My sister, Janene and my cousin, Becky came out to explore DC and NYC with me before they didn't have an excuse and a free place to stay for a night (thank you Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Scott!). Janene and I fought like cats and dogs growing up (I actually installed a lock on my bedroom door to keep her from taking my clothes/shoes/makeup whenever I wasn't home, it was that bad), but now I couldn't imagine life without a sister. WHICH kinda makes me want another girl in the future, but handling the drama between the two? Not sure if I'm cut out for that....good thing I don't have to make that decision.
And Becky married my closest Packard cousin in age, Sean, and she's just the cutest, chillest thing who loves the travel, so we all made a date of it.
The government figured themselves out and the shutdown was released the day prior to their arrival. Amazing! So we got to do everything in DC that we could fit into our schedule. First stop?
Shake Shack. Oh, I miss that place. So. Good.
World War II Memorial, represent. Truly was a touching memorial, despite our irreverence.
Washington Monument, possibly recognizable from Forrest Gump anyone?
Oh yes, I was about 8 months pregnant and Janene was about 7 months pregnant with twins. These babes about killed us by the end of the trip. They better be worth it!
(Totally kidding, we love you little ones!)
Lincoln Memorial, again, very cool.
The leaves were just starting to change, they missed the brunt of the beautiful scenery.
Smithsonian Museum of American History had some cool things in it, from the ball gowns the First Ladies have worn, the Hope Diamond (I was honestly expecting a diamond as big as a basketball, but it wasn't, and it was blue), childrens' books, early automobiles, civil war artifacts, Dorothy's ruby red slippers, etc. My inner cook and baker loved this! How women got dinner on the table...
THEEE original flag that flew while Francis Scott Key wrote our national anthem during The War of 1812. It was in a dark room where no flash photography was allowed to protect it. Becky snapped this, naturally (flash free).
And my inner cardiac nurse loved this, one of the early holter monitors.
We left the museum looking for my car, which was nowhere to be seen. You know that feeling you get when you KNOW you parked your car in a certain spot, but it's not there anymore, so that only means that it was stolen or towed? The rush of traffic flowing freely where my car once stood led me to the latter conclusion.
Ugh.
DC towed my car to a couple streets over and slapped two tickets on my car. Thaaaanks guys.
We ran around to the front of the White House, but it's not the most widely-known view. After about an hour of walking and driving around trying to figure out how to see the other view (the actual back of the house, but more familiar view), this is the best we got. Whatever, Obama, whatever.
After our DC escapades, we drove right into Georgetown for some great food, cobblestone streets, colonial housing, and some sweet views.
Baked and Wired Cupcakes (with names like 'Unicorns and Rainbows') I thought was better than Georgetown Cupcake. On our way back to the car, we passed by a highly intoxicated 50-year-old African-American man with his brown paper sac drink...
drunkard to Janene: "Heyuhhhh.....could I rub your belly there?"
me: "OH MY! Seriously?!"
drunkard: "Heeeey, don't act like there's somethin wrong wit dat! I 'aint creepy!"
The next morning, we hopped on a bus and arrived in NYC 4 hours later. With our tentative schedule, we first went to try to get discount broadway tickets, even getting bumped to the front of a 200+ person line after a security guard approached us, asked if we were pregnant (ummm, yeahhhh), and if we'd like to go to the front of the line. YES PLEASE! Such a nice gesture! We were unsuccessful in getting tickets for a show/time we wanted, so instead hopped on over to Central Park. I had dropped my water bottle cap on the subway, so my water was sitting in the side pocket of our backpack without a lid on it. Janene flung around quickly just as we had asked a guy to take our picture, and water went flying everywhere. The guy got this panicked look on his face and froze.
"OH MY GOSH. I thought your water just broke."
After a delicious brunch, we went went to catch the Staten Island Ferry so we could check out Miss Lady Liberty herself. We really wanted the ferry that had an open deck so we could get a better view and pictures, but missed it by literally 10 seconds. GAH. After some chili-cheese dogs to make ourselves feel better, we caught the non-open-deck ferry. As we were boarding, we stopped to chat with the security guards/cops. We may or may not have flirted a little (as much as pregnant and/or married women can) and got them to let us up onto the top of the ferry for the unhindered view.
Next we danced our way across the Brooklyn Bridge as the sun was setting to Alicia Keys and Jay Z's "Empire Sate of Mind", you know, the one that goes "Baby I'm from New York...Concrete jungle where dreams are made of...." etc etc etc. It was fabulous.
Then to Times Square for an amazing Italian dinner at Carmine's.
The next morning taking the subway to catch our bus home. We were a little exhausted.
Becky had to leave to get back to work, we would have loved to hang with her for one more day. Instead Janene and I hung out and drove a little north to this apple-picking farm for some pumpkins,
apple picking,
and fall leaves.
Thank you so much ladies for coming to see me! Can't wait until I'm back with y'all in Texas!
And a special thank you to my baby's daddy for playing momma two weekends in a row. Muah!
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