Travel Diary: Washington DC Day 1

My sister-in-law, Angie, created a travel diary for her summer adventures and encouraged her friends and family to create their own diaries.  So, here begins our summer trip to Washington D.C.

Travel Diary Day 1:

 *It began with a flight delay at the Fort Myers airport, ugh!  With a number of hours to kill and limited food choices we had to eat at Nathan's Famous.  Hot dogs and  french fries wouldn't have been my first choice of meals to begin this vacation.
*Running behind schedule we arrived at the Le Meridien hotel in Rosslyn, Virginia.  We were greeted with a complementary wine bar at check-in. Already, my mood was beginning to improve. Before I continue with our itinerary, I feel the need to give you a little background on our hotel. Darin had found a good price on airline tickets and booked them prior to making any other travel plans.  He asked me to start looking for a hotels within walking distance of the metro since we had no desire to rent and drive a car in DC.  Little did I know that finding a hotel would become a major chore.  All the hotels I found were either too full, too far from the metro or too expensive.  After days of researching, I was finally able to find a Groupon for the Le Meridien in Rosslyn.  I was able to book 4 out of the 5 nights that we needed. The 5th night had to be booked separately through the hotel at 3 times the price of the Groupon nights. The Le Meridien ended up as the best decision of our entire trip.  The hotel was beautiful!  We had a room on the 10th floor with a view of the Washington Monument. Best of all, it was only one block from the Rosslyn Metro station and only 3 stops from Reagan airport.
*We quickly checked in and jumped on the metro to Union Station. After a meal at the Union Station food court (which is on steroids) we boarded the Old Trolley "Monuments by Moonlight" tour.
*While at the FDR Memorial we witnessed our first bride and groom taking wedding pictures (this wouldn't be our last).
*By far, the biggest crowds of our trip were found at the monuments at night.  We have never seen so many tour groups and tours buses in our lives but the views at sunset and the evening were amazing.







Next post: Day 2 - museums and food trucks

The Morgans

We hosted our fourth and final set of visitors for the summer, The Morgans. The eight of us spent the majority of our time in the water either at the beach, pool or water park. We chose the perfect evening for a sunset cruise aboard the Double Sunshine which took us on a tour of the million dollar homes in Port Royal prior to entering the gulf for sunset. Numerous dolphins joined us on our return to the dock which made the evening even more exciting.



On the last day of The Morgan's visit we had planned to paddle board but ended up boogie boarding instead. It is rare that we get a rough surf in Naples so you can imagine our surprise when we arrived at the beach only to find out that paddle boarding wasn't going to be possible. No worries, everyone had a blast boogie and body surfing in the waves. By far it ended up as The Morgan's favorite day at the beach.









It was awesome for Mackenzie to spend quality time with her cousin, Kate. Ashlan had come to stay with us earlier in the summer but we hadn't seen Kate in over a year. These two are growing into such beautiful young women both inside and out.

We were sad to see The Morgan's head back to Dallas. For one, it signaled the end of our summer break. Secondly, we probably won't see The Morgan's for an entire year. The good news is that my sister-in-law, Angie, and I have already begun planning their return visit to Naples next summer.

The Parrish Family

We had the pleasure of hosting a third set of visitors, Deborah and Lindsay Parrish. My sister, Deborah, had not been to Florida since Mackenzie's First Communion which was over eight years ago.  My niece, Lindsay, had not been back to Florida since the Griffin/Kiefhaber wedding which was four years ago.



While they were here we hit a number of happy hours, viewed a few sunsets and squeezed in a little shopping. However, our best activity was a shelling excursion. The excursion lasted three hours.  It was a public excursion; however we were the only ones to book it that day.  It ended up as a private tour, just us and the boat captain.  We sailed  down the Gordon River through Naples Bay and stopped at Keewaydin Island for shelling.  We had the island to ourselves as far as the eye could see to the north and ...



... far as the eye could see to the south.



There were shells all over the island.  We could have stayed there longer but we had to stay on schedule so we quickly grabbed as many interesting shells as possible.



Mason had decided to tag along with us but I knew he would quickly loose interest in looking for shells so I encouraged him to bring his new cast net.







We were sad to see the Parrishs leave after three short days but we hope this visit set the foundation for more frequent future visits.

Tennessee Guskes

We just said goodbye to the Tennessee Guskes after a week long visit. The boys attended a five-day fishing camp but were also able to squeeze in a midweek excursion to Venice for shark teeth hunting.



And the girls, well, they shopped til they dropped. For a day I was able to convince them to take a break from the malls and attend a matinee at our dinner theater.



What was it like having three teenagers and one pre-teen in the house?  No worries, everyone got along perfectly.





Much thanks to my brother, Derek, for driving his family to Naples. We were sad to see the Tennessee Guskes head back home but we look forward to our next two sets of visitors. More details to come.

Nine Armed Sea Stars

Since the month of May we have been blessed with a massive amount of nine armed sea stars inhabiting our Naples beaches. Because they don't have a backbone or fins they are referred to as sea stars, not starfish. We have found all of our sea stars in "knee deep" waters. Mason has become an expert in finding them.  He doesn't have to actually see them in the water, he knows them by the "feel" as he walks in the sand. I still can't get over how large they are. By the way, none of these sea stars were harmed for the photos. Sea stars are easily stranded when the tide goes out but can survive if the sun doesn't dry them before the next tide.





We have not only been blessed by sea stars but also by a visit from our 10 year old niece, Ashlan. We are so proud of her! She flew by herself for the the first time and came to stay with us for an entire week. We had so much fun that we were sad to see her leave.  Thankfully, she will be back at the end of July with her entire family.



Life is good...at the beach :)

VBS Rocks

I am so proud of these two for once again participating in Vacation Bible School as crew and jr crew leaders. Each summer I begin to wonder if this will be their last time and if they are getting tired of giving up their first week of summer break to volunteer. But at the end of the week at the dinner celebration they always tell me they will be back for more next year. I guess no matter how old you get, VBS still rocks!

Totally Jaw-Some

We knew someday that Mason would be a Gulf Coast Shark, we just didn't know it would happen in 6th grade. This Spring Mason joined a start-up team of an established youth football league. On the plus side, all of the equipment and jerseys were brand new. On the negative side, our newly formed team was up against more seasoned players. Even though Mason's team didn't fair well against the other teams we sure enjoyed watching him play in the Gulf Coast High School stadium.