I’ve noticed that the older I get, the more my expectations for things change.  Vacations used to be about relaxation and getting away from it all; these days, they’re like little tournaments between me and Bill to see who can say “Will you two knock it off?” the most times in an hour, or who can deliver the most devastating stinkeye across the greatest distance.  I consider this vacation a success just on the fact that we didn’t come home to some mystery odor in the house. 

D.C. has always been one of my least-favorite cities.  Granted, that’s not necessarily saying much, since every city besides New York and Tokyo is one of my least-favorite cities – and I’ve never been to Japan.  But Washington strikes me as being very much like Atlantic City, only with Really Important Papers instead of chips.  It’s like a huge movie set, where great attention is paid to the stuff they want you to look at, and the rest just falls to crap around the edges.  Plus it has the most infuriatingly dunderheaded subway system ever conceived. 

Nevertheless, we had a good time.  We missed the cherry blossoms by at least a week, and the weather went from variably meh to decidedly horrific, but it held long enough to see all the major monumentary sights, plus the parade and the street fair.  It didn’t start raining biblically until today, so, having already seen everything we’d come for, we spent the day in Baltimore – another of my least-favorite cities - at the aquarium.  I’m proud to say that Evie only threw up three times (once on the curb and twice in aquarium trashcans) and didn’t get any of it on her shirt or shoes.  Some may call these lowered expectations; I call them realistic. 

And also, I totally win at stinkeye.