Washington DC, Day 1

We (me, Cory, Ella, my Mom & Dad, Aunt Ashley and Uncle Matt) all got up bright and early Wednesday morning to literally "stuff" the last pieces of luggage in the Tahoe and head off to our nation's capitol. We had debated renting a van or larger SUV for the trip, but later decided that we would try to fit everything and everyone in the Tahoe instead. Cheaper and we wanted the true family bonding experience :) We were a FULL load with no space to spare! After 7 hours crammed in the Tahoe, we were finally there thanks to the GPS and Ashley's tour book. We were all ready to unload and start our sight-seeing adventure...however, it didn't happen that easily. We got to the hotel to find out that our "reserved 3 months ago" rooms were not ready yet even though check-in was 2 hours earlier. No big deal...we would go eat and then by the time we got back our rooms would be ready. Our hotel was downtown within walking distance to the Mall (and no, not the shopping mall), so we walked to Union Station and grabbed a bite to eat at Johnny Rocket's. Oh yeah, we had to leave ALL our luggage in the hotel lobby in front of the Check-in and Concierge desks. The lady at check-in told us she would call us when our rooms were ready and she did. So, we finally headed back to the hotel to find out that only 1 room was ready and the other would be ready shortly. Our whole gang, along with the bellman, head up to the 3rd floor with our 2 loaded down luggage carts. We open the door to our 1 of 2 rooms to find that there is a man and woman in our room! They had already sent somebody else to our room before we were able to get back. To make a long story short, we ended up with 3 upgraded rooms on an upper floor at no additional charge. Finally, we had rooms to unload our stuff and get Ella a place to go to lay down in. I'm sure everyone in the lobby was glad that the wild toddler was no longer running around yelling! She had all she could take and so had Mommy and Daddy at this point!

We were starting to get ready for bed and de-stress when the fire alarm goes off and everyone had to evacuate the building. During a possible fire emergency, you can't take the elevators so we had to use the stairs...10 floors of stairs!!! And to add to the complexity of the situation, Ella decided it would be a good time to poop! Luckily the fire department was directly across the street and were there in seconds so we didn't have to stand outside very long before we were finally able to go back inside and settle in for the night! WOW-what a day! We were all hoping this wasn't an indication of things to come! And it wasn't!!! The manager at the hotel was very accommodating and went over and beyond to make sure our stay was great and AFTER Day 1 it was!!