Washington, D.C.

This weekend, we took a quick trip to Washington, D.C. to visit some friends and to go sightseeing for my son's eighth birthday--something he's been begging to do since his best friend moved there a year and a half ago. My husband couldn't get off work early on Friday, so we didn't cruise out of town until late on Friday evening. It was supposed to take about three and a half hours to get there, but it took quite a bit longer than expected.

The trip there was one of those trips that ends up being a good story for its drama factor, but not much fun at the time! The excitement began before we even left town. My husband got home from work and stopped at the grocery store to pick up two prescriptions for me and a few other odds and ends, and in the rush managed to forget my prescriptions in the bottom of the shopping cart.

My husband came home from the grocery store and I started rummaging through the bags for my medicine but I couldn't find them. Hubby quickly realized what happened, so we finished packing up the car and drove back to the store, desperately hoping that someone would have been nice enough to turn in my medicine. We lucked out and someone had turned in my medicine to the pharmacy! It was a bit of a rocky start to our trip, but we laughed it off. (Oh, we were so young and innocent back then!)

Things were going pretty smoothly and we were making great timing until we hit the beltway in DC. It was around 10:30 P.M. at that time and the kids were still awake and giddy with excitement. Sadly, that's when our fun ended--we hit major construction and it took around two hours to go only a few miles. (We eventually discovered the reason for this was that, because of the construction, they reduced five lanes of traffic down to one--yikes!)

Our generally patient car travelers in the backseat--who shall remain nameless--lost their patience pretty quickly. Of course they did! But, oh my, you've never heard such screaming! Our air conditioner was broken, so--sorry to the other folks on the beltway--we had to keep the windows down. I had to chuckle as a car kept passing by with music roaring and passengers laughing and dancing, colliding with the screams of death coming out our windows.

I was dying to go to the bathroom, because when you're stuck in traffic for a long time someone has to fill that role! Shortly thereafter, our little country car decided it couldn't handle the big city stop-and-go traffic anymore! Our car--lovingly referred to as Green Machine--started idling like it was going to stall out at any moment, and our radio and lights kept going out (experience and listening to Car Talk tells me it was the alternator).We were only ten miles from our friends' house, but with the traffic, there was no way they would have been able to get to us to help.

Suddenly we heard a loud CRUNCH! My husband and I looked at each other, wondering if something had just fallen off of our car. Luckily for us, and unluckily for the folks in the lane next to us, there was a little fender bender. We sighed a little sigh of relief, and my valiant husband kept up his job of sweet-talking Green Machine into not throwing in the towel, or at least not until we got off the beltway!

I had three jobs: first and foremost, DONOTPEEMYPANTS; second, try to keep the angry passengers in the back seat from revolting; third, and finally, offer my left leg up to the gods if they would just get us there safely, which they did (and they graciously let me keep my leg, too)!

Perhaps due to the fact that my Lyme disease has thrown us every curve ball under the sun, we managed to survive the incredibly dramatic trip to Washington, D.C. Our wonderful hosts--sleep deprived parents of three young children--graciously kept watch for us until we finally arrived at their house slightly past one A.M. It took a little more than five and a half hours, but we made it! Our friends were a little surprised to see us laughing at the drama of the situation, but what can I say--Lyme disease has really toughened us up!

The rest of the trip was a blast. I forgot my camera when we went into the city, so I have no pictures to document our trip except for a few that I took with my camera phone. Whoops! We went to the Air and Space Museum  on Saturday (I rode in a wheel chair), and then we ate lunch at the Mitsitam Cafe in the Museum of the American Indian. Our friends assured us that the food there was amazing, and it was! I had wild Alaskan salmon, which was quite yummy!

Weak proof that we were actually in D.C.

The grownups rested on the National Mall, while the kids ran around and played. It was a blast, but, wow, was I exhausted! Our friends were such great hosts and I'm so glad I went. I had such a good time even though I was feeling incredibly achy and exhausted most of the time. Take that, Lyme disease!

Our drive home yesterday morning was uneventful, which we were quite happy about! It took exactly three and a half hours, as it should have.