Sunday, May 22nd 2005
Last week there was certainly a snowstorm in DC when 21 Snowflakes stormed the halls of Congress. This begins my journal entries of our DC trip:)
On Tanner’s fourth birthday, we had the incredible privilege of beginning a journey we will never forget. We flew out of Sky Harbor Airport at 8:00 AM and had a layover in the Pittsburgh Airport. For anyone in the PA area, WOW…what a great airport! I have been in several and that one is so far my favorite. It looks like a mall! Couldn’t believe all the great stores in there AND you didn’t have to leave the “unsecured” area to get to them. Too fun!
We arrived at DCA (Ronald Reagan Airport in DC) at about 5:00 PM. This is a fun airport to fly in to because just before you hit the runway you are flying over water (Potomac maybe?). I couldn’t believe all the green we saw this weekend! This was the first time I had been near the East Coast. Arizona doesn’t have much green in its color palette:).
I am embarrassed to tell you that I spent the next four days believing I was in Maryland:). Brooke S. had to tell me on Wed that I was actually in Virginia:). I thought DC was a city in Maryland but Brooke explained that DC is not in a state. Am I the only person on the planet that didn’t know that? LOL! Am I the only person on the planet that would admit not knowing it?
Anyhow, we arrived at our hotel in Arlington, VA (…I thought Arlington was in Maryland and never saw a state on the address in case you are wondering:) via Taxi and quickly met up with our good friends Andy and Meredith. Meredith and I have been friends for several years. She and I worked together at Bank One before Tanner was born and than later she pursued the Snowflake program (not knowing that I had done this as well). We got back in touch when she recognized my picture on this website (the adoption agency had referred her to it). Meredith gave birth to Ella (the third snowflake baby in the state of AZ) in October of 2003. You may have seen Andy and Meredith and Ian and Ella on Good Morning America this week:).
We decided that we couldn’t be in DC and not do a little bit of touring so the six of us set out on a little sight seeing trip. I did not bring a stroller for Tanner so I was hoping that he could walk a good stretch. On our little trip we saw the Arlington Cemetery, Arlington Bell Tower, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial Wall and some gorgeous statues whose names I cannot at this moment recall. I just kept having this sense of feeling so “small”. Everything in DC is so big and elaborate…quite a humbling experience really.
(Note on pictures: I received permission from the Gray’s, Murray’s, Tesdall’s, Strege’s, and Atnip’s to post their pictures. I also have larger versions of pictures of our trip in the Washington Photo Gallery).
The weather was awesome (though why didn’t someone tell me I would need an umbrella in DC?????…..could have used that info:) and the landscape was gorgeous. Especially to an AZ gal who has no true concept of trees and grass:).
We probably walked about 5 and a half to six miles that night and didn’t get back to the hotel until about 10:00 PM. This was not the smartest mommy move of the week. I can’t decide if I regret it though. It probably wasn’t in the best interest of Tanner’s health but he may never see those things again and I am glad he had this opportunity. And no, Tanner was not up for a 6 mile hike so Ella kindly lent her stroller for a good half of the trip (Tanner fell asleep). Poor Andy and Meredith carried Ella for at least half the trip…quite heroic if you ask me. I was quite impressed that Meredith COULD carry her as far as she did…medal worthy I think:).
When we got back to the hotel we waited for Courtney and Carter. Courtney is another snowflake mommy that I had the privilege of meeting when she began the snowflake process a few years ago. We had too much fun being roomies (until Tanner got sick but that story begins on another day…won’t rabbit trail this early in my tale:). Courtney didn’t arrive until around 11:30 PM. When all was said and done, we didn’t get our boys tucked in until 1:00 AM EST. So ends the first day:)