Local Vacation
We took a "local vacation" yesterday and today. Here's how it came about.
Our family has a 22-game pack of season tickets to the Nationals. This year, as part of your package, you get these coupons that you can use to buy additional games. You can do it one for one, or you can trade in multiple coupons and sit in a swank seat. OR, if you happen to have a group of 20 friends that you sit with (which we do), you can all pool your coupons and get a suite. That's what we did.
We picked June 5th ages ago when it was the rumored date of Strasburg's debut. And even though it turned out not to be his MLB debut date, we were all very much looking forward to our Sweet Suite. In fact, a few weeks ago, when we all "paid" for the suite (with our coupons), they invited us to hang out in the suite for the remainder of that game. So in a way, we got a game and a half in the suite, instead of just one game.
Anyway, on top of all of that, Adam has been traveling for work a lot, and he actually needed ONE MORE NIGHT in a Marriott in order to keep his Gold status for 2 years. So we decided it would be fun to get a room at the Marriott by the stadium after the Suite night, so that we could have a little bit to drink (we found out that they often give away some free alcohol during the games, though that was not the case last night) and then we'd just have to walk to the hotel. Of course, by "we" I mean "Adam," because I am still breastfeeding and I am limited to about one beer.
So, we knew that we could show up at around 3:00 to check in, and as it turned out, we left home at around 3 and got there at 3:30. We checked in, showed Micah his "special bed" (it was a sofabed), and made sure we were set up with a Pack & Play for Lillian.
Side note on the Pack & Play: It came in this awesome slipcover. You can get them at this site called Coverplay, and the cool thing about it is that it is completely washable. I am considering getting one for our slowly deteriorating play yard.
So we went off to the game, early, which we never get to do. We watched the Nats' batting practice and then went up to the suite. We were able to get some swank food (ok, it wasn't that swank, but the relish and onions were in little trays with spoons instead of in dispensers). We settled in, and the game got started.
Major plus to being in a suite: when it gets really gross and hot and humid out, you can go inside in to the AC and still see the game. Sweet!
Anyway, the Nats lost.
We went back to the hotel, where Lillian decided she was having nothing to do with sleeping in a Pack & Play. After about 6 times trying to put her down, I finally just took her into bed with me, where she nursed basically all night long. I woke up extremely dehydrated but at least I got a little bit of sleep. We had a breakfast included with our room, which Lillian and I enjoyed a lot. I don't know what Micah ate (fruit, maybe), and Adam was not feeling well, likely from having beer before liquor the night before. I did notice, but I didn't want to be a nagging wife when he was doing it, but maybe I should have. I got him some painkillers and he went upstairs and napped a bit.
Then we checked out and took the kids to the Natural History museum, where Micah went totally insanely gaga over the dinosaurs. I guess you never forget the first time you take your kid to see the dinosaurs. And I was a totally proud mama when he looked up and went practically running saying "LOOK it's a STEGOSAURUS!!" Yep. Awesome. We had lunch at the museum, saw a 3D Imax movie, and decided that it was really time to go, as all children were getting cranky. We got caught in the rain on the way back to the car, so everyone was soaked in the car on the way home, but both kids fell asleep. We caught the end of the Nats game in the car and on TV at home, and they lost again, sad, so I'm actually glad we didn't get tickets to go today because rain plus losing plus no suite would have been not as much fun.
Now to figure out how to get Lillian to sleep in a Pack & Play so that we can get some sleep when we go on our real vacation next month!
Our family has a 22-game pack of season tickets to the Nationals. This year, as part of your package, you get these coupons that you can use to buy additional games. You can do it one for one, or you can trade in multiple coupons and sit in a swank seat. OR, if you happen to have a group of 20 friends that you sit with (which we do), you can all pool your coupons and get a suite. That's what we did.
We picked June 5th ages ago when it was the rumored date of Strasburg's debut. And even though it turned out not to be his MLB debut date, we were all very much looking forward to our Sweet Suite. In fact, a few weeks ago, when we all "paid" for the suite (with our coupons), they invited us to hang out in the suite for the remainder of that game. So in a way, we got a game and a half in the suite, instead of just one game.
Anyway, on top of all of that, Adam has been traveling for work a lot, and he actually needed ONE MORE NIGHT in a Marriott in order to keep his Gold status for 2 years. So we decided it would be fun to get a room at the Marriott by the stadium after the Suite night, so that we could have a little bit to drink (we found out that they often give away some free alcohol during the games, though that was not the case last night) and then we'd just have to walk to the hotel. Of course, by "we" I mean "Adam," because I am still breastfeeding and I am limited to about one beer.
So, we knew that we could show up at around 3:00 to check in, and as it turned out, we left home at around 3 and got there at 3:30. We checked in, showed Micah his "special bed" (it was a sofabed), and made sure we were set up with a Pack & Play for Lillian.
Side note on the Pack & Play: It came in this awesome slipcover. You can get them at this site called Coverplay, and the cool thing about it is that it is completely washable. I am considering getting one for our slowly deteriorating play yard.
So we went off to the game, early, which we never get to do. We watched the Nats' batting practice and then went up to the suite. We were able to get some swank food (ok, it wasn't that swank, but the relish and onions were in little trays with spoons instead of in dispensers). We settled in, and the game got started.
Major plus to being in a suite: when it gets really gross and hot and humid out, you can go inside in to the AC and still see the game. Sweet!
Anyway, the Nats lost.
We went back to the hotel, where Lillian decided she was having nothing to do with sleeping in a Pack & Play. After about 6 times trying to put her down, I finally just took her into bed with me, where she nursed basically all night long. I woke up extremely dehydrated but at least I got a little bit of sleep. We had a breakfast included with our room, which Lillian and I enjoyed a lot. I don't know what Micah ate (fruit, maybe), and Adam was not feeling well, likely from having beer before liquor the night before. I did notice, but I didn't want to be a nagging wife when he was doing it, but maybe I should have. I got him some painkillers and he went upstairs and napped a bit.
Then we checked out and took the kids to the Natural History museum, where Micah went totally insanely gaga over the dinosaurs. I guess you never forget the first time you take your kid to see the dinosaurs. And I was a totally proud mama when he looked up and went practically running saying "LOOK it's a STEGOSAURUS!!" Yep. Awesome. We had lunch at the museum, saw a 3D Imax movie, and decided that it was really time to go, as all children were getting cranky. We got caught in the rain on the way back to the car, so everyone was soaked in the car on the way home, but both kids fell asleep. We caught the end of the Nats game in the car and on TV at home, and they lost again, sad, so I'm actually glad we didn't get tickets to go today because rain plus losing plus no suite would have been not as much fun.
Now to figure out how to get Lillian to sleep in a Pack & Play so that we can get some sleep when we go on our real vacation next month!