Summer Vacation

We just returned from a super fun family vacation. On Sunday, we drove from Raleigh to Baltimore, Maryland. Gary had meetings on Monday and Tuesday, so the boys and I tagged along to play. Monday we went to the Aquarium and Baltimore Harbor, and Tuesday we went to the Children's Museum. We had a lot of fun running around together! Tuesday evening we drove from Baltimore to Washington DC. We arrived around 5pm, and took the Metro from our hotel to the Mall. We walked from the Smithsonian Metro stop down to the Capital building, then around to the Washington Monument, and back to the Smithsonian Metro stop. About 2.5 miles of walking! We then walked from our hotel to the Sequoia restaurant and back. The next morning the boys (all 3 of them) got up early (6am) to go get in line for tickets to go up in the Washington Monument. I packed up the room, and then met them at the Mall. We went to the Smithsonian Castle, then to the Air and Space Museum, then to their Washington Monument appointment at 12:30. It started to rain, so I sat under a tent and waited. We ended up eating hotdogs from the tent in the rain. We then took a bicycle rickshaw down to the Lincoln Memorial. After touring there, the rain let up and we walked back to our hotel where our car was stored.

Wednesday afternoon we headed down to Ashland, Va, and spent a quiet evening at the hotel. Then bright and early the next morning we were up for a day at King's Dominion! We rode every rollercoaster, most of them two or more times, and stayed til closing. The next day we were back to spend most of the day in their water park. Then, Friday afternoon we drove back home.

I spent most of Saturday folding laundry that Gary had washed overnight (many many loads!). Alek had a baseball game at 9 am, then we had symphony tickets at 7 pm. The symphony was music from the movies and it was quite nice. The evening cooled off from 96 to 85 degrees and there was a nice breeze. We all got to bed quite late.

Sunday morning Ben and Gary were up early again (6 am!) to pack up for the day climbing at Pilot Mountain. All went well, and they arrived back home by 5 pm, tired and happy. I'm downloading pictures now, and will post soon. 1426 pictures from the last week ... I have a lot of editing to do! Alek and I spent the day shopping for shorts for him (we were successful!) and grocery shopping. Now Gary is cooking brats and asparagus on the grill and we're looking forward to a delicious father's day dinner!