it was like...magic

the last real day of our trip was the 4th of july, and we spent it in our nation's capitol.  and it was amazing.  starting off with the fact that we didn't have to fight traffic.  for the first time since we left utah.  it was like the opposite of being home on the 4th.  we even found parking relatively quick and easy.  as we drove into town, i was getting a little excited and a lot camera happy - i snapped about a hundred of these not-so-great pictures before we found our parking garage.

after we parked, we found our way above ground, and we were right in the middle of all the action.  literally.  the parade was just about to start, but they let us cross the street (and in our minds, participate in the parade) where we hit our first landmark:  the smithsonian.

first stop was julia child's kitchen.  i was very, very excited.

i'd read somewhere that the "puffy shirt" from seinfeld was on display at the smithsonian, but i was wrong.  sort of.  the pop culture items are on rotation, which means that they spend a little time there before being sent off to another museum to be displayed, and then another, and another, etc.  basically, i got richard's hopes way, way up , and he had to settle for this harry potter robe.  he was disappointed, and i felt super bad, but we still had an entire day ahead of us, so we didn't spend too much time pouting.

this was the view of the parade route in front of the smithsonian.  the raegan building across the street is the one our car was parked under.

we did a little watching as we walked, stopping every once in awhile to see (and let marty see) all of the action.  he obviously didn't get it, but there was a lot of new stimulation, and he was pretty interested.

he was super excited when we decided not to walk all the way over to the white house, but rather take a picture with it way back in the distance.  at the time it seemed like a good idea, but last night we watched a movie on netflix where the white house gets attacked, and we decided that not making that little extra walk (which seemed huge at the time, in the heat) is about our only regret from the whole trip.  IT WAS THE WHITE HOUSE, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.

we passed the federal reserve.  it was as exciting as the look on richard's face.

and then we saw the stop on the top of our list:  the lincoln memorial.  we were drenched with sweat because it was 900 degrees with 1,000% humidity, but we were thrilled.  honestly.

this is what you get when you ask complete strangers to take your picture.  at least we got our camera back, i guess.  not our legs, though.

from this spot, you can't really tell that the washington monument is covered in scaffolding.  it wasn't a very pretty sight up close, but still really cool.  and it was so fun to spend some time on the mall.

the bridge we didn't walk across (or take public transportation to cross) in order to go to arlington cemetery.  another regret.  but at the time...

on top of the heat and humidity, this freaking moby wrap helped to hike my body temperature up to something hellish.  it also added buckets to the amount of sweat dripped by me and marty, but that is a genuine smile on my face.  i promise!

it was a lovely surprise that when we got to the world war II memorial that people were dipping their feet in the water.  not wading, because that is against the rules, and clearly disrespectful.

so we joined in.

see, i'm not lying.  and yes, if they'd all been jumping off of a cliff we may very well have joined in.

but it just felt soooo good.

we cooled off for a few minutes, and the second we pulled our feet out of the water we were sweating again.  so we stopped for a nice cold treat on our way to our next stop:  the holocaust museum.

i should have just cowboy-ed up and nursed marty "boob-out."  i mean, yes, there was air conditioning in the building, but covering him with a blanket in that heat to feed him was as close to child abuse as anything i can think of.  next child around, i'll be much braver.  maybe.

it was after this picture that we were told that photography is not allowed in the holocaust musuem.  it was absolutely incredible, though.  our visit was cut short a bit when marty decided he couldn't stand to wear a wet diaper for one more second, but i was so glad we got to spend time there.  it was very educational, eye-opening, and heart breaking.  we walked through a train car that carried prisoners to auschwitz. we saw a ton of propoganda fliers that were distributed by the nazi party to create fear and hatred toward jews, minorities, and the mentally ill.  there were barracks and "beds" from the concentration camps.  we got to see video and photographs of the nazi party, prisoners, survivors, and everyone you could imagine that lived through this period in europe.  at the end, we walked on a path through a room that was surrounded with shoes on both sides.  thousands of shoes that had been abandoned by the prisoners who were killed in the gas chambers at one particular camp.  it brought tears to my eyes, and i held marty a little closer and tighter.  it makes me sick, and so sad, to think that this actually happened.  

we walked around the mall a little longer, until we just couldn't anymore.  then we headed back to our car, but stopped in a food court to get something to eat before going to our hotel.

finally eating after starving to the point of insanity.

the hotel parking situation was a bit of a disaster, and i could tell it was stressing richard out.  i tried to just keep my mouth shut and help as much as i could - no complaining, because i wanted him to be in the best mood possible when i gently told him that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to be in our nation's capitol on the 4th of july, and we were definitely going back out in the heat and the crowds to see the fireworks.  he sincerely could have been happy trying to see some fireworks from our hotel window, but he girted up his loins and made my holiday dreams come true.  this time, we used public transit.

after the sun started going down, it cooled off a lot.  to where it was only, like, 200 degrees with 500% humidity.  but it was beautiful out, and people kept telling us how cute marty was, and we were filled with the spirit of independence day.

we walked around the mall a bit more, took some photos with the capitol building in the background, and then we found a little patch of grass that we called our own for the next half an hour.

i think marty was thrilled to not be carried or carted anywhere for more than 5 seconds.

and then the magic started happening.

we were a little worried that the fireworks might scare him, but they didn't.  he was totally in awe, and i'm sure he didn't blink for the first 3 minutes of the show.  his jaw was dropped pretty much the whole time, too.

as much as i love fireworks (or anything, really), it was so much more special watching him enjoy them.

marty didn't look away from the fireworks for a second.  not even when richard was trying to cool him off.

after the show was over, the lines to get down to the trains were a joke, so we just joined the masses and started migrating in the general direction of our hotel.  it was funny, until i started to think about what would happen if the zombie apocalypse were to begin at that very moment, and then i started to feel a little bit of panic.

we eventually made it to a train, though, and we packed ourselves in with the other sticky, sweaty patriots.

as tired as we were...exhausted, actually, richard had a hankering for some pizza.  so he found a place that was still open and made almost an hour round-trip, on foot, to pick it up.  marty and i stayed at the hotel and crashed.

the next morning (the last morning of our trip) was the cherry on top of an incredible travel experience.  i woke up to feed marty, and then i laid back down to see if he'd fall back to sleep, since i felt like i'd been hit by a truck (and looked and smelled like it because we were too tired to even shower the night before!).  and he did.  i got to lay in a big, comfy bed, snuggled up with my two boys, and drift in and out of sleep dreaming about our first doozy of a family vacation.

the plane ride home wasn't quite as enjoyable as the morning had been.  mostly because marty had a blow-out, in the middle of some turbulance.  i wasn't going to sit there with poop on my kid, and my pants, so i hiked back to the bathroom, where the flight attendant gave me nasty looks and repeatedly told me that the "fasten seatbelt sign" was still on.  i felt like rubbing his dirty clothes right in her face.  

marty boy made up for the accident by rewarding me with lots of loves.  and no, i did not have an extra outfit in the diaper bag (for the first time in his life!).  so he flew pretty much the whole way back to utah practically naked.  which he loved.

my dad picked us up from the airport, and then we had to drop him off to my mom on our way home.  we were all just about ready to be done with that travel day.

but not "done" enough to have forgotten where we'd just been for the past two weeks (almost), and what we'd seen and experienced as a family.  i love traveling.  we both do.  and as worried as i'd been about making this trip with a baby, we love traveling even more with him.  way more.