If you missed Part I of M and my first trip together, see here.
After an action-packed Friday, M and I…did not take it easy on Saturday. Although we didn’t go back to the city, we found plenty of fun things to do.
Article 4 – State relations
Part of the reason I wanted to go down to D.C. is to meet up with some friends and see their kids. To that end, the buddy I was staying with and I met up with some friends in Clarendon. We ended up moving his daughter’s carseat to my rental car to force our kids to bond more – GREAT SUCCESS.
We had brunch at a place called Lyon Hall. The food was French-ish, but really I only bring Lyon Hall up because of these bad boys:
These donuts were not a joke, I loved them! I may or may not have cleaned off half the plate myself. I also ordered a huge dish for M and I to share which worked out just fine; if she has eggs she’s happy.
We dropped by Clarendon’s Falloween celebration. There was a petting zoo, pumpkin decorations, and live music. I didn’t bother putting M’s costume on which was kind of a shame since a bunch of kids were dressed up – at the same time, I didn’t want to deal with it. It looked just fine a week after when she went trick or treating at school.
Incidentally, Jess and her sister made M’s true halloween costume together in Charlotte – a smashing success.
Anyway, Falloween was a local event but was a lot of fun to take M too, plus it was great to see her bonding with my friends’ kids. I find I always am nervous my kid won’t get along with my friends’ kids because that can get awkward, but luckily that wasn’t a problem this time. (It’s definitely happened with my dog before…)
Article 5 – Making Amendments
As always on vacation, you need to make a lot of decisions on the fly. This goes double for when you have a toddler. Once again, I had to decide whether to honor M’s nap or to just try to get away without it. In this case, I decided to try to get her to nap in her carseat – we had a long drive ahead of us. This worked out in the best way possible, she ended up sleeping an hour and a half in her carseat, well rested for our final event of the weekend.
Article 6 – The Supreme event
We capped off our trip at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. I’m not going to lie, I was a bit skeptical about this at the beginning – more because I wasn’t sure the toddlers would be into it. But Jess spoke to someone up here in Boston who said that it was must see, so I decided to take the leap.
Our first few minutes at the festival were a bit worrisome – we were just walking around looking at various exhibits and shops – not much to do for a toddler. Equally disappointing were the raucous cheers we heard as we were entering at 3:30 PM from the joust – the next joust was at 6:30 PM and we didn’t think the kids would make it.
Luckily, my fears proved to be completely unfounded. Everything turned when we found the giant slide – for $2, M and I rode down this thing. It was super fun and she loved it so much she made me take her again. I happily obliged because I messed up my video the first time.
After spending the rest of daylight at a playground and eating some hot dogs, we descended upon the joust stadium to cap off our night. The joust was a lot of fun, though it was a little more violent than I had expected. Honestly, I had no idea why I was expecting less violence from two knights in horseback trying to spear each other (apparently they do it for fun and are really trying to beat each other – they said it was unscripted though not sure if I believe it). I will say this one knight got wrecked and I became concerned that the joust did not have the proper concussion protocol!
On the hour ride home the kids serenaded us with Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and other classics. Can’t say it was super easy on the ears but it was super cute. Overall, I thought the Renaissance Festival was a lot of fun and ended up being more toddler friendly than I had expected. Worth checking out for all ages!
Final Thoughts
M and I not only survived our trip to D.C. alone, we had a ton of fun in the process. Splitting up the family not only made traveling easier, but gave my daughter and myself a chance to bond together. I realize it’s not for everyone, but if you’re interested, it definitely can be worth it!
Sounds like a great trip. We have two kids (just turned 7 and 9) and it is still fun to do something with just one of them. It’s a much more common for us to do things as a whole family, but adding those parent plus one child trips into the mix is fun.