A Visit from the Family

The last few days have been happily spent running around DC with my sister, grandparents, aunt, and cousins.  They drove in late Saturday night but not to late to stop Nicole and I from catching a showing of the new Harry Potter movie which had luckily come out on the weekend they had planed to come!!  After a short night sleep we headed to the Basilica on Catholic University's campus for Sunday mass.  I had been there years ago but had forgotten just how big it is...it makes the Capitol rotunda look kind of small.  We also made it over to FDR's memorial (how nice it is to be driven there instead of having to walk) and was able to spend a couple of hours out by the beautiful waterfalls.  After that we headed over to the Air and Space museum where we spent the rest of the evening until it was time to head back to the RV site for some dinner.

Monday we got tickets for the hop-on hop-off tour-mobile bus that goes all around DC.  The first tour-guide we got was amazing so we decided to go all the way to Arlington Cemetery with her where we then transferred to another bus that took us around the Cemetery.  It was nice to be driven around because we were able to spend more time at the different places and not have to think of the walk to the next place.  We ended up being in Arlington for three hours and then headed back across the river to see the other memorials.  First stop after getting off close to the Lincoln Monument was to get some hot dogs close to the river front where we saw one of the President's helicopters fly overhead...still not sure if he was in it though.  We made our way through the Korean War Memorial, Lincoln Monument and the Vietnam Memorial where we were able to look up some of the men who my grandparents knew were listed on the wall.  We headed back to the RV park for a nice swim after walking around in the sun all day and then dinner.

Tuesday was their final day here in DC so after going to a few museums in the morning I took everyone to the Capitol for their official Capitol tour from me!!  After taking them to all the places I could we then waited (in a really long line for the time of day) to go up to the House Gallery.  A little more difficult since we had all kept our bags but we finally got through the security screening and were able to see a good debate.  We were able to hear Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz, who my grandparents were very excited to get to hear, talk on Medicare benefits and tax cuts in relation to the budget.  It was then time to take Nicole too the airport to fly back to Atlanta and then to get some dinner before the RV headed out as well.  It was fun to get to see them and take them to all the places that I have been able to see over the last month.