Today was day 1 of our road trip. We were sad to say goodbye to New York but excited to start a new adventure! Here is how our day went…
I woke up at 6:30 and everyone was still sleeping so I wrote my blog post for yesterday. After finishing, I went back to bed until 8:30. At that point Tavis and I got up and woke up the kids who were not at all interested in getting out of bed. I feel like they may have stayed up much later than we did.
Tavis and I ventured out to find breakfast. Across the street we found a street car with breakfast sandwiches. We bought 3 sausage and 1 bacon sandwich for $6 each and I got a donut for $2. We brought it back to the hotel room to find the kids still waking up. Everyone ate and then finished packing their bags while I filled all the water bottles, eager to get going.
It seemed to take forever to get out of the room. We were hoping to be out by 9:30 but it was 10:20 by the time we made it out of the hotel. Luckily it was less than a 10 minute walk and Tavis navigated us straight to Budget a few blocks away.
When we arrived, we were quite surprised to see the looooong line out the door. It was super hot in the parking garage so the kids stayed out on the road while we were inside. We didn’t realize it would be a 45 minute wait. Tavis had signed up for the quick pass and received an email saying the car was ready and to just pick up keys. Apparently that feature doesn’t exist at the Times Square location. The problem was that there were two people from Europe who had very complicated requirements and their rentals were much greater than they had expected. We finally got the papers and were ready to meet our new car when we joined the kids on the street. There we waited for it to be brought down the elevator which was pretty cool to watch.
We were expecting to have a RAV4, but to our surprise, we were given a silver 2025 Volvo XC40! Although it is much smaller than the XC90 we know and love, it was such a relief to have a vehicle that we are familiar with. We discovered that you can actually fit 5 carry-on suitcases below the little cover, and 4 backpacks on top without even really trying to piece it together. Or maybe we are just that good from all our previous experience. I brought my backpack up front with me because it had snacks and charge cables.
There was another car coming down the elevator so we quickly piled in and parked in a no parking area while we stuck our e-pass to the windshield, entered our license plate on our e-pass app, set our navigation in car play, and our road trip had officially began. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day to travel! The odometer was at 9.297 when we left. Let the miles begin.
Driving in New York wasn’t that bad. Apparently, 11:30am is a good time to leave the city. Google took us through Lincoln tunnel and eventually past Newark airport. We realized while passing through the first toll booth that there was an e-toll in the car that was already open 🤦♀️. I swung it shut but who knows if it registered instead of ours. I guess we will find out later.
After leaving the city we were on the interstate. Our ETA was 4:30pm so we updated our parking to begin at 5:00pm. Tavis said it was low stress driving and the roads were not busy at all.
Of course, shortly after, a car drifted into our lane. Tavis was very defensive and slammed on the breaks to avoid a collision. Apparently the car behind did not like what happened because he quickly passed us, rolled down his window, stuck his hand out and fingered the driver in front of us, then proceeded to cut them off. This was impressive because it was 35 degrees out so no one had their windows open! I think that was a little excessive, but it’s nice to know we had a witness if anything did happen. That moment in time was more effective than a double espresso and Tavis was wide awake and on high alert after that.
We stopped around 2:00pm in Wilmington for gas. I navigated us to Costco with the intention of cheap fuel for both the car and it’s people. Unfortunately, the lines were long and Tavis did not have the patience so he navigated us to a nearby gas station 7 minutes away. There was a Wendy’s next door so the boys and I walked over and Tavis met us there. Gas was only 2.99 per gallon! We all had a quick bite, then rearranged our luggage. We figured out the puzzle and fit all 5 suitcases and backpacks in the back of the vehicle! We were on our way again with an updated ETA of 5:00. It was a little disheartening as we drove past a Chick-fil-a only a few minutes down the road. It is our mission to eat there at least once on our vacation, and it won’t be on a Sunday.
