Spring Break- McCall

After a good nights sleep I woke up early and started to get ready for McCall.  Emily and I had one more ski ticket each to use before the end of the season.  With the extreme low snow fall and the 80 degree days seen over spring break, we knew we were in for a slushy day but couldn't let it go to waste.  Val, Rachel and Sammie picked us up and we headed up to the condo.  Stopping for lunch on the way up and soaking up the sun while we played in the snow before dinner.

That night we played some games and watched 'The Help'.  The next morning we hit the slopes and were blessed with a pretty fabulous day.  The top was a bit cold and cloudy keeping the snow from melting too much.

Emmy was fighting a cold but was a trouper skiing all day.  Lily, Rachel, and Sammie did their own thing on the baby hill for a while so Val, Emmy and I could keep skiing at the top of the mountain.  When we got to the bottom we discovered that the girls had gotten sunburned - I was glad I stayed at the top 😉.

We drove home from the hill - what an epic Spring Break week: DC, tornado warnings, freezing weather, Atlanta detour, cousin time, skiing, and sunburn - one for the books.

Spring Break - Atlanta detour

My alarm was set for 4:00am so we could get dressed, return the car, and get to the airport in time for our early flight.  I woke the girls, got dressed and ready, then took a look at my phone while I waited for the girls.  Should have looked at my phone first...our flight was delayed three hours.  I told the girls to go back to bed and spent a bit of time looking at what our day was going to look like.  Instead of getting home at 12:30pm on Thursday we were going to get home at 11:30pm.  We had planned to meet Val in McCall Thursday evening - not any more.  Our new flight plan gave us an 8 hour layover in Altlanta - at least Lily could get a new state.  I went back to bed.

Hours later at the airport I had the girls do some research about what they wanted to do in Atlanta.  Our flight was delayed more, they wouldn't check our bags at the gate, blah blah blah, eventually we made it to Atlanta, ditched our bags and hopped on MARTA (which was free because of construction) and headed downtown to the Aquarium.  We first grabbed some tasty lunch then enjoyed a full 3 hours in the aquarium. 

One of the favorites were the 5 beluga whales.  Emmy would have watched them swim, poop and blow bubbles for hours.

The walk through tank was incredible with the whale shark swimming all around you.

We even got to see the tank from above.

They had an exhibit for fahlo, Emily's favorite app.  You buy a stuffy or bracelet that gives you a code for the app that then allows you to track an animal.  She has several bracelets and is always dreaming of more.  He she is showing Bill the dolphin on her phone and the big screen.

We were able to catch the last dolphin show of the day.  I didn't take any pics, but Emmy got a few, and several videos.  She sat up close but Lily and I didn't want to get wet so we sat farther back.  The show was lots of fun and a great way to end our time at the largest aquarium in the US.

We decided to walk back to the metro through the Olympic Park.

While taking this pic the girls realized we were very close to a Waffle House.  Having never eaten there, and loving the Jonas Brothers song of the same name they decided they were ready for dinner.

They loved their waffles and in the end it was good that we found somewhere quick to eat because the security lines were exceptionally long due to the government shutdown not paying TSA employees.  All things considered, the wait wasn't too bad and we made it back to our gate in plenty of time to board our flight and get back to Boise, grateful to sleep in our own beds.

Spring Break DC- Ford’s Theater, Archives, Library of Congress, Post Office Museum

Thursday morning we were up early again to get to Ford's Theater for our 9:30 tour. 

We learned a lot about Lincoln and the day of his death at the museum before we entered the theater where he was shot.

This is the gun John Wilkes Booth used,

and that is the theatre box Lincoln was sitting in when Booth entered and fatally wounded Lincoln.

The booth is kept the same as it was on the day Lincoln was shot.

After the shot was fired and Booth escaped Lincoln was quickly taken to a home across the street where he was laid in this bed.  It was here that he died.

The gift shop had a stack of books about Lincoln built into a tower going up to the third floor - so many books have been written about him.

From there we hit The Archives, which I somehow have no pictures of... We had to stand in line for a long time, which was harder on our feet than walking, but we were eventually able to see the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

From there we walked to the Library of Congress where we had to wait in line, in spite having a ticket, but once inside we enjoyed the incredible building as well as the...

Gutenberg Bible...

and Jeffereson's library - he donated much of his personal library after the national library was destroyed by fire during the war of 1812.

We walked over the the Bureau of Printing and Engraving but sadly they were out of tickets for the day so the girls decided to make a quick stop at the Air and Space Museum. The highlights:

The Wright Brothers bicycle and glider

and Armstrong's spacesuit from his trip the moon.

Then we visited the Postal Museum - a first for all of us.  We decided it was an overlooked gem of the Smithsonian.  We almost had the place to ourselves and the girls spent over an hour just looking at the stamp display.

Emily surprised me by being a bit of an encyclopedia of valuable stamps, many of which were on display including the Penny Black and the inverted Curtiss Jenny.

After the stamps the girls thought they'd seen it all, when they discovered we'd only seen about half of the museum.  With only 30 minutes left before they closed the girls enjoyed the mail vehicles exhibit as well exhibits about how mail has changed over the years.

With over 20,000 steps to our name our feet were tired but nothing like the exhaustion from the day before.  We took our last Metro ride back to the hotel where we grabbed our car and headed to our new hotel by the airport so we would be ready for our 6:00am flight home the next day.  Or so we thought...