Trips to Virginia combine some of Matthew's favorite people with some of his favorite modes of transportation and this trip hasn't disappointed. The other day we decided to meet Uncle Matt at the Capitals practice rink for a skate night they were holding for their season ticket holders. It first involved a trip on the metro. Matthew was pretty jazzed:
And fit right in with the commuters as he grabbed a newspaper and began reading:
Really mom, no pictures!
We had a run-in with an escalator at the airport so the metro gave us plenty of practice on the escalators. Matthew now thinks they're pretty awesome and jumps off them with a "woohoo!" and a fist bump. Once we made it to Ballston we stopped in to see Slapshot:
And then we got ready to skate:
Matthew wasn't much for putting any weight on his skates and gave Uncle Matt and me quite the workout. In about an hour we made exactly two trips around the rink, most of it with a toddler that was shrieking the whole time. He thought throwing his head back was pretty hilarious!
Uncle Matt and I definitely learned that we need to brush up on our skating before we take Matthew again. At least little man found our bumblings comical:
Most importantly, Uncle Matt taught little man how to pound on the glass. I think Matthew's ready for a Caps game next time we visit!
The next day we headed to the Capital Trolley Museum. Matthew probably could have thrown the lever and watched the model trolley all day long.
But they had lots of other things for us to do. We attended story time and Matthew and Catherine were ready for arts and crafts with Uncle John and Pas:
The kids are now ready for the Fourth with their new flags. Catherine may not have been that helpful in making (and not eating) her flag, but she had fun hanging out:
However, the coolest (well, hottest considering the outdoor temps!) part was the trolley ride. The museum has about a mile track on which they run some restored trolleys.
Catherine was very attentive when the motorman was talking:
After our ride we got our tickets stamped and headed over for a tour of the trolley garage.
It sure did tucker the kids out! Matthew didn't even make it through his new book (or the parking lot) before he passed out.
After all that fun Uncle Matt took us down to Bath County. As you may have heard, the East Coast got hit by a crazy storm and unbeknownst to us, we were driving through it the wrong way, north to south and on the interstate through the red. This storm took us by complete surprise.
Matt and I thought we'd outsmarted Northern VA traffic by leaving after dinner as I-66 AND I-81 were moving quickly. Right as it was getting dark, Matt's phone started to go crazy buzzing with Tornado alerts. We spent a good bit of time trying to pull over and find some protection if not from tornados but from the flying debris from the rest of the winds and/or potential hail. We crept along from sheltered area to sheltered area until the storm moved past us. The storm left quite a bit of destruction in its path and it was even slower going as we avoided downed lines, trees and branches. I was duly impressed with the number of citizens who were out with chainsaws and tractors helping to clear the roads well before emergency services were out. It appeared that power was out along the last 90 miles of the trip (though its hard to tell in a rural area if the power's out or everyone went to bed early) and was definitely out at Mom and Dad's. Though there was lots of damage nearby, our families and friends have thus far been very lucky and sustained minimal property damage. 26 hours later our power's back on and we're good to go but still hot. More pictures of the creative fun we've had in the meantime coming soon :-)
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