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August 18, 2015 (Tuesday)

Today breakfast was iffy again — the eggs and sausage on the buffet were cold.  After breakfast, we headed downtown to Capitol Square.  Capitol Square is a nice park that contains the Capitol building, Governor’s Mansion and a bunch of statues and monuments honoring some of Virginia’s greatest citizens.  We were able to park for free on the street right in front of the guest entrance.  We looked at the monuments around the park, decided against the 20 minute tour of the Executive (Governor’s) Mansion (we weren’t sure the children would make it enjoyable for the parents).

The first building we went into was the bell tower which houses the Visitor’s Center – the ladies inside were very eager to help and offer suggestions.  They convinced us to go into the capitol and look around without doing the tour (again due to concerns about the children losing interest during a tour).  I am so glad that we did.  The kids enjoyed walking around looking at the building, and there were lots of restrooms.  At the end of our visit Liam got a state flag in the gift shop (I was so proud).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we went to Carytown and ate lunch at the Galaxy Diner.  Carytown is an area full of locally owned eateries, artisans and shops and an interesting day in itself.  The Galaxy Diner has a B Grade alien movie theme and a fun vibe.  We very much enjoyed the Galaxy Diner, but I started feeling badly — my back and head were hurting a lot — before we got our food so we didn’t linger.  The portions were large and delicious, I wish I had felt better!

Since I was feeling poorly, we went back to the hotel so I could rest.  The kids and Sarah went to pool, and after a while I went down and used the spa and sauna and that helped loosen up my back.

Once my back started to feel better we headed to the Science Museum of Virginia (it is next door to the Children’s Museum and shares a parking lot).  Housed in the old spectacular train station, it was a big hit. We stayed for 2 hours (closing time) and the kids weren’t ready to leave.  The exhibits are designed to be interesting for adults as well as children and include predominately hands on exhibitions.  After we closed down the museum we headed back to the hotel to eat.  For supper, we ate leftover pizza and our leftovers from lunch.

August 19, 2015 (Wednesday)

For our last morning we skipped the hotel breakfast and headed to Krispy Kreme to get the kids hot doughnuts.  If you have never been, when they have hot doughnuts ready each customer gets one.  They are good and not to be missed!

After breakfast we returned to Monument Avenue to retake the pictures of the monuments we saw in the rain.  When we were finished we returned to hotel, packed and left for home.  Another great vacation is concluded.

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