Washington Weekend

We're home tonight after our weekend jaunt to Washington, DC and I wish I could say it was worth it. On one hand, we had a great time seeing Stacey, Mia and Jordan while checking out a bit of Old Town in Alexandria, VA. But on the other hand, I wasn't prepared for another setback of tummy troubles that plagued me all weekend and zapped my energy and stamina for keeping up with the gang (and Elisa's antics). We had a good enough flight down on Friday afternoon and met up with Stace and the kids at the airport before heading out for a bite to eat at Eamonn's Dublin chipper in Old Town. The lure of fried cod and thick cut fries with a side of curry sauce was too much for me to pass up. But I realized hours later that this tempting of fate was far worse than Elisa's screaming at bedtime--she finally passed out, but I would be up most of the night with nausea and more.

Here I am eagerly anticipating the delicious fried fish dinner with Elisa who has decided to give up all fish--something she used to eat with gusto. I should have listened to her.
The next morning at the Washington Monument as we passed through the city on the way to the Spy Museum.
Elisa checking out the harbor at the end of Kings Street before our Thai dinner.
The "Spring-Breakers" posing for a minute before heading off to eat...

By Saturday morning, I was feeling halfway better but had zero energy. I don't think I realize how much it takes to just maintain a baseline of normalcy with a toddler. It's a lot of friggin' work even when you're home so being on the road and having to improvise and keep things going was a bit more challenging than I was up for. Nacho flew in and joined us on our city walk which was a good thing since I caved about mid-way through the day. Elisa decided to resist sleeping in her stroller (go figure) so when we got to the Spy Museum and there were no strollers permitted, I knew she wasn't going to last. I took her and Mia over to the National Portrait Gallery for a little while before deciding that the day wasn't heading in a good direction. I just couldn't keep up the pace and Elisa was NOT going to snooze riding around. I had a perfect scenario for what I wanted to do--go back to the hotel and take a long nap with Elisa--but I had no idea if it would work out that way. Fortunately, by the time we took a little break and headed back, we were able to check-in to our hotel and Elisa had no choice but to cave in all that quiet darkness. An hour and a half of pure golden sleep. Ahhhh. And that was the fuel for the rest of the night.

We ventured back to Kings Street for a Thai dinner and Elisa was peacefully tired by 9 p.m. when we left her with Papa and hit the hotel pool with the kids. I had hoped she would make it swimming, but there was no way. Not this trip. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about the hotel sleeping situation with Elisa, but overall she really did as good as I could have expected. The first night with Stacey and the kids, she just didn't want to calm down and sleep. But she was worn out and screamed until she could no longer fight. The next night in the front room of our suite, she seemed to be more relaxed and went down easy. We've been talking about going somewhere during the 4 days Nacho has off next weekend, and this was our trial run of sorts. Now we just need to recover and figure out how much energy we have for the next go round.