Mormor and Morfar Visit - Part 2

The day before my parents left, we went down to Washington, DC in hopes of both enjoying a sunny day and seeing some pretty trees. The cherry blossom trees still had not started blooming, but after walking around some, we discovered that the magnolia trees were already in peak bloom. We took tons of pictures surrounded by the pretty magnolias. We also walked around the Tidal Basin and took in a few monuments.

Walking around the Tidal Basin:


In front of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial:


The next bunch of pictures are from a patch of magnolias we found at the George Mason Memorial near the Tidal Basin. Karina was very cooperative most of the day for a 10 month old. In these pictures Snoopy was perky and happy as the day was still young.







By the time we got to the World War II Memorial, Snoopy was hating the heat and looked exhausted. He is definitely a cold weather beagle who loves the snow and likes the temperature to be at most in the 60s. His lack of energy in hot weather is quite noticeable.


As afternoon came upon us, we decided to eat at the American Indian Museum since they have the best tasting food on the National Mall. We decided this not thinking of the hour it would take us to walk there. Karina got super sleepy, but refused to sleep in her stroller. So I carried her and she slept in my arms. Right as she was getting too heavy for me to carry, we came upon a gorgeous magnolia garden behind the Smithsonian Information Building (the Castle). Notice Karina collapsed against me, mostly asleep, in the next photo.


The garden/park was gorgeous with magnolias in full bloom!



As we continued walking toward lunch, with Nate and Snoopy lagging far behind because of a tired beagle, Snoopy finally decided he wasn't going to walk any further in the heat. So of course, soon after I stopped carrying my 20 pound baby, I was left to carry my 27 pound dog. I carried him the rest of the way to the American Indian Museum and was exhausted. (And yes, I sometimes wish Nate would figure out how to carry Snoopy, because he honestly doesn't know how to carry him properly.)


We set up a picnic in the park and got some yummy and unusual food. On the menu were things like mashed parsnips, tlacoyo, some bean thing I don't remember the name of, salmon, etc.