d.c. vacation day 1

so we had a great time hanging out in washington d.c. last week. even better was the fact that my mom joined us & we were able to spend some quality time with her. caleb couldn't get enough of nana and she is always great with him. here are some highlights from the trip:

DAY 1: we decided to rent a car because we are planning on selling our car & didn't want to put the miles on it. so i was behind the wheel, enjoying some good conversation with my mom and chilling to death cab for cutie, when all of a sudden a little screen pops up that says "check your right front tire PSI." before we know it, we've got a flat tire. so that was a thrilling way to start off the trip in the middle of dinwiddie, virginia. where, you ask? exactly. we pull off, ben changes the tire which is the SMALLEST tire i've ever seen. i think it was actually an old tire from my first bike when i was 6, and somehow the rental car company got a hold of it. so we end up having to drive into richmond where we exchange cars.



we finally get into D.C. about 2 hours after we're supposed to. and we pull into the howard johnson, a.k.a. "ho jo" hotel which was a steal according to cheaphotels.com. as i go to check in, the first red flag went up when the man in the lobby is talking to me through bullet-proof glass. the next red flag goes up when i read an enormous sign that reads "VIDEO SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS 24 HOURS." nice homey touch, don't you think? we get into our hotel room, which is NOT a non-smoking room and as i run to the bathroom, notice a large piece of duct tape covering a hole in the wall. and i ask myself, why was this 60% off the normal rate? we ordered pizza in, made sure to use all 3 locks on the doors, washed and sanitized ourselves every 5 minutes, and woke up at 5 a.m. to a domestic dispute next door. 2nd day starts off with a bang. literally.