she wanted to go to Arlington National Cemetery and the response from was “What’s that?” *sigh* OK…that seals the deal…scratch Arlington National Cemetery and replace it with Library of Congress.

Oh...all day Clay had nothing but trouble with his ticket. The attendants would just let him through. Of course, this just added to the cheerful mood he was in. Well, towards the end of the day he had an attendant actually look at his ticket. Lo and behold the ticket was too short! When the machine spit out the ticket it cut if off too short and that's why it wouldn't work. The attendant gave him another ticket and he didn't have another problem. Guess it wasn't my fault after all.

Will tomorrow be a better day?

 

[Hidden_Mickey]

Good job so far! My son asked why we didn't go to WDW either, lol. You definitely need to go with the flow and know that you will miss some things. There just isn't enough time. I was glad we did Arlington though, even if we missed the Kennedy gravesite. This past weekend as they showed the Kennedy motorcade through DC I was like "we were just there!"

I will wait patiently for the next installment.

 

[Nancy for Disney]

Great TR. Sorry everyone isn't as happy as you would like. By the time we were done with our DC vacation DH and I were very thankful we had a trip planned for just the two of us. Can't wait to find out how the rest of the TR went.

By the way your Embassy Suites rooms look bigger than ours and the pool looks nicer too.

 

[Charleston Princess]

How neat to see the Big Three documents at the Archives, but so sorry that "someone" had put his grouchy pants on that day. You know I can identify with that completely!

I love that bunny sculpture!

 

[mominwestlake]

My dh stayed home and my sister and I took the 5 kids to D.C. at the end of July. I know he would have been just like your dh if he had gone. I do all the planning, packing, reservation making, mapping, etc. and if something goes wrong it is all my fault. I get ticked when he complains about the itinerary since he never wanted to contribute one second of time to the planning.

Your trip report is wonderful and so true to life. I can't wait to hear the rest!

 

[jillyb]

Great TR. Sorry everyone isn't as happy as you would like. By the time we were done with our DC vacation DH and I were very thankful we had a trip planned for just the two of us. Can't wait to find out how the rest of the TR went.

By the way your Embassy Suites rooms look bigger than ours and the pool looks nicer too.

Thanks for reading Nancy! Isn't that always the way? We do everything we can to make sure everybody has a good time but sometimes it just doesn't work out that way.

Where did you stay? We were in Vienna, VA.

 

[jillyb]

Good job so far! My son asked why we didn't go to WDW either, lol. You definitely need to go with the flow and know that you will miss some things. There just isn't enough time. I was glad we did Arlington though, even if we missed the Kennedy gravesite. This past weekend as they showed the Kennedy motorcade through DC I was like "we were just there!"
I will wait patiently for the next installment.

Meanwhile I was thinking "I hate we missed Arlington."!

 

[jillyb]

How neat to see the Big Three documents at the Archives, but so sorry that "someone" had put his grouchy pants on that day. You know I can identify with that completely!

I love that bunny sculpture!

It really was neat to see them! I know you can relate to the grouchy pants!

I thought the bunny sculpture was pretty wild and had to have a picture of it!

 

[jillyb]

My dh stayed home and my sister and I took the 5 kids to D.C. at the end of July. I know he would have been just like your dh if he had gone. I do all the planning, packing, reservation making, mapping, etc. and if something goes wrong it is all my fault. I get ticked when he complains about the itinerary since he never wanted to contribute one second of time to the planning.

Your trip report is wonderful and so true to life. I can't wait to hear the rest!

I know what you mean...we put our heart and soul in to it and whadda we get? Heartache...nothing but heartache!

The short fuse is the one quality that I absolutely can't stand about my husband. I don't think he realizes the effects of his outbursts. Don't get me wrong...I have my moments too! But, I don't let every little thing set me off.

 

[jillyb]

Day 2- August 15:

Ahhhh…the dawning of a new day! Our itinerary for today was: Library of Congress, lunch, Washington Monument at 2:30 and any other monuments we could see today. Yeah…here’s what really happened!

