Ladies' Weekend in D.C.

We had such a wonderful whirlwind trip to Washington, D.C. this past weekend! Gigi (my grandma) recently asked my mom to take her to Washington to see the World War II Memorial. My uncle donated to it in my grandpa's name, so Gigi wanted to visit, but of course she didn't want to go by herself. So when my mom said she was taking Gigi to D.C., I asked if Elsa and I could come too. It seemed like a great chance to have some fun quality time with Elsa, while also visiting with my family. Ellen ended up joining us too, and we all shared a suite at the Mayflower Hotel, right next door to where I used to work in D.C.

As my mom kept telling Elsa, it was a "ladies' weekend," so Elsa had to act very grown-up. And she most certainly did! We went out to eat in fancy restaurants, took taxis and public transportation, and must have walked miles while we looked at the monuments, and she could not have been more perfect in all of those situations. I was so extremely proud of her. I had to remind her about table manners a few times, but that was about it. Gigi said she didn't think she heard Elsa cry one time all weekend, and I think she may have been correct. Elsa is my little traveling buddy, that's for sure!

And what a great time we had! It was just so much fun for the two of us to spend time with my mom, Gigi, and Ellen. We missed the family members who weren't there—especially Daddy, Claire, Carter and Mia—but a ladies' weekend is a refreshing change every once in a while. And I can't tell you how nice it was to have a whole weekend where I could concentrate solely on Elsa. Claire's been taking up so much of my time lately, it was such a treat for me to focus most of my energy on my first baby for a few days. : )

We didn't see a lot of the sights, since it was such a short trip, and because of Elsa and Gigi, we wanted to stick relatively close to the hotel. But that wasn't really what we were there for anyway. We wanted to concentrate on the World War II Memorial and hit a few other sights that were close by, plus have some fun and chat. And that's exactly what we did!

Unfortunately, Elsa decided that the Vietnam Wall was "strange and boring." Sometimes she acts so grown-up, I guess I'm glad she occasionally says things like that, to remind me that she is, in fact, 4. : )

She had a little more appreciation for the Korean War Memorial.

Posing by the Korean War Memorial's platoon of statues.

The Lincoln Monument was one of her favorites. I think that was mostly because one of the phrases her talking Jessie doll says is, "Sweet mother of Abraham Lincoln!"

The reflecting pool fascinated her.

She also really enjoyed the World War II Memorial. She kept telling people that we went to a fountain with a castle around it. I guess I can see why she might think it was a castle.

Looking up into one of the WWII Memorial's two archways (one archway represents the Atlantic Theater and one represents the Pacific.)

My mom and Gigi walk through the memorial.

Enjoying the fountain.

Gigi stops by the Michigan pillar.

And Elsa props up the Wisconsin pillar.

Elsa thought the Washington Monument was pretty cool as well. In fact, when asked what her favorite part of the trip was, she answers, "The monument," and by that she means the Washington Monument.

It surprises me a little that the Washington Monument would be her favorite, because I don't think she quite understood its purpose, or why you can't go up in it, or why there are no windows or doors in it. But it is tall. I guess that's good enough.

We went back to the World War II Memorial on Saturday night after dinner.

I'd seen some beautiful pictures of the memorial at night, and since it was such gorgeous weather, we decided to hop in a cab and go back. We were glad we did that.

And finally, I'll leave you with a few of our favorite Elsa quotes from the weekend:

"Can we go back to the hotel now and go to the bar?" We went into the Mayflower's very elegant, old-school-D.C. bar twice. (We always went at 5 p.m., right when it opened, so nobody objected to a little kid in there.) Elsa got lemonade, garnished with several maraschino cherries, which was a huge treat for her. I'm surprised she doesn't tell people the cherries were her favorite part of the trip.

"But I don't like seafood, except for lobster!" That was what she said when the Mayflower's concierge suggested a seafood restaurant for dinner. All of us, plus the concierge and another lady standing there waiting, just about died laughing when she said that. The girl's got class, you have to give her that. : ) And she would be the only 4-year-old in the history of the universe who actually wants to eat a lobster. (She's never tried lobster, but for some strange reason, she really wants to.)

"That's kind of a small dinner, Mommy!" That was her response when a waiter put a bowl in front of me that contained only about a tablespoon of finely chopped squash. They still needed to pour the remainder of my squash soup into the bowl. This was my first course at the aforementioned seafood restaurant. Elsa clearly doesn't understand multiple-course dinners, because when they brought my second course of crabcakes, she thought that was my dessert. (Elsa had sliders—"teeny tiny cheeseburgers"! No, I didn't get her the $39 lobster.)

"Well, Grandma, then you shouldn't sit at the end of the line!" That was her response when I pointed out that she kept cutting off Grandma B. in the pictures Elsa took of all of us with her little camera.

We had so much fun—hopefully we can do another ladies' weekend when Claire and Mia are old enough to join us. As Elsa and I were driving home from the airport in Milwaukee, she asked me if we could go on another trip sometime soon. I said, "Sure we can, but we'll probably go somewhere different next time, and hopefully Daddy and Claire can come with us." And she said, "But can we meet some other people there?" She clearly enjoyed being one of the ladies.