We successfully made it to Washington DC today; well specifically to Andrews AFB famcamp to meet my parents and stay in their new camper. This morning we woke up and drove around SJ AFB to find the old home my parents lived in when I was born. It, surprisingly, still exists in a remodeled state, though all the ones across the street have been demolished. Zoe enjoyed some coloring and listening to audiobooks for the next 2 hours until we arrived at Petersburg Battlefield in VA where we got our National Parks Passport stamp, did the driving tour, and heated some Ramen for lunch. Another half hour up I-95 found us visiting 2 other parks in Richmond,VA. I’ve always thought of Richmond as kind of a crap-hole but since I’ve never actually been their I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised with something nice….not so much. Anyway, we got our Richmond Battlefied stamp and then visited Maggie Walker Historic Site for another stamp. Miss Walker was the first African-American bank president and helped create alot of jobs and opportunities for others in Richmond. It was neato to me, but Zoe didn’t have the attention. We got in the car for another hour long jaunt to Jacksonville Battlefied where Zoe promptly fell asleep as I pulled into the parking lot. I carried her into the visitor center for our stamp, wandered around the cool old road and house, and then headed out. Hate to stamp-and-go, but I was a bit done learning about the Civil War and Zoe was getting heavy to carry about. On the way to DC there was a huge backup on the other side of the road in the HOV lane due to a bad accident; my direction slowed down alot to watch. Then, the medivac helicopter landed RIGHT BESIDE my car just beyond the concrete barrier…good thing we were slowed to rubberneck pace because I needed to stop for a second as all the dusk wop-wopped by. amazing

Tonight we’re at the Andrews famcamp with my folks. It’s a nice calm little campground in the middle of the golf course. There is a lot of ‘white’ noise from a close freeway, but it blends into the crickets chirping. We had a campfire at the community ring and made pizza mountain pies for dinner. Zoe is having a ton of fun running around playing with rocks, pretending to be “cowgirl kate and cocoa” with Nan, and listening to Grandpa Joe tell stories. Tomorrow it’s off the Smithsonian for a dino-day!