Castles take DC part 3 (FINALLY)

17-38, ayyyyyyyyy, I'm like hey what's up hellooooo.... so we are finally at part 3 of our DC trip. this was probably the least eventful part of our trip, or the part that I don't want to remember. even in the dry desert of Utah, I still get annoying seasonal allergies. we can't buy real live Christmas trees anymore because I have developed a reaction to them over the years. my mom always plants these beautiful smelling lilies which we can no longer keep in the living room because my eyes start watering (and then drying out) as soon as I enter the room. and remember, this is just the desert. in the DC area, it is really humid. and EVERYTHING IS GREEN. so finally, on Friday, I wake up and I'm completely congested, I can't see because my eyes were watery (and then of course, they dried out), and I'm miserable. well, we had to leave early to get to the Reagan National airport and rent a car to drive all over Virginia, and the only thing we could get at the CVS pharmacy was this really high-strength generic equivalent to Benadryl. so I was really tired and sleepy and loopy all day. add some caffeine to the mix and......yeah. it was just weird.

our first destination was Mt. Vernon, home of none other than the Father of our Country, George Washington. if there is anything you need to know about the DC area, George Washington is seen as the precedent for everything. he is regarded with so much respect and if you have anything to say against him, then you need to leave. never mind the fact that he had a few slaves and our family got to go inside the slave cabin. HE WAS THE GOAT. (Greatest Of All Time.) it was a bit chilly that day and I was feeling like crap, so I just had to endure that part. but it was really cool to see the decorating style of the house. all the walls were painted in ridiculously bright colors. (we didn't take any pictures inside.) there was also lots of farm land. he had a 16 sided barn (which I don't remember the purpose of because I wasn't completely conscious), and there are still cows and horses and sheep. I don't know why they are there because this is literally a restored tourist attraction, but I guess it was to make it more authentic?

after Mt. Vernon, we were only supposed to drive 2.5 hours to Monticello, Virginia, where Thomas Jefferson lived. our plan was to go to a grocery store, buy some deli sandwiches, and eat them at some park halfway there because we were tired of eating out. but that plan didn't work. so to anyone who doesn't know already, Utah basically has 2 seasons: winter and road construction. pretty much all the major roads in Provo are closed off all summer, making it inconvenient to get anywhere. and the stretch of I-15 from the point of the mountain to Salt Lake is literal hell. but the next time I have to drive to Salt Lake during construction season, I won't be complaining. because the ENTIRE FREEWAY was under construction, and we were barely moving. it took 30 minutes just to go 10 miles. now THIS WAS LITERAL HELL. it took about 2 hours just to get halfway there, and my brothers and I are crammed in the back of this small rental car, and Wesley (who has the longest legs) is in the middle. since finding a random park to stop at was completely out of the picture at this point, Wesley decided to be really annoying and eat his salad in the car and jab me with his elbow every 5 seconds. so I was ready to die. but THANKFULLY the Benadryl did its magic and I was out cold from that point on.

of course, we were late to our tour at Monticello. but the ticket people were really understanding and let us catch up with our tour in the middle of it. our tour guide was really funny and entertaining. this house was a bit more spacious than Mt. Vernon, and it had a weird layout. a lot of the rooms were shaped like octagons. again I don't really remember much of this part because I was in survival mode and my mom decided she wanted to make us all miserable and tour the entire garden, the wine press, the outdoor bathrooms, and the museum at the end. I feel bad for anyone who was trying to visit Thomas Jefferson because his house was so freaking far away from everything, and it was at the top of a hill. but I did learn some interesting facts about Thomas Jefferson. on his gravestone, he did not want it to say "3rd President of the United States". instead, it said "Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of American Independence, Of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom, & Father of the University of Virginia." those were the 3 things he wanted to be remembered for the most. also, Monticello is pronounced like Monty-Cello, not "Monty-sello", which is the way that the small podunk town in Utah is pronounced.

