Trip to DC

Niether Kiera nor I had been to DC before. Doug of course had, because he's been everywhere, much to my annoyance.
We left on Friday afternoon and arrived at 950EST. The flight was okay, we went through Denver and then to Baltimore. Kiera did all right, though she did start screeching at one point. Doug did help a little, but she wanted me. I felt bad for everyone in the back, there was a 3 month old who cried almost the whole 3 1/2 hour flight. Our friend Katie, whom we had gone to visit, picked us up in her friends car. We almost didn't all fit because of the stroller and Katies work stuff. We squeezed in and settled for another long ride.
The traffic in DC is CRAZY!!! its totally insane. it was like 1130pm when we were driving from Katies friends house to her house and the freeway was like SO BUSY. its really hard to imagine that much clog until you experience it. There are people EVERYWHERE ALL the time, 24/7, and its a really big deal to find short cuts and backroads that ignore the freeway. I guess that is what happens when you live in a huge metro center. Katie is moving away from there, and all I could think was how HAPPY she was going to be to get OUT of that crazy traffic. Her husband, Adam does something called SLUGGING. there is an HOV lane down the center of the freeway that only if you have a minimum of 3 people in your car can you take. so they have these stations, where people that left their cars further south, stand in these lines and random people pick them up and drop them off at the next station down the way. Apparently nobody talks. but if you DONT pick people up, then you are stuck in traffic, where you go 2o mph for like 2 hours. how could you NOT pick people up???
on Saturday, everyone was beat and it seemed Kiera might be getting sick. so we just hung out, went to the salon, got pedicures and then Katie had a party for her new business. we got to eat...hard job! on Sunday after a night from hell, she slept like crap and woke up screeching numerous times, I am sure it was because of sickness, we packed up day stuff and took the metro to washington DC. When we got there, Doug and Katie were talking about "the mall" and I said "I can go to the mall anywhere, I would rather see stuff" at which they started laughing at me. apparently the long strip of stuff, Abe Lincoln, white house, etc, is all in the same area, which has been dubbed "the mall". okay then. I felt a bit stupid. But we went and saw Abe Lincoln statue, the new memorial to the WWII veterans (where Canada was not mentioned a single time, even though CHINA was??!!), and we meanandered our way down to the White House as well. Katie gets to take le grande tour here shortly INSIDE of it. oooooooo. Katie got all inquistive about just WHY the world has a problem with the States, so I explained the way I understood it. Doug of course, argued with me the whole time about everything I said. I admitted, am more leftish than he is. he snorted at that comment. no kidding.
We went to the Smithsonian, where I got to see a bunch of "stuffed" animals from all over the world and got annoyed with a video of a money directed at children saying that "this ape could be your great grandmother" I was like HER GREAT GREAT grandmother is alive you stupid people." whatever.
THEN I got to see the HOPE DIAMOND. SO COOL. I really would like to go back there, its FREE and there is so much cool stuff in the Smithsonian.
We left yesterday afternoon, after driving through crazy DC traffic to get to the airport again. We made a stop off at the HUGEST outlet mall on the eastern seaboard and bought some clothes at Osh Kosh. I got her a bathing suit and some water shoes too. I figure she will be walking soon and I don't want her walking on the floors in the Y.
Her accomplishments this weekend include STANDING ALONE for 30 seconds holding on to NOTHING! she was quite pleased. She also learned to CLAP, and likes doing that a lot. She is also now figured out how to cover her face with her hands and remove them and say "ba", which in her world is BOO! When she does it, I say WHERE IS KIERA? and she laughs hysterically that she hid from mummy.
But the funniest story by far of the weekend is this. When we got home finally, she had slept most of the way on the 2 hour flight (thank God), so she was pretty chipper and it really wasn't that late. I am SO GLAD I made a big stink about getting a seat for her too, because we hit major turbulance. Doug brought her in from the car and she looked around and looked at the house and STARTING WAVING AT THE HOUSE!!! how funny is that? Then later, Doug went to put her to bed, he was rocking her in the chair and she started lunging for her crib and we Doug started to move toward it, she started doing her famous dorothy kick her heels together! she was SO excited to get to bed! She cuddled up and immediately feel asleep. so cute...