Washington D.C.

At the beginning of July, we started our journey VERY EARLY (Bryce had to be at the airport at 4:30 AM).  The Gilbert Tiger Pride Marching Band was headed to our nation's capitol, and we were tagging along.  We didn't travel with the band on the way to DC, but since our flight was nonstop, we arrived first!  The band was actually split up among three separate flights.  The only time we saw Bryce was in the airport (just by chance) and as he marched by in the parade - but more on that later.  It will probably work best to break our trip up into separate posts - we took a lot of pictures!

Never known to travel light, this trip was no different.  Here we are at the airport shuttle lot waiting for the bus with all our luggage, including the wheelchair, which was very handy.

Our airplane had in-flight WiFi.  The free wifi let you track your trip.  So Dan and Adam pulled out the GPS and followed our flight path.  To access the rest of the internet it cost $5 for the flight, which really isn't too bad, but we were already set with a movie on the ipad, and books and games.

We flew into Baltimore, Maryland and took the train into DC.  So this was a planes, trains and automobiles trip.  Here we are waiting for the train to take us to Union Station.

Once we arrived at Union Station it was a quick cab ride down Pennsylvania Avenue to our hotel.

Here is our hotel - the JW Marriott.  It was in a great location - just a short walk to the mall, the White House and the Washington Monument for fireworks (more on that later).

Here is the view out our window of the Washington Monument and the mall!

In the meantime, Bryce arrived with the band in Baltimore too.  These are his pictures.  We saw him briefly at baggage claim.  Then the band boarded a bus and took a quick trip by some of the monuments and sites of DC.  They saw this statement at the Martin Luther King Jr. monument.  Very appropriate for band members (drum majors - get it??).

The Capitol.

This is the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial.  It is quite impressive with Mr. King coming out of the stone.  It's easy to spot the band kids with their black shirts.

The statement "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope" is on the center stone which has Mr. King emerging from it.  The center stone looks like it has broken out of the mountain leaving the other two stones behind.

They also stopped at the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial.

Left to right:  Danny, Bryce, Becca and Dayton.

The Washington Monument.  We all packed a lot into each day we were there.  A powerful storm had just swept through the area a few days before we arrived.  In fact, at one point most of the power was out and we wondered if we should head into a disaster area.  But we found out that everything was getting back to normal and the show would go on!  The weather was warm - and sometimes hot, but hey, we are from Arizona and we know hot.

After a year of planning, it was exciting to finally be in Washington D.C.!