Busy Update: DC, Thanksgiving, & AJ Turns 2...

Another delayed blog post and as a result, this one has about 100 different things that have backlogged, so let's get started. This entry starts on Antoinette's birthday in late October, when we all took a trip to Washington DC for my friend Paul's wedding. After my third trip and Antoinette and Billy's 2nd trip (technically AJ's 2nd trip too, I suppose) to DC in about 20 months, we are just about "Washingtoned" out, althought his trip was a very special one. With our very good friend's wedding on the roof of the Newseum in the hear of the National Mall, this trip would be very different than the others.

The drive to DC was relatively uneventful this time, but we did have an opportunity to stop at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on the way up and visit the Special Operations Museum. For the boys, this was a great experience as the various timelines of the soldiers were setup throughout the museum. The boys had a great time there and this was an excellent stopover on the way up.

The big problem on this trip was that the entire time we were there, we were monitoring a hurricane that was creeping up the coast. We all know the name of that storm today. Hurricane Sandy would go on to ravage the entire east coast and slam into New York City causing up to $60 billion in total damages and flooding out huge sections of the city.

The night we arrived in DC, after checking into our hotel out in the suburbs, I was off to Reagan to pick up Charlotte, Antoinette's Mother, who we flew in to watch the boys while we took care of all of the wedding related items on the list which the boys were not allowed to attend.

When we woke up the next morning, we had a busy schedule. This was the day of the Rehearsal, which was on the campus of Georgetown University. Before heading that way though, we had a morning stop at Arlington National Cemetery. Charlotte had never been to DC before and Arlington was one of the best experiences the last time we were in town, so we felt like it was again, a can't miss destination. We tried to swing by the Pentagon to see the 9/11 Memorial, but it turns out there is no parking at the Pentagon for this. All you can do is drop someone off and come back and pick them up later. We had to skip this one (I'd seen it before, but Antoinette and her Mother had not) and just hit Arlington. After spending the morning at the Cemetery, we timed it up perfectly to make sure we didn't miss the changing of the guard. The boys were not that interested, so I took them down to the gardens below while Antoinette and Charlotte stayed up top to watch the ceremony. Never gets old. Incredible amounts of respect for the soldiers and this cemetery is an amazing place.

After picking Rick up at the airport, we spent the rest of our Friday getting ready for the rehearsal and heading over to Georgetown for the walkthrough and then downtown for dinner. Meanwhile, Antoinette and Charlotte took the boys to the local Mall, which is apparently one of the nicer shopping malls in the Metro area. Rick and I stayed out drinking a little bit and eventually made our way back to the hotel at a decent hour because we had an early day on Saturday. At this point, the weather on Friday was beautiful.

Saturday comes and it is the day of the wedding. Weather reports show the edges of the storm are quite a way off (actually impacting our home in Jacksonville at this point), so the wedding is getting a solid weather report, which is awesome because the reception is half inside and half outside on a roof overlooking the Capitol Building which is just a couple blocks down the street. The wedding was very nice in an extremely old church on Campus. Then we were off in a stretch limo to the Jefferson Memorial for some pictures and then from there, we made our way to the Newseum for the reception while Antoinette met up with some of our friends and drove together from Church. At the Reception, we luckily had the Ohio State game in a back holding room they put us in (actually we had drinks, some light snacks, and three College games going on at the same time with the main screen running the Buckeye game). Of course I had to make my way back throughout the night for updates on the Bucks big win over Penn State, but not to get too sidetracked. The weather held up and the reception was outstanding. Great food, plenty to drink, and the air had a very slight drizzle to it by 2 AM.

One problem arose at night's end. When we wandered out of the Newseum at 2 AM, there wasn't a cab in sight. No way to get the one mile from the venue to our friends' hotel room and our ride in the parking garage. So we started to walk thinking we'd bump into a cab en route. Shockingly, everyone's phone was dead. Nobody had any battery left to call a cab after a long day away from chargers. We wound up walking the entire mile until we made it to the hotel, but at that point, few people were interested in after hours at the local downtown bar, so we jumped in the truck and made our way back to the hotel. Everyone was sound asleep (even though I somehow lost track of my brother for a bit), but we eventually all got to sleep early.

