Okay so where was I?
Survived Girl Scout camp. *huge sigh of relief*
Managed to get the house cleaned up a little bit on Saturday (minus some spots on the carpet, I hate carpet!).
Greg and his family all arrived safely on Sunday and the highlight of that day was grocery shopping.
Monday we took the Metro into DC to go to the National Zoo. Which is thankfully free since we saw about 6.2 animals (the .2 were two prairie dogs). I suppose I am terribly spoiled by the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens where you practically trip over the animals. It was hot on Monday but at least the zoo was mostly shaded and also on a slant which meant we were walking downhill. Course we had no idea you couldn't exit at the bottom and reach the Metro line again easily. So back up through the zoo we trudged.
Looking back, the Metro wasn't the best way to get there. They do have parking at the zoo and we all fit in the van. We bought the Metro All-Day passes because we thought we could swing through a couple of the Smithsonian Museums. The kids were too hot and tired and it was close to dinner time when we finally made it out of the zoo. And... &@*&^$#& The Metro has this stupid parking garage fee that requires a "SmarTrip" card (and it's the stupidest freaking thing I have ever heard of). Back when Greg's sister, Greg, and I went to the Billy Joel concert in DC in April, we were first introduced to the "SmarTrip". Like as we were exiting the garage at midnight and couldn't get out because we couldn't pay the $4 fee with cash, instead needing a "SmarTrip" card sold all the way back down in the Metro station. And the card costs a minimum of $10. grrrr
So I saved the "SmarTrip" card because it still had $6 on it. Except it only had $1 left on it. Which I found out with 4 cars behind me in the exit lane on Monday. They charge you $5 to issue the damn card. They didn't mention that any where. I don't get pissed off easily but man, I'm still seeing red over this one. So I had to make everyone behind me back up, move the van out of the exit lane, and run back down into the Metro station (3 flights of stairs, an escalator and a quarter of a mile away). Supposedly you can add more money to the "SmarTrip" card but I couldn't get it to let me add less than $20. So screw it, I paid another $10 to exit the parking garage. Anyone want two "SmarTrip" cards with a $1 balance on each?
And then we got home, ate lots of good food, and I drank strawberry daiquiris until I passed out (not really, I had 2. Or 3. Maybe 4?). I did manage to create some 5 foot flames on the grill while cooking dinner (I blame the steaks, not the daiquiris). Happy 3rd of July!
Oh right, we were celebrating the 4th of July. I'll write about that tomorrow and include pictures along with how Toys R Us saved us all.
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