The Big Trip: Going Home, June 12-15

 The day before going home we had our little drama of locking ourselves out of the house! Luckily I had my cellphone and $10 with me. So I took a cab to the real estate agent, it was after hours but they did have the emergency number at their office (why couldn't they have it as an option on their main number?). Antway it all got sorted out.

Mum wanted to see some sights in Washington, DC, so we went there, arriving at around 5pm. It seemed a good time to arrive as we actually found a parking spot near the Jefferson memorial. We had a lovely time seeing the sights, during the summer they have park rangers around till 11.30pm so we went around the National Mall seeing the memorials: Jefferson, FDR, Korean War Veterans, Lincoln, Vietnam Veterans & World War II. By this time we were starving so we asked a nice security guard where to eat and he told us about the MacDonalds nearby. This happened to be near the White House so we got to see the outside of that. Next time Nanny comes we'll make bookings so we can do the tour of it and the Washington Memorial.

We stayed that night in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and the next day went on to Orange where we visited Montpelier, the home of the 4th president, James Madison. Then we dropped Pam off at Sweet Briar College, where she attended a Math-Bio workshop. Meanwhile, Nanny, Donnie and I went on to spend the night in Jackson, Ohio. The next day, by Donnie request, we continued on to Newport, Kentucky, to visit the Newport Aquarium. Newport is across the river from Cincinatti and the Aquarium is in a nice mall, the Newport Quay. We had a yummy seafood lunch and Nanny opted out of the Aquarium experience and went to see a movie instead, Killers. She should have come with us! Back on the road we got past Indianapolis and we went for Donnie's favorite meal, at Steak 'n Shake! We finally crawled into Decatur, Illinois for our well-earned night's rest.

The final day saw stop at Springfield, Illinois where we went to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library. Which we were impressed with. Donnie was given a history detective handout for going round the museum. He found all the answers to the questions in the exhibit and got his prize!