Day Four - Smithsonian's

We spent Tuesday at the Smithsonian and Air & Space Museum - took our time at them and got a ton of pictures.  We even ran in to some of the students from our hometown, the 8th graders travel down and do the tour.  This is from the Air & Space museum - that place is awesome!  So much history and amazing all the planes that are in there. 

 We then went to the Smithsonian - another very cool place. 

Day three - Washington DC - Crime Museum & Spy Museum

Monday April 15 - we visited these two museums (these aren't free, you have to pay to visit).  They were Christopher's choice to visit and we decided to visit them early in the week. 

Here's Christopher in jail - let's hope it never REALLY happens...

And then they did the line up - aye yi yi - let's hope THIS never happens! 

Bonnie & Clyde's car.

This was definitely Christopher's favorite museum of the week.  Lots of fun things and a ton of stuff to read and learn about.  He was very happy! 

While we were in this museum, we got a text that the two bombs had exploded at the Boston Marathon - it was pretty surreal.  Of course we were concerned for Jonathan, knowing that he was going to be there, we just didn't know where he was going to be.  My first call was to him, he picked up right away and announced he was fine and already back to the UMass Amherst campus - we were relieved.  Then we got information about what was going on back in Boston and we were heart broken.  We couldn't believe that something could happen there - so scary.  Our thoughts and prayers are still with all the families and runners.  But, we remain

Day Two Washington, DC - White House Spring Garden Tour and Nationals Game

Our second full day in DC we had tickets to the White House Spring Garden tour.  It was amazing how close we got to the White House!  And so many people were there and we had the first tour of the day, I think there may have been two or three more after ours.  Here are some pictures from the tour:

From there we had a very long walk to the Nationals Park to see them play the Atlanta Braves.  The ball park is beautiful and everyone is so friendly.  The Nationals lost, but it was fun to be in a different park than Fenway.  Here are a couple pictures:  

We took the Metro back to King Street and then the shuttle back to the condo.  Patrice & Christine packed their stuff up and headed to Christine's apartment.  We hung out, got dinner from Cadillac Ranch (AGAIN!) and fell asleep pretty early - so much walking! 

We spent April vacation in Washington, DC.  We drove down on Friday (took us 9 HOURS...)  We stayed at the Wyndham National Harbor, a beautiful place to stay.  There was a complimentary shuttle from National Harbor to the King Street metro station in Alexandria/Old Town.  Here's some pictures from our Saturday in Old Town/Alexandria.

Christopher rented a bike to ride around and have some independence.  Rich and I walked around, visited some shops, went through an art gallery, sat at the water and people watched.  Patrice and Christine arrived later afternoon and we did some more walking around and visiting.  We saw a couple brides and grooms, one group was having their reception on this boat:

it looked so cool.  We had taken the shuttle from National Harbor to the King Street Metro.  From there we took the Old Town Trolley down to the waterfront - that was so cool!  Christine had her brand new car(!) and drove us back to the condo at National Harbor.  Patrice and Christine spent the night with us on Saturday - we went to dinner at Cadillac Ranch.  It was delicious!  We went back to the condo and hung out for a bit and went to bed, we had a busy day planned for Sunday! 

Our puppy

This is Scout

He's our rescue puppy from Alabama.  He's a mixture of Border Collie and Australian Cattle dog.  He is such a love, and so funny.  Every morning around 6:30 or 7 and every night around 7 he has a "nutty".  He runs around upstairs from one room to the other like a speed demon.  At night we have to toss him a tennis ball, or a toy for about 30 minutes.  Other than that, he's a big sleeper, loves to chew things (in the beginning he chewed sneakers, shoe laces, socks, newspaper, anything left on the floor that shouldn't have been left on the floor!), go for walks, rides in the car and antagonizing the cat!  Our whole family is in total love with him! 

I've decided to try my hand at this blogging thing again.  I can't find how to post in my previous blog, so I had to start another.  Does everyone know that I'm blonde?  Well, lots of silver/gray, but used to be blonde!  

I rescued this chair on the side of the road (it was at my neighbor's house, I called her to make sure she hadn't promised it to anyone else and she hadn't).  We are in the process of rebuilding our back deck that goes to our three season porch and I thought this chair would be a great addition.  

This is what it looked like when I picked it up: 

 We cleaned it up and I bought a can of Georgia Clay spray paint on sale for $3.00.  I put two coats on the chair, it was a beautiful clear day, nice and cool so it dried in about 10 minutes.  I let it sit between coats (I went to have a manicure - I had to wear rubber gloves after the manicure!) and then sprayed the 2nd coat.  Here's what it looked like spray painted: 

I had a cushion from an older wicker chair that we no longer have and I put that on the chair and set it in the spot I want it.  This is what it looks like now: 

I will take another picture because we've planted the wire basket with geraniums for the spring/summer season and it looks much better.  

Not bad for $3.00!