Okay, so on Wednesday I might have mentioned a Jenworld family adventure was in the making. Do you remember my goals for 2013? One of them is to have 12 adventures with my family this year — an average of one per month. Our February adventure was this week and it was a pretty damn good one, if I do say so myself.
It all began with an email.
Grace and Ellie are fans of Lindsey Stirling, a hip hop violinist who was on America’s Got Talent a couple of years ago. In December, Grace found out that Lindsey would be playing a concert in Washington, DC, which is 2+ hours away, on a Wednesday night in February, which would be a school night. Grace figured that it was a long shot, but she emailed me the info anyway. Pete and I talked about it for a few days and said, “Let’s do it.”
And thus began the planning for our adventure.
Our original plan was to drive up the afternoon of the concert (Wednesday), then drive back afterward. Then we realized that it would be a late night, so perhaps we should get a hotel in the city, then go to a museum the morning after the concert. Yes, the girls would miss a day of school, but this would be for a worthy cause. So that’s the plan we had.
And then this past Tuesday night, Pete came home from work and said, “How about we just skip work and school tomorrow too and do something fun in the city before the concert?” So that’s what we did.
We got up on Wednesday and headed to the nation’s capital.
Lunch at the Shake Shack in Dupont Circle.
Then we rode the Metro down to the National Mall, where we took a tour of the U.S. Capitol.
Neither rain nor cold temps will slow down these intrepid explorers.
Wednesday night, we went to see Lindsey Stirling perform at the 9:30 Club. It was our girls' first real concert and a good one to start with.
On Thursday morning, we had breakfast, then stopped by Krispy Kreme -- something we don't have in our town -- so that the girls could have dessert after breakfast. What? You don't have dessert after breakfast?
Then we walked 1.5 miles up Connecticut Avenue to the one place in Washington, DC that our family has visited more than any other. We don't even need a map to get around.
Well OF COURSE we stopped in to see one of our favorite animals...
...but we also stopped by to check out the adolescent cheetah twins born last year. Oh yeah, they were pretty darn cute. They were chasing each other and play-fighting and just utterly adorable.
And then we left the zoo and headed south to the National Mall. We had been talking about visiting the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and decided that the time had come. I don’t have any photos of that part of the day, but I will just say that USHMM is a powerful museum and if you ever have the opportunity to go, do it. No, it’s not all fun and games, but then again, life isn’t either. We had some good conversations during and after about the things we saw.
After that, it was time to hit the road and head back home. So we did. With one stop along the way:
This is the Moo Thru -- a locally-owned ice cream place near Remington, VA that gets its milk and cream from local farms. I don't normally crave milkshakes, but the ones here are THE BOMB.
And so that’s our family’s adventure for February. We started with one idea, moved on to another, and ended up somewhere else entirely. It’s amazing how one email can snowball into something bigger.
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Great adventure!
A perfect adventure.
What fun! I love DC. So much great history.
How fun!
I love it! And I love especially that it was during the week, and a break from school and work. That’s sometimes really healthy, and makes it seem even more of a treat.
I love that you combined so many different things into one great adventure. When I took our crew to the Holocaust museum, that was the one and only thing we did in DC (ditto for the zoo). Considering that we didn’t live that much closer than you do, I’m super impressed that you managed so much in one big trip.
Don’t those cheetahs look like they are playing in someone’s backyard?
A terrific adventure!
Great idea!! Hmmmmm….it’s about time I played hooky too!
I should play hooky once a month, just for fun!
FUN! I’m not sure which part I’m the most jealous of…
You and Pete ROCK. I bet the girls never forget this trip!
That’s the stuff memories are made of! 12 adventures this year? Wow – I’m looking forward to reading about all of them! I have to admit, I was looking pretty hard at the anonymous strangers in your DC photos on the off chance you might have captured my son! He goes to college there, and frequently walks through Dupont Circle on his way to work!
Great!
What a great mix of activities!
So jealous that you took your girls out of school for this – my parents NEVER would have done such a thing! Good on ya.
When we did these kind of things with our kids we called it “taking a mental health day”.
That was a great spontaneous adventure!
What a great idea and fantastic results! And desert after breakfast? I sometimes have desert for </i breakfast.
Fabulous!! You know, *these* are the days of our lives. I love, love, love finding brilliant examples of people fully appreciating what that means!
It sounds like some risky business
What a great way to spend your adventures, with animals, musicians and something yummy for your tummy. I love the Moo-Thru! Wow what a concept. Sounds Yummilicious.
It looks like you had a great time!
What a wonderful day! I just love DC and I really want to go there next time I visit my daughter in Philly. (I was always a bit disappointed that she choose Penn over
Georgetown!) I am going to have to check out Lindsey’s music.
Super awesome day!!