The alarm went off at 6:30 this morning. Ugh We all got showers this morning and were out the door for breakfast by 8:00. The breakfast here was very good. They had various juices, fruit, muffins, bagels, bacon, sausage, potatoes and eggs. They also had an omelet station. The pre-cooked eggs weren’t very good so I started getting a ham and cheese omelet topped with salsa every morning. It was delicious. Clay also always got some sort of omelet. Hannah’s standard breakfast was orange juice, bagel with cream cheese and an apple. The first morning Alison tried to get a doughnut but Clay quickly put a stop to that. I think she had orange juice and a blueberry muffin every morning. We never did go to the Manager’s Reception in the evenings. We must have wolfed our breakfast down this morning because we were leaving the hotel at 8:15.

Today we all got one day tickets and, fortunately, there was no ticket drama today (or for the rest of the trip). I had $13.15 left on the SmarTrip card and didn’t want to use it all up. You don’t have to pay for parking on the weekends so I could have used the SmarTrip card for my fare. Oh well. When we got to the Metro station the trains were delayed due to track maintenance. The girls entertained themselves while Clay and I talked about the plans for the day and just chilled out. Our train finally arrived and we were off!

As the train stopped along the way there were lots of families getting on. I was a bit worried and hoped we weren’t all going to the same place. The train arrived at the Capital South station and everybody poured out and up the escalators. When we get to the corner everybody makes a left. Yes! They’re all heading towards the Smithsonian museums and we’re the only ones heading for Library of Congress!

We breezed on through security and walked into the most beautiful, awe inspiring architecture I’ve ever seen. Everywhere you look there are the most intricate, ornate designs and decorations. You’re eyes just can’t take it all in and you’re constantly saying “Look at that!”, “Oh! Look at that!”. Ya’ll, I’m telling you, this place was so gorgeous there were times I found myself about to cry. It’s that beautiful. My neck was sore from looking up at the ceiling!

We browsed through the gift shop on the way out. Clay bought his Mom a Christmas ornament and Alison bought a couple of post cards. We had been using maps that were sent to me prior to our trip. The best one fell apart from too much use and I found a laminated map in the gift shop so we bought that to navigate. It was 11:20 when we left so we decided to get lunch. We took the train to the Smithsonian station and got hot dogs, chips and drinks from a street vendor near the Castle (Smithsonian Information Center). We grabbed a bench in the shade and enjoyed our lunch. After lunch we got snacks from the same vendor. Alison and I got ice cream cookies, Clay got an ice cream sandwich and Hannah got a popsicle. We found another bench in the shade to eat our snack.

Everybody’s hands were sticky after our snack so we went to the Castle to use the bathroom and wash the sticky off.

We still had plenty of time before our Washington Monument reservation so we decided to go ahead and ride the carousel.

From there we walked through the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden.

Wonder if this guy is related to the bunny at the Natioanl Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden!

The girls were writing their wishes to put on the wishing tree (thank you Yoko Ono! ) and once again ran into adults that think it’s OK to run over kids. The last straw was when Hannah was finishing up writing her wish and a woman walked up and started to lift the lid to the box. The Mama Bear in me came out and I said “Would you mind waiting until she’s finished?” Seriously people. Ugh

After the sculpture garden we were all wilting from the heat. The Hirshhorn Gallery was just across the street and it had…betcha can’t guess! Yep…that’s right…there was a fountain in front! Hannah saw it and had to go check it out so across the street we go.

(Hmmm...I could have sworn I had pictures of the girls at this fountain but this is the only one I can find.)

Fortunately, to the left of the fountain, there was a large arch with tables and chairs underneath. Ahhhhh…shade! There was a nice breeze blowing through there as well so it was a very nice place to cool down. The girls kept running back and forth to get wet at the fountain. We drank the rest of our water and had a snack. Around 1:30 we packed up and started the long walk to the Washington Monument. There was a street vendor across from the Hirshhorn Gallery and I think we may have bought some water before we headed to the monument. We stopped a couple of times along the way.

As we got closer to the Washington Monument we could see a stage had been set up and heard music playing. It was a celebration of the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. I had to take this picture!

