Sunday, March 26, 2017

Spring Break DC Vacation, Day 2

 So this morning started obscenely early for me.  So it was a long day.  


Sam woke me up at 3:45 with his coughing.  So much coughing.  
We'd stopped for cough medicine, and found these mini-melts powder pixie stix stuff for him, it was the only guaifenesin combo that didn't have red 40.  But a. he didn't want to take it, and b. it wasn't as effective as I wished it would be.  It seemed to be better when we loaded up the diffusers and blasted RC. So it was RC for his respiratory congestion support, and Thieves for Daddy and I.  Sweet Lord, I don't want to catch this.  


Meanwhile, he crashed early the night before, but before we left, the kids wanted to go for one more swim. Mommy did the pre-pack up while Daddy took the yahoos to the pool this time.  
Since our apartment doesn't have a pool we promised the boys we'd stop at places with pools overnight on the way there and back again.  
We got back on the road about 11. 


Pennsylvania. 
Long roads with snowy hilltops in the distance.  


For some reason, Google Map directions took us off the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and we found ourselves on the National Road, US 40.  40 runs right through Indy, but I've never taken it all the way East or West. 


As we cross the mountains in Pennsylvania, the Laurel Highlands, is what they were called, we find them covered with snow, and so Beautiful.  


Gorgeous!  
We drove by a beautiful resort on the way near Uniontown, and a National Park Fort Necessity. 
Someday I want to go back.  This is the sort of area that would be gorgeous all year long.  


We passed a pretty lake.  
Someday I want to stay at the Nemocolin Resort, and visit Laurel Caverns. 
We passed these on our drive, and I made note, because dayim, they were Gorgeous!


The snowy knoll.
Just after we crossed into Maryland, we found a place where we could gas up, and eat. 


Obviously, Eric isn't dressed for the Allegheny mountain weather.  
The rest of us dug out our coats.   
We stopped at McDonald's and drove through for lunch.  
We'd given up fast food for Lent, so on Sundays we cave a little bit.  The kids had been really looking forward to McD's on our road trip. 


We made it to our apartment in Vienna, VA near Merrifield, just after 4 pm! 
We're on the second floor, 2 bedrooms, an air mattress for a the extra person (Jacob says it's his Jacob size bed!) 1 1/2 bathrooms with a kitchen, all within walking of the Metro and free parking for our car.  We found this place with the help of Airbnb.  This was our first airbnb adventure.  We had reservations in Alexandria, but our initial renter cancelled on us less than 2 weeks before we were leaving.  I freaked out and asked the airbnb guys for help finding a place within our budget.  Blessedly, Derek at Airbnb really worked to find us a place.   This place met with all our conditions.   




This was an accidental shot, as I was putting my phone away.  
It's our apartment building.  But I kind of like its artsy way. 
We waited a bit for James, the owner of our place.  Then he gave us a grand tour, showing us how to use the keys, where to shop, eat, park our car, we had the option of Indoor or Outdoor parking which was really nice.  He was very kind!  He was prompt too in replying to any of our questions all along the way.  


We got there before the owner, and had to wait a bit.
Jacob got a big kick out of playing in the snowbank. 
They'd had a big snow the week before.  We had gotten only a dusting, that hadn't lasted.  
Even though it was like 50 out, some snow remained.
Once we got inside, the kids were so excited that they started playing with everything. It only took a minute before Christopher accidentally slammed a door into Jacob who was running headlong into it, and he got a huge gash in his head.  I'm glad I had my Helichrysum, but it still looks bad. 


Like they hadn't had enough screen time already. 
As we unpacked and got settled, the boys were perfectly content to just play on their ipads. 
What did we ever do without them before?!   (Chris had his too, but he was using his on his Flush.)

The living room is a little small, this two seater couch is all there is, about 4 feet from the tv.   Not exactly a hang out place for a family of 5, but we can make do with it. 


We got a welcome from the nosy neighbors.
And I think I shall call them Fred and Ethel. 


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