Life....as we live it: MC Marathon

On Sunday, Richard woke up with the sun to take the metro to the Marathon starting line near the Arlington Cemetary. I was left to fend for myself and the kids....which included taking them to a breakfast buffet in the restaurant coutesy of the hotel.

All in all, they were wonderful little ones, but wrestling with them to go out is very different than feeding them a bowl of oatmeal with one eye shut. The kids didn't eat very much though - over stimulation and the food was gross. But that is how things go sometimes....

After that, we were rushing for the walk to the 17 mile marker to see Richard race by. The course was set up so that mile 16-18 ran by the Washington Monument.

The plan was to cheer daddy on, and then go visit the museum for the last hour of the race....and if I had ample time, to take the metro to the finish line to meet the 26.2 mile survivor.
We took our position right here....and waited.

Cowbells. People Screaming. People pushing you. It was hard to stay focused with that, but add two busy kids to the list and the party was out of control. Infact, when we arrived, Lucas screamed "Mom! We are at the party!"

I looked up and there goes Richard's arm...

The kids, who so anxiously, wanted to see Daddy, never caught a glimpse. Lucas cried when I told him Daddy was gone and we didn't have to wait anymore. He informed me that he wanted to race with his Daddy. I am not sure how we moved beyond that one, but the minute we did, someone pushed into our prime viewing space next to the powerade table.

DC - You could not pay me enough money there. People walk around in shoes that will give them back and feet problems for life. It is incredibly busy. People are NOT nice, but gruff and standoffish. Cars are out of control, EVEN IF the crosswalk says walk. I could go on.....but instead I will stay a tourist wearing my tennis shoes.

Construction was out of control....so I somehow walked into the American History Museum instead of the Natural History....Lucas was very excited about the bison. There wasn't much else that we could see...

We then made our way to the proper museum....Natural History!

The kids were AMAZED by the marine life area they had in there. The lighting was too dark for me to get a good shot of the suspended whales and sea creatures that existed in times we never knew...

He was also amazed by the big glass jar of krill. He informed me that I was wrong when I told him that penguins ate fish. "No Mom! Penguins eat krill! It is yummy in their tummy!"

At this point, they told me they were hungry, so we breezed through the dinosaur section so I could get the heck out of dodge. They weren't that impressed with the fossils. But they could recognize that they were dinosaurs.

On the way out, I got lost as hell. I had a map in my head of where we were going to eat for lunch, but never made it. I just kept walking in circles, but had no idea how it kept happening.

Anyways, as I was sitting on the edge of the sidewalk, letting the babies play and trying to figure out which way was up, I saw the most beautiful view of the Capital.

Seeing that did not really help me, but at least at that point I knew which way was up and we trecked on again.
Meredith fell asleep and Lucas and I ate our $2 hotdogs on the corner of "I've walked by here four times now"

He thought it was delicious.
(And no, I didn't let him take that huge bite!)

We finally made our way back to the hotel, with one lunch pitstop for Richard, and we were ready to head out.

We packed up the car and made plans for the National Aquarium.

Unfortunately, after much driving around, we couldnt' find a parking space.

And with that, we took it as a sign to leave the city and try again next time.

So what did we do instead, you ask??

Well, we stopped back by Potomac Mills of course!

There were many shops we never made it to, and

Richard was really interested in the Marshalls and JCPenney outlet.

I was a bit skeptical of shopping more since he was limping around, but he assured me it was okay.