Washington, DC - November 2010

At the end of October, we took our first family trip with Penelope. I was going to do a write up about it, but Katie beat me to it with a post in her blog. I wanted to include some of the photo highlights, so I've copied most of her post and added some of my own thoughts and photos.

We stayed at Jason's friend Josh's place for the first three nights. I was nervous that Penelope wouldn't sleep well in a new place. Penelope was jet-lagged but slept quite well in her Pack 'N Play once we took the bassinet out. Actually, we used her jet-lag to our advantage. Since she was ready for bed around 9pm (instead of 6 like usual), we could meet friends for dinner and Penelope would not be too cranky. Sunday was the first full day that we had in DC. Our friend Karen was running the DC marathon and the race went right by the Mall, so we wanted to go cheer her on. It was also a beautiful day, so we loaded Penelope into the Baby Bjorn, Katie packed her diapers and everything in her backpack, and we headed for the Metro. We found a nice spot on the Mall to watch the race and wait for Karen. Penelope enjoyed being out of the Baby Bjorn and watching all the runners from Katie's lap. We almost missed seeing Karen, but luckily she saw us! Then, we headed to the other side of the Mall to catch Karen later in the race. After she passed by again (looking great, by the way), we found a bench to sit because Penelope was hungry. Then, we headed up to the Capitol. We walked around to check out the building, but unfortunately the visitor's center was closed. We stopped by the Supreme Count building (also closed), and then it was time to head back to Josh's. Traveling with a baby definitely means shorter outings! After resting up, we went out to dinner for Jason's friend Jen's birthday. Since it was Halloween, Penelope got dressed up in her pumpkin suit (not a real pumpkin, this time). She got to meet another baby who was dressed as a carrot for Halloween, and we had a nice dinner.

Monday was pretty similar. We went for an outing to see some of the memorials and walk around the Mall area. We got up close to the Washington Monument, then checked out the WWII Memorial, which was neither of us had seen before. Katie said it best when she called it a "nice, standard memorial, but nothing special." It did make for some interesting photo opportunities, though. Then we hiked over to the FDR Memorial, which Jason had not been to before. It was a long walk, and by the time we got back to the Mall, Penelope was tired and ready to go home. We got one last photo with the Washington Monument (Jason wanted to try to get the perspective right so that Penelope and the Monument were the same height, but it didn't quiet work). Then we headed back to Josh's place.

For dinner, we met up with Karen and Steve at Oyamel. The food was really good, but our waiter was a jerk. We wanted to get a pitcher of margaritas to split, but Katie had left her wallet and ID at home (long story, but Jason's fault). Anyway, the waiter asked for ID, and despite the rest of us being 29+ and Katie having a baby on her lap, the waiter refused to believe that she was over 21. On top of that, he went into this long and unnecessary monologue about how we were asking him to risk his job if some inspector came. A simple, "No, sorry" would have been sufficient. Anyway, enough ranting. Despite that and some other weird service issues, we all had a great time. Penelope had a good time, too. Jason got the honor of giving Penelope her first diaper change on the restaurant bathroom floor, and then Penelope feel asleep right before we got dessert.

On Tuesday, we packed up our things at Josh's and our friend Mike gave us a lift to the hotel that Penelope, Katie, and Grandma Kris would be staying at for the rest of the week. We all had lunch and Jason headed to the airport for his flight back to Seattle. He was sad to leave behind so many friends and family, but work called. Penelope and Katie settled into their room, and Penelope tested out the hotel crib with a long nap. Kris arrived that evening and got a laugh out of Penelope almost right away!

The rest of the trip in DC involved Katie going to the American Society of Human Genetics conference and hanging out with her mom and Penelope during breaks. The convention center had a family room, which was really great for feeding Penelope on shorter breaks. At night, Katie would put Penelope to bed and then meet friends for dinner while her mom stayed with Penelope. It was really great for Katie to be able to see friends that were also attending the conference and be able to spend time with her mom. Katie gave her talk on Friday with no problems. The meeting ended on Saturday, by which time Penelope had met most of our friends at the meeting. After lunch on Saturday, our friend Kristina shared a cab to the airport with Katie and Penelope. At the airport, Katie met up with Karyn from her lab, and she helped them get all of the stuff through security and onto the plane. Penelope had a pretty good flight back. Unlike her trip out to DC, she decided to save her poops for on the plane, and she gave Katie two mile-high poops to deal with. Penelope did get very tired at one point, and she really struggled to get to sleep. After she finally fell asleep, she was out for the rest of the flight. But, it was great that Karyn was sitting next with them and could help Katie on the plane; it made a huge difference!

Now, the family is all together again and happy to be back in Seattle, although Penelope is now jet-lagged the other way...