washington dc: day five

11-11-09

Shawnie: Fifth Day
We woke up at eight o clock their time and got ready and then we rode a suboy to the mall and hung out there for a hour and then we walked To arleenton cemetery and it was raining all of the day so I was crying because my legs were like icicles and we saw the tome of the UN known Soldier but I was to bissy crying because I was cold. And then we went to a museum and here's the funny part my mom and I were in the bathroom trying to warm up my legs with a blowdrier it really Didn't work actually. So she rapped her coat around me but my dad bot me a rain poncho and we got to the hotel at 5:00 p.m.

Sari: Today was our last day! We headed out only to find that it was DOWN POURING!!!! We had been going to do something that each of us wanted to do today. We still went out. We walked to the metro and we headed out to do what Shawnie wanted to do, shop. We got breakfast and shopped at the mall for a while and then we decided that we were running out of daylight.

We then went to Arlington Cemetery. It was still down pouring and Shawnie was not to happy to be there. We went and saw the thousands of graves and it hit me what war was really like. There is more than 300,000 graves there and that is only the people buried there.

After we did that we went to my place, The Native American Smithsonian and stayed there for a while. Dad and I looked around while Shawnie looked in the gift shop with mom. There was a section that was all art. It was art that had been created out of ordinary objects. There was a whale that had been made out of lawn chair legs, and igloo out of trash cans, totem poles out of golf cart bags and my lest favorite, a skull out of base balls.

After we had done all of these things we got to walk home. We kept looking for a burger place (for that was what Shawnie and I wanted) and we couldn’t find one. We could’ve gone to McDonalds, but before we had come we had promised not to eat there. Finally we found Five Guys. That was the best burger I have ever eaten! They had won the best burger award for more than nine years! After we got our burgers we took them to our hotel and ate them there. It was still DOWN POURING outside. We finally got ready for bed and went to sleep.

Insert from mom: Day six we got up really early -still an absolute downpour- and Keith took Sari to go through the "spy museum". They had breakfast at the "spy cafe." It was the highlight of her trip. She was absolutely in heaven there and could have spent the whole day instead of the 1 1/2 hours they had until we had to leave. Shawnie and I went out and found -you'll never guess- one last place to shop. We picked out a few trinkets and a couple of sweatshirts and got up to pay and the guy told me he was giving me a 20% discount because I was buying so much!? I guess I know where Shawnie gets it from...
She and I stopped at a diner on the way back to the hotel for breakfast and we all met back just in time to catch the shuttle to the airport.
The plane ride was intense. There was so much turbulence the whole way, Keith and I kept looking at each other going, "This can't be normal..." Come to find out, it was the hurricane whoever that was ravaging the east that week. That explained the nonstop rain in DC as well. We didn't make it home to Logan until after 10:30 p.m., but we were so grateful to be home safe and sound in our own beds. All in all, it was an incredible experience, especially for being our very first traveling family vacation.