I had to go to Washington, DC for work so we decided to extend our stay and make a vacation out of it. We left Monday morning and returned Sunday afternoon. I had work meetings Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday all day, but got a 90 minute break for lunch each day so on those days, Nate and Maggie did something in the morning, met me for lunch, returned to nap and then I met them by the pool.
As we are always reminded on "vacation", traveling with kids is both fun and exhausting.
Preparations
I bought some new books and activities for the trip - mainly one of those Crayola
Color Wonder marker packets (big hit), Maggie's first
I Spy book (huge hit) and a
Special Agent Oso book (I could read this in my sleep). Maggie's hand-me-down Dora suitcase broke a week before our trip so we took her to Target and told her she could pick out a backpack. She had requested a backpack earlier this year so she was thrilled. She picked o
ut the gaudiest one Target had and proudly wore it through the airport:
(Note her glorious outfit as well - she slept in that polka dotted sweatshirt and refused to leave it at home.)
We ended up bringing one large suitcase and one carry-on sized suitcase, both of which we checked) and then I had a backpack and Maggie had a backpack for the plane. We gate checked the stroller. This amount of luggage was perfect for us, as we were planning on relying on the Metro in DC.
We also were going to have Maggie sleep in a regular bed for the first time. Trial by fire, right? This originally was not the plan - we were going to pack up "vacation bed" (the Toddler Air Mattress that I have blogged about before) but it conveniently was flat the morning we left. I haven't investigated it fully to know if it has a hole or what.
Overall, I thought she was at a GREAT age for travel - so much easier now that we only have a pull-up at night and don't require any "stuff". We gambled and did not bring any toys for the hotel room - she had some coloring books, stickers and a stack of books. It was actually harder to pack for myself as I had to try on stuff to see if it still fit!
Travel
The flight was great. Maggie loved being on an airplane, had zero issues with ears either way and basically we read books, colored and went through the I Spy book. We did not have any meltdowns, either. The only issue that we did have is that she refused to go to the bathroom on the airplane potty. On the way there, we did not plan for this and she was able to hold it the whole flight but did end up wetting her pants soon after - apparently airport bathrooms are not any better. On the way home, we had her go before the flight and I put a pull-up on over her underwear just in case. Of course when you are prepared, everything goes fine :)
The bathroom situation was probably our biggest barrier on travel days. Maggie has a fear of public toilets - she will flat out refuse to go in them. This got better as the trip went on, but she actually wet her pants twice on Day 1 (and then thankfully never again!).
One of the highlights for her was the subway. She love love LOVED taking the train. She especially loved when we let her get out of the stroller and sit on an actual train seat. I took her picture on it the last day and it is one of the few photos where she was actually smiling!
Hotel
We had a regular sized (aka small) hotel room at a Marriott. I had called ahead to get two queen beds but of course when we checked in, they didn't have a record of that so we had one King bed. Thankfully, they provided a roll-away. (Maggie is so NOT a co-sleeper.) We had zero issues with sleeping in the rollaway bed - she loved it and requested a "big girl bed" at home. YES! (I'll have more on that later.)
Our hotel was fine. Our room was very standard, the bathroom was VERY tiny but we survived. It is definitely easier to have a separate living room. I actually was going to bed at the same time as Maggie so it ended up being fine that we had the lights out around 8 PM eastern. Nate is addicted to Candy Crush, so he could do that until god knows what hour on the iPad without lights. :)
We were excited to be on the top floor, as that was the Concierge level. We thought this meant we had access to snacks - nope. Had to be an "elite" member to do that. Darn! Those snacks would have come in handy!
The pool at our hotel was clutch though. It was outdoors, with a lot of lounge chairs, and beautiful potted flowers everywhere. You can actually get an annual pass to the pool to use if you are not a guest at the hotel. We went to the pool every day. The extra nice thing about it was that the shallow end was the perfect depth for Maggie to swim on her own. She was VERY proud of herself for that.
The first four nights of our hotel were very nice - no noise issues at all. Unfortunately the last two nights were awful. One of them had a young guy talking on his cell phone in the hall from 3-4AM. Maggie was then up from 3-4:30. Thanks buddy! The next night a very pregnant woman did the same thing around 12:30 AM. Thankfully Nate and I were the only ones with sleeping issues that night - Maggie slept through. Are we losing it? Is this totally acceptable behavior and we are just "old"?!
The hotel was in a great location - right across the street from the red line Woodley Park/Zoo Metro Stop, which made our travels by train super easy.
Food
DC has great food, no question. We were lucky to have a stretch of great restaurants right outside our hotel, which is where we ate for lunch the days that I had work meetings. We had mediterranean, Indian and Noodles. Ha! Yes, Noodles like the Noodles that are across WI. As in Maggie's favorite restaurant. I think that was her favorite meal. :)
We also traveled to Dupont Circle several times for food as it was only one Metro stop away or a short walk (1 mi). We visited the Eastern Market and Adams/Morgan neighborhoods for food as well.
For breakfast, we initially were getting single serve cereals, yogurt and fruit from the coffee shop in our hotel for a premium. We then wised up and bought a box of cereal and milk from the CVS across the street and ate cereal in our hotel room. Given that cereal is Maggie's favorite breakfast food, this ended up being perfect.
At a pizza place in Dupont Circle
She is obsessed with cupcakes so Georgetown Cupcake was a favorite!
Activities
Monday was raining in DC so we spent as much time indoors as we could. We toured the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of American History. Maggie really loved the butterfly exhibit in the Natural History Museum. We have a very similar exhibit at the MKE Public Museum so that will be fun to revisit - she was pretty young when we first took her there and had zero memory of it.
Nate and Maggie toured the National Zoo and Museum of Air and Space while I was in meetings. They also found out about a nearby playground. We went back to the National Zoo on Saturday because I wanted to see the Pandas. We also toured several of the monuments (Washington, MLK Jr, FDR, Lincoln, Vietnam, Korean War, WWII) The White House, and the National Cathedral. Maggie was more into the monuments than I thought she would be. She really liked the FDR one with all of the fountains.
Some of my favorite memories are her, riding in her stroller, saying, "Hey guys, wanna play a little I Spy?" while we were walking through the city and doing this little song and dance routine in her high falsetto voice, "I love to sing, I love to dance" while walking. She also had a classic line for our maid, which those of you on Facebook were already privy to. B was one of Maggie's favorite people on vacation. She talked to her every day and colored her a picture for her cart. We even ran into B on the Metro one night. Well, B also had a large mole on her face. Maggie asked her, not once but twice, "B why do you have that nipple on your face?". Nate was a quick thinker and translated this to "nickel" referring to B's earrings the first time. (It helped that there was a bit of a language barrier between Maggie and B.) The second time, we were in the loud subway so we just moved the conversation along. I tried explaning that it was a mole, not a nipple, when B was out of hearing range. She never asked B again after that.
Overall it was a great trip, although always a little more tiring to be out of your element with a two year old. Her sleep got messed up for sure and she didn't eat the best so there were some trying nights. But we survived, and I still think traveling with kids is worth it!
