Maryland & Washington DC

I hadn't seen my Aunt Jaana and cousin Ville in 10 years and wanted to take Faith and Charlie to meet them.  Dario couldn't go because of work, so it was just the three of us.  We booked the flights and planned the trip a few months in advance, and with my luck the government shut down landed on our weekend there.  We'd never been there before, so we at least had fun walking around and seeing stuff.  I also got to see my Uncle Jeff and cousin Erik, but it hadn't been as long since I had seen them.

My Aunt Jaana is from Finland, as is my cousin Ville.  In the future, maybe next year if she goes, I am hoping to travel with her to Finland with my family.  My aunt makes the best sweet rolls and Faith had so much fun helping her make them.

 

The last time I was in Maryland visiting Jaana and Jeff I was a little kid.  I remember getting $10 from my grandmother to spend at the Amish market and I ran out of it quickly after getting a strawberry shake, candy and cinnamon sugar pretzel.  I was so excited that Jaana was taking us back to that same market, especially when my kids walked into the candy area.

She wanted me to hurry and take the pic so she could browse the candy.

We were only with my family for a few days, so we could only afford to spend one day in Washington DC.  We started off by visiting the Eastern Market where we bought coffee and browsed the home made goods.

Uncle Jeff!

Cousin Ville!  Starting our day in DC with hot coffee.

Aunt Jaana!

From there we went to the White House where a massive protest was happening outside the gates.  We got a group photo out front and after a few shots of the White House a police officer came up to us and said we should get the children out of there, because they were going to start throwing tear gas into the crowd.  So, we left.  I'm glad I got to see the White House, and it was important for me to see it while Obama was still living there, just made it that much more special.

I'm sure my list of locations is all messed up, I can't remember what order we saw everything, so next I'll just say we saw the Capitol.  For some reason, Charlie really enjoyed this.  He decided the only thing you can do when you're outside the Capitol is to do Karate.

 Then we decided to get a little something to eat in Chinatown.  We did a little driving around before we decided on a place to stop, which was cool because I got a quick tour of the city.

Pretty blonde woman on the left is my cousin
 Ville's girlfriend, Christina.

The Smithsonian, like everything else, was CLOSED!!  Grrr!

The next day we did some shopping in Annapolis.  So many cool, nautical treasures, I stocked up nicely.  After the kids and I took a walk to the park near my aunt and uncles house, where there was a little beach and a great place to watch the sailboats.

As I said, my aunt is from Finland, and Finnish people enjoy their saunas.  Faith wanted to try the sauna in their basement, which ended up being wonderful.  It was very relaxing, but Faith was a little nervous about the loud noise that came from pouring water on the stones.

For more information on the PA Dutch Market, please click here!

For more information on the Eastern Market in Washington DC, please click here!