A Trip to Washington D.C. Day 3

Well, our first official day in DC was rather interesting. Because of the time change, Zoe, Ace, & Liam were all up at 5:00 a.m. We made it down to breakfast as Mark was leaving for work.

After breakfast we loaded up the stroller and headed for our first official trip on the Metro (subway). We all enjoyed the ride.

We had a detour on our first day of sight seeing. Zoe has been so interested in painting, drawing, and doing whatever she can with arts, that I thought she might enjoy the Smithsonian Gallery of Art. We went to the classical wing first. I was right…she loved it! Especially, when we found some of Degas’ Ballerinas (one painting and several statues). I was so upset when I realized I forgot her sketch pad…she would have had fun “drawing” some of the art. After spending a couple of hours of Zoe asking about every single picture, we went down to the basement level to eat our sandwiches. Ace was out completely through lunch and Liam woke up halfway through and ate a little (did I mention he had a stomach virus and very little appetite). Ace woke up as we left the art gallery and proceeded to pitch a fit because he was hungry and he was also soaken wet! After a quick change and eating lunch, he was much better and ready to go look at planes and space shuttles.

Our next stop was the Air and Space Museum. I thought they would enjoy it, and they did. But being preschoolers and craving more hands on, they wanted to push all the buttons and climb on the planes and touch everything…not a good place for two preschoolers. As we left the Air and Space Museum tired and done with sightseeing for the night, we had our first big adventure.

I came out on the Independence Ave. side and searched for a ramp to roll the stroller down…nowhere to be seen and the guard wasn’t much help either (but he did point us in the right direction for the metro). We crossed Independence and made it to the curb. As I was trying to get up on the curb, the strollers left front wheel broke and folded up underneath the stroller! So, with two kids in the stroller and one wonderfully obedient little girl holding on to the stroller, we popped a wheelie and went about 2 1/2 blocks to the metro with Ace’s legs high in the air (Liam was sleeping so that made it a little easier). After getting to the metro (and across the street to the elevator), we went down two levels still on the back two wheels. Once we got on the metro, I realized that I could probably wheel the stroller backwards and be able to use all wheels. So, we tried that at our metro stop and it worked. I walked through DC with a stroller high in the sky and then walked backwards through Pentagon City! Yes, it was very funny and very hard all at the same time.

When Mark got in from work, we headed out 8 miles and 45 minutes away to a Babies R’ Us to get a new stroller…my souvenir!

Here is the stroller before it broke!