It's over.

All the anticipation and all the planning for the week that just went by so fast.

Kiki and I got home on Sunday around 3:00 PM.  We left Pittsburgh at 6:15 AM.  We had nothing left to see or do.  In fact the rain followed us and outside of our little stop in DC,  it rained as we got into Pittsburgh.  Which kind of put a damper (literally) on going out for dinner one last time in downtown.   We ate at the nice hotel restaurant instead.

Except for the rainy parts the whole trip was great.  I know I had a blast and we even had fun in the rain.  We were not going to let all day monsoons wreck the whole day.

I expected to butt heads now an then with her and it never happened, we were like two peas in a pod. From a fathers perspective it was more than I could ask for. Spending a week alone with my daughter who is growing up so fast  The singing, joking, laughing and adventures we had, created memories that will last with me the rest of my life.  Stuff I hope she remembers as she grows older as well....

Thanks for following along on our trip.

Cheers!
-Jeff

Videos

Outer Banks in the rain.  Just because it was raining all day we still played in the rain....

A sample of the rain we had all day long

A little clip of our Smokey Mountain horseback ride.

 The mists from Clingmans Dome.

Near the end

After a long and rainy day we hit the road around 7 ish.  A little breakfast and then four hours to Washington DC.

A Very Tired Girl.

I know I push hard.  But life lessons learned.  The best things in life often require some sacrifice. A few hours of sleep is not that hard to give up is it?

Anyway we leave in the rain just like yesterday.  4 states to get through.  The traffic in Virginia is god awful. Seriously,  One after another of 10 minute stoppages for absolutely nothing.  No accidents, no road work no lane changes. It doesn't make much sense to me.   

We get into DC and I pull into the parking structure I had scoped out. What?  It's closed on weekends? What the.....Panic mode starts creeping in.  We drive up 3 blocks and I see 2 spots on the street!  3 blocks from the White House.  Some good fortune for sure.  2 hour plug the meter parking.  OK,  I expect to be here longer and will take my chances with the meter maids.  It's also partly sunny now and man is it humid.  Mackenzie was wearing clothes for 60's not 80's.  Well I will take this over the rain.  We walk to the White House

We hit the Washington Monument

See the Capital from a far

The the reflecting pool, the World War II and Vietnam Memorials.

Finally, the Lincoln Memorial.

These are just some of the pictures. Click the slide show or go HERE for all the photos.  I took some 130 plus, then picked the winners for you. 

We walked about 4 miles in 2 hours and decided that we did not have the legs to see anymore.  The heat and humidity have me sweating pretty heavy.

I would say that to tour DC would require 2 full days minimum.  Lot's to see and lots of walking.   

Here is an idea of what we did and at a fast pace:

The blue is our path,  There is so much more where we went, then all the sights to the east and south. That does not even begin to touch the museums.  

Since we still had another 4 hours of driving to get to Pittsburgh we decided to head back to the car. What do you know -  3 minutes left on the meter.  

We head out to Pittsburgh and arrive around 6:45 PM.  Of course it is raining cats and dogs here.  We get to the room unwind and hit the hotel restaurant because we are just too tired to battle more traffic and rain to go downtown for dinner.  We decide to get up and out as early as possible tomorrow.  It will be a long day for sure but we are ready to come home.  

See you tomorrow!

It was bound to happen

We had such great weather the first 4 days we finally caught up with the rain.  Or It caught up with us?

For a day that was supposed to be all beach and horseback riding it turned into a rain soaked traffic jam.

We had breakfast and headed to the beach to look for the Wild Horses Of Corolla.  Except that there was nothing but wet beach driving and dunes a little too big for my car.  Turn around.  and hear the other way the one road was basically stand still for oh 20 miles.  Then the rain came.  In buckets.  So we still drove on to the national seashore.  Hoping to have it pass over.  And it didn't.  We went to the place we were supposed to have a 2 hour beach horse ride but we agreed to cancel.  The guide would have taken us but it was such heavy rain we would have been cold and miserable for a good portion of the trip.  There was much disappointment, that's for sure.

So we turned around and did what we could the rest of the day.  Hit a historic lighthouse, which was closed due to thunderstorms.

We said what the heck.  Lets do the beach anyway.  So rain be damned we were going to have some fun.

We both have goofy looks on our faces because a giant wave had just went up our backsides.

 We played in the waves and rain for 30 minutes or more, looking for shells to take back.  Soaking wet we got back to the car and dried off, changed into what dry clothes we had. and started going home.  A sour day ended on a nice note.

An early day tomorrow- the long drive back home.  Hopefully with a dry stop in DC and Pittsburgh.

Kiki on the Zip Line