Day 2..Public Transportation and a Beautiful site....

We left Richmond, VA at around 10 am and arrived in Washington, DC at noon.  We went straight to my brother's studio apartment in the U-Street area...these pictures are for you Mom and Dad...see he does have a cute little place!  And little it is...my kids were so surprised to see how small it was...and I can't believe how much it costs!  It is just what he needs though..and we are so thankful that he is loaning it to us for two nights.

His building does have a great view from the roof though...you can see the Washington Monument and Capitol from the top!

Next we had to take our van to the airport...see there aren't parking decks or parking spaces like in Tallahassee and if you do find a deck or a space..you pay out the wazoooo.  So Nic decided the best thing for us to do was park our van at the airport for the week and take public transportation around the city!  It was so weird leaving our van knowing that we wouldn't see it for awhile.  It was also weird being at the airport when we weren't really flying anywhere but it was the safest and cheapest place we could find to "store" the vehicle for a week.  The above picture is of us figuring out how to buy weekly Metro passes!  It was actually very easy and now we each have a pass for unlimited Metro riding.

The Metro system is way cool and being under ground is really weird...John Daniel had to "figure" it all out and they now think they understand and seem to be pros at going through the gates, using their pass, etc. 

We decided to tour around a bit and chose the National Cathedral as our first stop...after taking the wrong street and going backwards we finally got turned around and going the right way...it was about a 2 mile walk after getting off the Metro but the kids did great.

And it was so worth it!  It almost looked fake it was so big, ornate, and beautiful. 

It was strange seeing something like this in the US.  It is an Episcopal Cathedral that took 83 years to build.  They started with a groundbreaking in 1907!

The architecture was beautiful.

This is the choir loft for my Dad.

The children's chapel built to fit the needs of a six year old child...even had a pint size organ in it!

The most detailed wood carvings!

We happen upon this while walking around....President Woodrow Wilson lies in this coffin....inside the cathedral!  It kind of freaked us out at first...

Next to the cathedral was the Bishop's Garden...so peaceful!

There are tulips everywhere.

We ended our day trip with a ride on the city bus, more Metro commuting, wonderful Mexican fare for dinner and then back to Nic's apartment for baths and bed.  Nic said we really did a lot of commuting today...we went from one end of the City to the other...saw the airport, rode the Metro and the bus but it all went so smoothly.  I think John will get the hang of the whole Metro thing but it was a good thing Nic was with us at first...sometimes you have to switch trains depending on where you are going.  The National Cathedral is kind of off by itself so I am glad we did it today....not sure we would have done all that traveling on another day.  Tomorrow is suppose to rain but we are going to brave it and try some of the Smithsonian Museums.  Thank God for kids that don't complain and the backpack to put Molly in!  So far so good...DC has been good to us and we have enjoyed spending time with Nic Nic!