Jordan (and her family) goes to DC

If your mom works in Washington, DC, you’d think you would have a chance to visit all the time. But if you live in the middle of the country, it might take two and a half years! But when you have two and a half years to plan out five days, you know it’s going to be pretty great.

Jordan, Cameron and Randy arrived a day after I did because I had a day-long work meeting. But that gave everyone a chance to get settled into the apartment where I stay in during most of my visits. I took the family to meet my work team and piled them up on DCity Smokehouse with friends in the apartment I use when I’m in town. You guys, that was one heck of an awesome meal. We ate all of the meats. It was delicious.

I’m very lucky to have friends with two awesome girls who live in the brownstone above me when I’m in town. They have kindly shared their home with me for almost a year. It’s one of the most incredible gifts. They invited us up for breakfast so our families could meet and Jordan made instant friends. So much so, they joined us as we visited museums along the National Mall. We played at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Sculpture Garden (one of my favorites) and the National Portrait Gallery. My brother joined us for a couple of the museums as well since he just happens to live in Washington, DC!

Even though Jordan didn’t want to, we said goodbye and headed over to Union Station to take a sunset/night tour of some of the biggest monuments in DC: Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Korean War, Abraham Lincoln and views of many more. It was really cool to do something touristy when I’m in the city so often and I never take advantage of cool experiences like a tour. The kids learned stuff. We saw beautiful sights. It was a great evening.

The next day was a big day. My brother took us to a special brunch as the very funking Mansion on O Street. The “mega-mansion” is actually a bunch of different buildings connected with secret passages and other fun connections. It’s known as an escape for the rich and famous and yet, you can go on scavenger hunts through the building. We ate brunch and had a scavenger challenge all over the mansion. My favorite secret room is a wine cellar where you can have private parties. We could have spent the whole day exploring.

But we couldn’t because we had a really big opportunity… A West Wing tour of the White House! I’ll share those details soon!