The End of One Loooooong Day

Tidal Basin...we walked around this basin to see the FDR Memorial and then as you'll see further down, the Jefferson Memorial.  It was gorgeous to see the final moments of day light reflected in the basin!

There's Jefferson Mon....we walked clear over to it.  I think this one was prettier on the outside than inside.

I love the reflections in the water.

The Jefferson Monument.  We were too tired to stick around and read and learn much.  But it was neat to see.

After our last monument it was really pretty late at night.  We had not had dinner yet and we were exhausted and famished!  Nothing was open that late.  Nothing. We asked around...and everyone said unless we drove out of town, we were out of luck.  We were desparate and unsure what to do. We were pretty far from a metro station, and really far from our hotel...and on foot...WITH 2 sleeping kids.  It was dark but we just followed our map and headed toward the closest metro station.  I'll tell you what...I had not prayed so hard in a long long time!  We weren't in the safest part of town, and an unfamiliar town at that.  I was so grateful to have my big buff Dave with me. :)  

Then, we magically came upon the following site...

It looked like a huge Fish Black Market!  But it was the only place awake in all down town DC! :)  We walked along hoping and praying for a stand with COOKED fish or food of any sort!  Finally, the very last window we saw... 

this!!   It was literally a window that started at shin height.  But they were selling cooked food out of that window.  I could have shouted for joy! We stood there a little nervous for a while, looking at their menus.  Then a bunch of people came over and started ordering food one of which was a police man or 2 with some friends of theirs.   When he highly recommended it and ordered himself, we felt like we were safe to do the same.  We got our food just in time...we were their last order.  They were trying to close!  It was seriously a miracle we found them!  So on we went walking.  I would've had us stop to eat, but I was nervous we wouldn't be able to make the last metro and have to walk miles in the dark to get home.  

We did make it home, but it was NOT easy.  We hit dead ends and got a little lost.  Then had to jay walk big scary streets and have a group of cops (off duty) help us get the kids across.  It was crazy.  But we did get home and ate and dropped dead.  What an amazing and wonderful and fun day!  Let's just say, we slept hard that night!