I don’t know who the band was but they were awful!

We made a bathroom stop before getting in the long line at the Washington Monument. There was absolutely no shade there so I pulled out our handheld fans. Fortunately the line moved pretty quickly and we were in the a/c before we knew it. Funny side note: there were two young Asian women behind us. A local guy was talking to them and really laying it on thick. I don’t know how, but he managed to get inside with the rest of us. Everybody is waiting for the elevator. All the while, he’s steady talking to these young women. Clay and I just watched and listened. Occasionally we would look at each other and say something without really talking. You married people know what I’m talking about! When it became apparent that he wasn’t going to get anywhere with these young ladies he couldn’t get out of there fast enough!

(continued in next post)

 

[jillyb]

Finally, the elevator arrives and we’re whisked away to the top. Awesome views!

From there we decided to go to the Jefferson Memorial. This was a longggggggggggggg, hot walk. We stopped halfway for a break. There was a refreshment stand there so we grabbed a snack. The girls got popsicles, I got an Italian ice and Clay got Gatorade. This was an impressive monument but I think we were all too hot and tired by then to really appreciate it.

Once again you can tell how hot it is by looking at my lovely red face!

We decided to call it a day and began the very longggggggggg walk to the Smithsonian Metro station. Once again, we stopped along the way to rest and cool off. This walk did Hannah in. She was very hot and tired and I had to coax her to keep moving by saying “We’re almost there. See that sign? That’s where we’re going. We’ll be there soon.”

We didn’t have a long wait for a train but it was standing room only. There was a little boy sitting in the very back of the car we were in and there was an empty seat by the window beside him. I steered Hannah to the seat and the rest of us stood. She ended up falling asleep. We kept thinking that our car would clear out so we could sit down but Clay and I ended up having to stand the whole way. The seat beside Hannah opened up and I had Alison come sit down. We were about two stops away from our stop when I started waking Hannah up. We made it to our stop and then had a short walk to the van. We stopped for gas and drinks on the way back.

We decided to stay in this night so I ordered a pizza for the girls and stromboli for Clay and I. The stromboli were very good and the girls said the pizza was good. After dinner the girls put on their swim suits and hit the pool for a while. Then back to the room, showers and bed. The girls were in bed at 9:30. I did two loads of laundry and Clay and I were didn’t get to bed until 11:15. It was a long, tiring day for all of us. Best of all, there were no fits of temper from Clay!

Would we make it through tomorrow temper tantrum free?

 

[Charleston Princess]

The Library of Congress looks so breath-taking! I want to go there -- especially if there is a gift shop!

The views from the Washington Monument are beautiful, but I do have to say that the Jefferson Memorial is my favorite of them all!

I am not surprised you opted to stay in that night -- just reading about all the walking you did has made me tired!

 

[jillyb]

The Library of Congress looks so breath-taking! I want to go there -- especially if there is a gift shop!

The views from the Washington Monument are beautiful, but I do have to say that the Jefferson Memorial is my favorite of them all!

I am not surprised you opted to stay in that night -- just reading about all the walking you did has made me tired!

It really is gorgeous! Just like Disney you can't get out without hitting the gift shop on the way out!

Based on the original itinerary I knew we'd be worn out so it was already in the plan to stay in that night. Sure felt good to be right! LOL

 

[Hidden_Mickey]

Wow, that was a lot of walking! I'm tired just reading it!

I forgot to mention in my TR that the secret to my not wilting the entire week we were there was to have a diet Mountain Dew each morning, and each time we stopped at the room for dinner, lol. I would have been totally wiped without it.

 

[MeMom]

Finally, the elevator arrives and we’re whisked away to the top. Awesome views!

.

We decided to stay in this night so I ordered a pizza for the girls and stromboli for Clay and I. The stromboli were very good and the girls said the pizza was good. After dinner the girls put on their swim suits and hit the pool for a while. Then back to the room, showers and bed. The girls were in bed at 9:30.

I'd love to see this some day!

I bet pizza, the pool, and just hanging out made for a very good evening.