Sunday morning came and hangovers were at a minimum, so we got up early, said our goodbyes to my brother in the next room who had dramatically rearranged his plans to avoid Hurricane Sandy which was bearing down on his home in Delaware, and took off for a stop at Mount Vernon to see Washington's home. Now, at this point, the sky was cloudy, the temperatures had dropped, it was nice and windy, and there was a slight mist in the air as the outer edges of the hurricane began to impact DC. When we arrived at Mount Vernon, there was hardly a soul there. Once inside, we made our way through the entrance and entered the grounds.

Our first stop was a horse and carriage ride around the grounds of Mount Vernon including a ride toward the house head on to see what visitors would've seen 250 years ago. The boys loved it. We stopped for photos by the grounds (which is the family photo shown here) and then took our tour of the inside. Most people experience Mount Vernon a bit differently than we did. They are rushed through from room to room and don't feel like they get a chance to experience the home. Thanks to Hurricane Sandy's impending arrival, this was not the case. The place was empty and crews were out attempting to board up the windows, so our tour group had just a handful of people in it and nobody behind us. Plenty of time to ask questions and enjoy ourselves as we made our way through each room including stops at Washington's study where he sat many nights reading and the very bed that he eventually passed away in. The outside tour took us around each of his carriages, the other outbuildings, the overlook of the Potomac River below, and to both of Washington's tombs (the old one built into the hill and the large tomb built later than he was ultimately moved to).

By the time we left Mount Vernon, it was very cold and the wind and rain had started picking up on and off. We stopped off for lunch (and to watch a little football) before deciding that the weather hadn't turned enough that we couldn't at least try and get Charlotte to the National Mall to see as much as possible. By the time we arrived at the Mall, traffic was nearly non-existent as most people had left DC in anticipation of the storm. Having been through some large storms in Jacksonville and the weather report showing this one was going to glance by DC without a direct hit, we decided we would leave in the morning for Jacksonville, so why not try and see the National Mall.

Parking on the main street in front of the Mall, we unloaded the kids and got ready to head toward the Vietnam Memorial. When we arrived, it was getting colder and already, we started to have a drop or two fall. The rain was on its way. We spent about 10-15 minutes at the Memorial before moving on toward the Lincoln. We decided to head up into the monument so we could stand next to Lincoln and also to walk along the outer edge to show Charlotte the very spot that Antoinette and I sat to open the envelope when we found out that AJ was a boy.

Clouds were moving a bit quicker now, so we moved to another gear and the next stop, which was the Korean War Memorial, which I had never seen before. At the moment we arrived, the next set of rain drops began to fall. It was at this moment that Antoinette decided to let me know that she made the executive decision to leave the umbrellas in the truck...in the rain...during a massive pending rain storm. This could really abbreviate the rest of the evening.

The Korean War Memorial has some convenient overhanging hedge like trees that we could stand under for a few minutes to allow the current rain band to subside and then we were off again, walking along the edge of the newly rebuilt Reflecting Pool (very nice in place of the dirt path that was there the last two times we were there to visit). Rain was spotty on this very long walk, but before long we made it to the World War II Memorial, which is one of Antoinette and I's favorite spots in DC. At this point, the wind was really picking up, the rain had started to come down in a consistent drizzle, and the clouds were really moving. Our original plan was to head North from the Monument, circle the White House, and then head East toward the Capitol Building. Obviously, the weather was not going to work with us on this one.

Instead, the plan was to head toward the Monument so Charlotte could get right up next to it (although you still couldn't go in since the earthquake the last time I was in town that cracked it) and then make it to the White House and determine where we stand at that point. Once we turned north, the wind was blasting us in the face. We decided that the White House might be the last stop along the way here. As we crossed the street heading toward the building, we noticed police cars that were blocking off the main road. I wasn't sure what was going on and then realized that the South Lawn was blocked off. I had just finished describing what the Presidential Chopper, Marine 1, sounded and looked like when we heard a low rumble on the horizon behind us. Immediately we realized what was happening as people began congregating near the fence.

We changed our plans yet again and headed over to the fence line as the Presidential chopper flew over our heads heading toward the actual South Lawn of the White House. We could see the chopper come in low, rotate over the lawn, and then land before powering down. Secret Service were running around everywhere. We decided to stick out the cold and rain and watch for awhile, but after about 15 minutes of standing around, we decided the chopper could be down for 5 more minutes or it could be down for an hour. So we started to leave. Before we got about 200 feet from the original fence line, we heard Marine 1 start powering up again and did an about face heading back for our original spot.