Coming over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was so cool. We were all amazed by it… well, everyone except Ayva who was zonked out. About 30 minutes later we arrived into Washington, DC. It was sort of anti-climatic. What was truly impressive was that our reserved parking was only 4 miles away… and it was still an estimated 30 minutes!!!! Yes, traffic was so crazy it actually took 30 minutes to get to the hotel. We did manage to find our parking spot quite easily. We followed the instructions and parked within the specified lines of spot 30. We emptied the vehicle and everyone lined up with their bags. As we were leaving the parking area, a lady stopped me in her car and warned me of the neighbourhood and explained that not too long ago she was robbed at knife point and not to walk alone in the parking lot alone. Wow, what a great first impression of Washington!
Anyways, we thanked the nice lady for the warning and promised we we travel together in a group the entire time we were in Washington. Then, we carried on our way and noticed the kids had already walked around the corner toward the hotel. 🤦♀️ While Tavis was checking in, I had a family chat with the kids about the advice we received. Within minutes, Tavis had the key and we were on our way to room 825 in the Homewood Suites, Washington, DC.
Although it was still a 1 bedroom suite, our room was much smaller than the previous accommodations. We had a room with 2 double beds, a tiny bathroom with a bath and toilet, the sink was in the room. The living room/kitchen had enough space for the couch/bed, and a tiny table with 2 chairs. It had a dishwasher though so that was cool. We were in the room for less than 20 minutes before we made our way out to see the sites around 5:30pm.
Washington DC seems to have monuments on every corner. It looked like they all rode the same horse! There was only one horse that wanted his rider off, but the kids informed me that the monuments were for the men, not the horses.
It only took about a 10 minute walk to get to the White House. There were a few demonstrations and protestors, but there were more police than protesters and everything seemed to be quite civil. It was nice to see freedom of speech being practiced. After taking several photos, and surprisingly not getting yelled at when Tavis and Ayva climbed up on a barrier to take a photo, we walked toward the back. There, we took several more photos of the White House and the Washington Monument. The kids were taking artistic photos of the area, and I told photos of them.
From there we walked up to the Washington Monument and that is when we got to see how large it actually was. I took a photo of Ari next to it and he was just a tiny ant. I was also amazed at how much grass there was. It reminded me of the Eiffel Tower, but with less people. There was also a nice view of a lake that I think was some Reflecting Pool, whatever that is???
As the sun was getting low in the sky we walked toward the Capitol Building. We got as far as the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum where the lighting was just right for photos. Addison had taken some cool photos along the way with Madison’s polaroid camera. Ari asked a girl near by to take our family photo and I think it was our first real family photo on our trip.
Around 7:15pm we decided it was time to eat. Tavis found a Chick-Fil-A only 20 minutes from our location so we started walking in that direction. We stopped at a huge building that had impressive stairs. Ari and Ayva ran to the top of the stairs so I could get a better perspective on how large the building was. If you zoom in really far, you can see them 😛 It reminded me of being in Greece, but modern day with the buildings still in tact.
By 7:45pm we were all sitting around the tables with our meals, filling our stomachs with the most delicious fast food from Chick-Fil-A. It brought back memories of living in Texas. It was a cheap dinner and when we left, our tummies were full. We saw more monuments and neat building along the walk home. We finally made our way back to the hotel around 8:30pm. We only walked 11km today but we were hot and sweating from the 30 degree weather so we decided to call it a night.
We began the long process of showers and by 10:30, everyone was showered and ready for bed. I worked on this blog post while waiting for my turn.
We had another amazing day. Not counting the scare as we arrived, there wasn’t a single time that we felt unsafe here in Washington, DC. We decided to stay a bit longer tomorrow and see if we could get tickets to a Smithsonian museum. We have parking until 4:00pm tomorrow, and Tavis was able to get us a late checkout at 1:00pm. At this point, we have no idea what tomorrow will bring but we will be getting up early to make sure we have time to eat before starting tomorrow’s adventure. Our next accommodation is only 3.5 hours away so we don’t have to leave too early.