Beat the heat... DC style

 The month of June was a good one.

We took a little trip to Washington DC for my niece's wedding.  (For more on the wedding click here.)

The wedding stuff was over by noon, so we spent the rest of the day sightseeing in our nation's capital with Andy's mom and sister and her kids.
 Did I mention it was the hottest day of the year?  Oh yes.

 Our plan was to stay cool in Smithsonian museums until it cooled off in the evening.  So we went to the Air and Space Museum, the American History Museum, and the Natural History Museum.

 Ruby got to see THE ruby slippers.

The museums were cool, it was just that walk between that was sweltering. Luckily, Betsy's stroller could hold a bunch of kids... hot, sweaty kids.

 The mall is large... and not air conditioned.

 And the hope that it would cool down in the evening didn't pan out.

 We saw a bunch of monuments.  The Vietnam Memorial is lovely and thoughtful.

 By the time we made it to the Lincoln Memorial, we were all wilted.  We took pictures to prove we were there.

Then we just needed to walk to the nearest metro station... which isn't very near as it turns out.  We walked across the Potomac River (which is wide) to the Arlington Station.  And we caught the last train back to the central station.  Then we took a very crowded train back to our hotel.  And as we walked the three blocks to our hotel, an epic storm hit.  June was asleep, but Alli and Ruby were wide awake and quite freaked out by the winds and lightning and debris.  The camera was packed away, and I was carrying June, so I do not have pictures of the storm.  But it was violent.  When crossing an intersection, I was worried Ruby would be blown over.  We made it into the hotel just as the pounding rain started.

When we got back to our room, we bathed the kids quickly and put them to bed... and they were instantly asleep.  We called Betsy and Grandma to make sure they made it back to their hotel (they were one stop up on the subway).  They were not in their hotel.  They were stuck in the subway station.  The power went out and they had to carry two sleeping kids and a bunch of stuff up a giant (about 6 flights of stairs worth) escalator that wasn't working and the lights went out in the middle of it.
Andy left our hotel to pick them up and take them to their hotel. 

We like to make lasting memories on our vacations.