Once there, about 5 minutes after powering up, the huge Presidential transport began to lift off from the lawn, rotate toward us, and then over the course of the next 2 minutes flew right over our heads no more than 50 feet of the ground before banking around the National Monument and taking President Obama to Andrews Air Base and Air Force One. It was a pretty cool experiment and all happened on Antoinette's birthday. That's perfect timing!!! And we got it all on video!!!

With the sun going down and the wind and rain moving to a whole new level on the walk back to the truck, we quickly jumped in before getting soaked and decided to drive Charlotte around the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, and the Library of Congress before heading back to the hotel. After driving past all of them nice and slow (no traffic on the roads because it was Sunday and Hurricane Sandy was arriving) we had a bit of a diaper emergency. We pulled in front of the Capitol Building in the middle of the National Mall and decided to change AJ's diaper right there (Antoinette) while I took Charlotte about a half block closer across the Mall's lawn toward the front of the Capitol for some quick photos. Pretty cool pictures. Billy once had his diaper changed on the steps of the US Supreme Court and now AJ gets his diaper changed in a Hurricane right in front of the Capitol Building. These boys are going to be mighty embarrassed if they ever get a job in Washington!!!

The final notes on this trip involve the flight for Antoinette's Mother. That night, a couple phone calls revealed to us in the hotel that Charlotte's flight was cancelled and rescheduled for Tuesday with no guarantee that was going to actually take off either, so we decided that she would be coming with us back to Jacksonville and try and book her a flight from there. Loading the truck up on Monday morning during DC's brunt of the Hurricane (30-45 MPH winds and heavy rain) was a trip. Once we were loaded, we decided we would take it nice and slow and not rush the drive. Our initial drive home plan was a stop at Jamestown for about 3-4 hours of tours of the first Settlement and at Yorktown Battlefield where the British surrendered to end the Revolutionary War. That obviously didn't happen.

The drive was intense. Pretty much 60 MPH in 70 MPH zones, nice gusty winds, heavy rain, and fairly crappy driving conditions for the first 6-7 hours of the drive. Most of the trip was in the rain and we were halfway through South Carolina before the rain started to let up. By the time we got into Georgia, the rain had almost completely let up, but the heavy cloud cover continued all the way to Florida's border. When we left DC, we were in the middle of the storm. To drive a full 14 hours before finally getting to the southern edge of the cloud cover (defined perfectly in the sky by a hard line of clouds vs. clear) was crazy. The biggest storm I've ever seen. Obviously, the storm would go on to slam into New York City and turn into a massive history making storm. In the last three trips to DC, we have been through two hurricanes and an earthquake!!! Wow!!!

The next major event since the last blog was AJ's 2nd birthday. The little guy is just as active as he's ever been. He's literally bouncing off the walls on a regular basis now. AJ is constantly tackling, wrestling, jumping, climbing, throwing, running, and basically just trying crazier and crazier things. This kid is stitches waiting to happen!!! His visit to the doctor found that he's growing right on schedule, coming in like his brother as a long and lanky kid, with 75th percentile in height and 50th percentile in weight. Analysis at this point pegs AJ's projected future height at somewhere around 6'1". Basically 6'0" to 6'2". We shall see how that holds up for him.

For AJ's 2nd birthday, we kept the party in the family instead of having a bunch of people and their kids over. We figure we'll hold off on that until he's 3 or 4 before we start spending that kind of money on a full blown birthday party. AJ was able to blow up his birthday cupcakes either way. The boys had a blast opening up their presents (they are still at an age where the other non-birthday boy gets something too) and playing with them well into the night. Can't believe my youngest is already a 2 year old.

Thanksgiving wraps up our blog update this time around. This was the first year in a long while that we haven't had company in town. The boys had a chance to see how a turkey cooks and we spent the afternoon watching football, having an early meal and a late snack, and putting up Christmas decorations. Since it is already Christmas Day, I'll have another update once Charlotte comes to town in a week that takes us through Christmas and New Year's. Until then, enjoy the video...