Castles take DC: part 1

as you can probably guess from the title, I went on vacation again.

(ALSO: Wimbledon is currently going on so it may take forever to get this whole trip on the blog because I'm either watching tennis, playing tennis, or working.)

I've always wanted to go to Washington, DC. and when I was older and started appreciating history more, I really wanted to go to DC. my dad has been a couple times because he has conferences in the area, and he never took the family with him because we were "too young" or it was during the school year. finally, he decided since it would be right after graduation and because my brothers were older (but not necessarily more mature), we could go. and HOLY CRAP I WAS SO EXCITED. museums, history, memorials, history, homes of presidents, history, old ships, history, old forts, history, colonial villages, HISTORY...you get it. this was going to be amazing. and it was. but in true Castle family fashion, we had our great moments, and our not-so-great moments. and you will be getting the raw, unfiltered version from yours truly.

to start out, we had to wake up at 5 in order to be ready by 6 and be at the airport by 7 and catch our flight at 8:30...? I don't even remember. I do remember that it was a super long day. we had a 3 hour layover at Minneapolis and we arrived in Baltimore in the evening (but it was still afternoon Utah time). no one wants to hear about my boring day at the airport, but I will tell you that we took the shuttle to the wrong hotel and we were all very tired and grumpy and had to call the shuttle again to take us to the right hotel.

we spent our first day in the lovely city of Baltimore. to be honest, Baltimore is actually way scary and ghetto, but the inner harbor area was gorgeous. we got to take a tour of an old naval ship used in the civil war, the USS Constellation. if you have ever read my blog before, you can tell that almost every vacation our family has taken involves a tour of some old boat. we did a lot in Japan, one in Scotland, Pearl Harbor, and now Baltimore. the audio tour guide on this one was especially entertaining, it featured some ghost stories, animal sounds, and seaside music. Justin really liked the audio tour guide and forced us to listen to the music over and over again.

 basically what got me through the whole vacation

after we took our tour of the USS Constellation, we went to Fort McHenry, which is THE fort that inspired the writing of the Star-Spangled Banner. when Francis Scott Key was taken as a POW by Britain, he looked up at Fort McHenry to see that OUR FLAG WAS STILL THERE and that Britain could not take down America because we had better forts than they did, so he wrote a song about it. it was so cool to hear the story and tour the fort. after Fort McHenry, my dad wanted us to have the "real Maryland experience", so we ate crab cakes and fish tacos for dinner. and it was THE best fish I've eaten in my life. the place we ate at was called The Greene Turtle, and it was described as "a popular place for college kids." it was a dimly lit bar-style place with soccer and horse racing on TV, and it only played country music. none of us in our family like country music, but it was a cool little place.

after we ate our delicious meal, we had to get back to the hotel by train, pick up our luggage, and then take the Amtrak to DC. my dad was having some issues working the Baltimore light rail ticket machine, so a guy walked up and helped him get the right ticket. after my dad graciously thanked him, he said, "now, since I helped you, will you be so kind and help out the homeless?" my dad reached into his pocket and pulled out a dime and said, "I don't have any cash with me, but here is a dime. I hope it gets you somewhere, good luck" and the homeless man took it and walked off. I hope that dime got him off the streets. Baltimore is a sketchy place.

the most interesting thing about Baltimore was the people we met, and how even though we were still in America, the East Coast is very different from the West Coast. perhaps the biggest difference was their idea of family. back in Utah, especially in the Mormon culture, it is very common to have AT LEAST four kids. 3 is on the smaller side over here. but for our family it's perfect because it's less expensive traveling with 3 kids than 7 kids, plus we can all fit into a hotel room (I'm always the one who gets the couch or the rollaway bed). but as we were eating breakfast in our hotel, a really nice black lady commented in her Southern accent, "what a big family you have! what brings you here?" and I said, "I just graduated high school and will start college in the fall, so our family is celebrating!"  first she said, "you're really short for your age, I never would've guessed you were a high school graduate!" and then she said, "I love seeing families who travel together. it's a rare thing to see these days, and it makes me sad. when you get married, please travel with your husband and with your kids! families are beautiful."

when we bought our AMTRAK tickets to DC that night, the lady selling the tickets asked my parents how many, and they said "3 adults, 2 kids" and then she asked, "who is the other adult? they all look like children!" so I showed her my drivers license to prove that I was 18 (as mentioned in the previous conversation, the fact that I'm 18 and only 5 foot doesn't do me any favors), and she said, "I was hoping you were younger. I love seeing families traveling together, it makes me so happy. It's not something that I see very often, so I'm going to be nice and charge you for 3 children and 2 adults." honestly I was shocked and my parents were of course very gracious.

even in Utah, the idea of traveling as a family is becoming less popular (maybe because many of my friends have like 5 siblings and it's expensive to take everyone). when my friends and I were talking about our senior trips, they always asked me who I was going with, and I would say, "my family", to which they would say, "all of them? your parents and your brothers?" I asked them who they were going with, and the most common responses were, "oh, just my mom", "oh, just my dad", "oh, just my mom and my best friend". now, while traveling with my brothers requires a lot of patience (especially since both of them are growing teenagers who eat 3 times as much as the rest of us, and both of them can have real attitude problems), it's fun to have these experiences as a family while we can, because I move out in 2 months. when I was younger, I didn't think my family was that important. I had a hard time getting along with my brothers, and traveling to places like DC or England or Hawaii would've been a nightmare back then. I never understood how my friends had such great relationships with their siblings because they were sharing rooms with their sisters, and I couldn't even sit next to my brothers at the dinner table without fighting with them. they said they couldn't play with me because they were playing with their brothers and sisters, and it hurt my feelings because I would never have chosen my brothers over my friends. (also I was very immature back then.) but as I've gotten older, I have become a lot closer with both of my brothers, and I am so grateful for that because there's just something I love about traveling with my family. I've learned that when traveling with friends, there is only so much time you can spend together before you get tired of each other and start fighting. however, with siblings, since we already live together, fighting is a normal occurrence. it's great. it really is.

sorry for the long ramble. I told you, you are getting the raw, unfiltered version from me. next time you can just skip the words and look at the pictures. have a great day. please travel with your kids if your situation allows you to. there is so much more to the world than St. George, Utah.