OH and how can I forget the moment when I was washing my hands in the bathroom at Monticello and in walks Wesley, completely unaware that he's in the wrong bathroom. then at the same time, I scream "GET OUT!" and he screams "THERE AREN'T ANY URINALS!" and leaves. but the reason this is so funny is because Justin walked into the women's restroom TWICE in Hawaii, realized there were no urinals, and ran out screaming.

we took one picture.

afterward I was feeling a little bit better and we ate at Five Guys in Charlottesville and drove 2 more hours to Williamsburg and stayed at a hotel there. Wesley was the only one who brought a swimsuit and decided to hit the pool at 9:30 pm.

the first thing I saw when I left the hotel room was a shirtless dude, smoking, blasting country music. I guess that's a normal thing in Virginia. that day we went to Colonial Williamsburg, the original capital of Virginia. we got to tour all these restored buildings, the Governor's Mansion, the printing press, the magazine (where all the weapons are kept), the jail, and the original capitol building. my mom asked the tour guide how the colonists were able to hang the chandelier in the center of the room if they were so short, and she literally said, "I only answer important questions." so the world will never know how the chandelier was lit every day in the capitol building, because it wasn't important. we also went to the art museum and found a display of all these old pianos. back then, there weren't nearly as many keys and there weren't pedals, so that explains why Baroque music doesn't use very much of the keyboard. I'm grateful that pianos were able to develop much more in the next century because most of the music I like to play is....all over the keyboard. but it was really cool to see all the ancient pianos. my mom forced us all to look at the old dishes, and after we finally dragged her out of the place, we headed back toward Baltimore.

 the Governor's Mansion had a lot of guns. believe me. a lot of guns.

so no one needs to hear the run down of our drive back to Baltimore, but we got to our hotel at about 9:30 pm. when we got to our room, there was literally 1 King sized bed and a chair. we all just looked at each other and said "there is NO WAY we are all fitting in here" and went back down to the lobby and explained how there were 3 adults and 2 kiddos and that we couldn't fit in that room, and then the guy at the front desk explained that the online system wasn't working properly, but that he couldn't get a suite for us because they were all full, but we could get a different room with a king sized bed AND a folding couch bed, so it would still be really snug but it would have to do. we resorted to sticking the 3 adults on the king sized bed, Wesley on the folding couch bed, and Justin on the cushions on the ground. this was less than ideal because I'm the one who always gets my own bed, but we were coming home the next day, so we all just had to suck it up and go to sleep, because we had to be at the airport at 5 am.

OK SO THE NEXT PART OF THE STORY SUCKS but it is finally almost over. we all woke up at 4:40, gathered up all our crap, and got to the BWI airport at around 5. our flight wasn't supposed to leave until 8:30 AM but my dad had a conference in Rhode Island that he had to go to, and his flight left for JFK at 6:30 so it was just easier to all get to the airport at the same time. I was super grumpy and tired and waiting for our flight seemed like eternity. well, we finally boarded our flight to Minneapolis at 8 ish and we were supposed to take off at 8:30, get to Minneapolis at around 10 ish, have a 45 minute layover and fly to SLC and get there at around 1 pm. but this was a newer plane, and there was ONE oxygen mask that wouldn't pull down, so the maintenance people had to come try and fix it. also, Delta decided to freaking replay the same song 5 TIMES IN A ROW (I think it was called With Every Beat of My Heart or something?) and let me say it again, it was literal hell. once the music stopped, it was better. but we ended up taking off at least an hour later than we were expected to, and the flight attendant was trying to be optimistic about trying to make sure we all got our connections, but right before we landed, he said "everyone who is going to Salt Lake, you missed your flight.....we will get tickets for the next one." so we had 3 extra hours to waste at the Minneapolis airport before our new flight to SLC left. needless to say I was in a really bad mood. I was jet lagged, I had been up since 4:40 am (2:40 am Utah time), and I just wanted to get home. we finally arrived in Salt Lake at dinnertime.

again, I apologize for this post being the least exciting of the 3, and to be honest most of it just consists of me complaining about how much I hate driving all day and being stuck at airports (except being stuck at the Narita Airport in Tokyo and going through all the stupid security lines and ATMs and getting our subway passes and waiting in more lines and spending about 4 hours there was possibly the worst day of my life). but I honestly loved going to DC and learning more about our country and my appreciation of American history has grown. and if you take anything from this, just..don't connect. even though flying straight through from SLC to Baltimore is more expensive. it saves a lot more time,

have a great day everyone!