The holiday fun has been in full swing! Two weeks ago we went to Zoo Lights at the National Zoo. It was a great night of twinkling lights and a definite feeling of winter chill. We took our nephew Pete with us so we were a clan o' five for the night. The metro ride was easy and there was even a double decker bus that we could take (for free!) up the road to the zoo. Unfortunately the zoo was a rather popular spot, so the traffic was so bad trying to go the 0.25 of a mile up the road to the entrance we sat on the top of the bus for a good 15 minutes to go only a few hundred yards. We eventually jumped off the bus at a stoplight and walked the rest of the way in :)
Although it was pretty crowded, with long lines for the carousel and beer in an LED sparkling light cup, we participated in both. But most of the fun really was just walking through the zoo at night with all the lights!
Then last weekend on a whim we decided to leave the house for the night and spend the night down at the DC harbor at the gaylord hotel for their christmas-themed-over-the-topness that included a tent kept to 9 degrees and filled with the most incredible ice sculptures and a 2 story high ice slide. It was so cold inside that they gave you extra blue parkas to wear while you were there.. not the most flattering but the extra warmth was welcome!
There was also a Christmas village with a special build-a-bear section, indoor carousel and spinning tea cups.
Evie decided to spend her allowance/savings on a build-a-Eevee and I
bought Izzy a build-a-pikachu because she doesn't have an allowance and
she has been doing such a great job in helping me clean the house.
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| Patrick may look like he is having fun... but the girls spun him so relentlessly that he felt ill for almost an hour afterward. |
The hotel includes a massive atrium where every hour on the hour after 6 pm there is a beliagio-esque lights and water fountain show. Come to think of it the whole thing felt very vegasy (I am on a role for the made up words here!) We also took full advantage of our resort fee and went for a swim in the indoor pool after dinner, and then proceeded to indulge in what now (for better or for worse) has become a Christmas tradition... talking animal (mostly of the dog sort) Christmas movies.... The evening was taken up by Santa Claws and the morning by Santa Paws... and with just one room, there was no place for me to hide (at least not at night... the next morning I convinced Evie to go back into the Ice tent at the special time just for hotel guests... which allowed me to take more pictures of the sculptures.
Once we checked out we had planned to just head straight back to our house, but the line in the parking garage was so long that we decided instead to go check out the harbor a bit. It was all very new, with little shops and mostly hotels. My favorite part was some pretty cool sculptures....
The last stop on the Christmas of lights fun will be a trip to Winterhaven when we are back in Tucson next week!
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