Fall Breakin' - SURPRISE Edition

I had a surprise up my sleeve for Rachel during the 2nd week of fall break.  I told her I had planned a fun girls day, but I would have to get her up early...like before 5 AM early.  There was a little protesting, but she was game.  She drug herself out to the car and we left at 4:40 AM.  We drove south to Plainfield, parked and got on a shuttle bus.  The bus dropped us off at our 1st destination.  I asked Rachel if she knew where we were.  She said that she had no idea.  I informed her that we were at the airport.  "You know what people do at the airport...right?"  That's when I sprung it on her that we were flying to Washington D.C. for the day!  Immediate excitement set in.

However I was fighting a stomach ache, but had decided that I had to power through.  It was worth it to watch Rachel with her face pressed up against the plane window as we took off.

We landed at Reagan Airport and jumped on the Metro and headed toward the National Mall.

We had no set agenda and I had given Rachel several options on where to begin.  We started our day at the National Archives to view the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.  We were viewing the Declaration of Independence along with a group of British teenagers.  One of them turned around and said "That's when you broke away from us!"  I responded with a quick, "And don't you forget it!!"  ...all in fun

We then made our way to the White House.  

After a quick lunch we headed to the south side of the White House.  The presidential limosuine was parked and ready to go.  President Trump was going to be departing, but since we had no idea how long that would take we snapped a photo and moved on.

We made our way to the Mall and the memorials and monuments.  First stop was the World War II Memorial

We walked down to the Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Monument, and Korean War Memorial

This was my 3rd trip to Washington, but I had never been to the Jefferson Memorial.  We decided that it was much too long of a walk around the Tidal Basin this time as well so we settled for a long distance photo across the basin.

After stopping at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Monument we made our way back to the Washington Monument.

There we had to try out a trick photo....with this result.

One lady nearby was getting a kick out of our efforts and insisted on taking a photo of us. 

We had time to stop by one of the Smithsonian museums, so we opted for the Museum of American History.  We both really enjoyed the First Ladies exhibit....especially the inaugural gowns.  On center display was Melania Trump's gown.

After miles of walking we both were ready to get headed back to the airport.  We jumped off the Metro at the Pentagon and made our way to the 9/11 Memorial.  Time for some contemplation and discussion of an event that happened before Rachel was even born. 

We were back at Reagan with a lot of time left, but we got to rest our feet and enjoy a little Chick-fil-a, so all was well.  Our flight was delayed by an hour since our flight crew was on a delayed flight.  We made great time coming home though and landed in Indy at 12:15 AM.  We were spent, but full of fun memories!

Fall Breakin' - Chicago Edition

We decided last minute to take advantage of the weather and Dusty's time off to make a day trip up to Chicago.  I believe this was Rachel's first time in the city.  We had the Art Institute and Millennium Park on our agenda for the day. 

The art museum is huge so we decided to hit the highlights including a little Van Gogh.

We came around a corner and Rachel said, "Hey!"  Turns out her art teacher had given the class an assignment of recreating this painting a few weeks ago.  We definitely needed a photo to show the art teacher.

We wandered around a little to get to lunch and then headed to Buckingham Fountain.  Too bad it had been turned off and drained for the season.

We enjoyed the sunny day, picked up a few geocaches, nabbed some photos and some Garrett's popcorn, and had a great day!

Fall Breakin' - Covered Bridge Edition

To kick off the 2 week fall break we decided to take advantage of the gorgeous day and head west to the Covered Bridge Festival.  I had not been in years.  Crafts are not really my thing, but we did hunt out some great treats.  Caramel Apples anyone?

On our way back to the car we stopped at the bridge and were treated to this guy playing bagpipes.  After he finished the song he dropped to a knee and proposed to the lady with him.  

We meandered home using the backroads visiting covered bridges and geocaches

Cache-tastic

We kicked off our fall break with a day long geocaching extravaganza with the Painter crew (AKA Team Eggnogbelly).  I had discovered that a family had placed quite a few gadget caches in the Shelbyville area.  We had made plans to tackle these fun caches in a day long adventure.  So with 3 Hackneys and 4 Painters we loaded up the van and after properly sugaring and caffeinating at Dunkin Donuts we headed out.

The first stop was the required bathroom break before starting the run of caches.  Not the best of choices as it elicited this response from Heather!  But after a lot of laughter and hand sanitizer we pressed on.

The gadget caches did not disappoint.  Each one was cleverly built and a lot of fun to try to figure out.

Even a cache made to look like a giant mousetrap!  

This one required the use of the car battery and jumper cables

Lunchtime found us in the middle of cornfields.  So we tossed out a blanket for a quick picnic. (This was after moving down the road to avoid being downwind of the pig farm.

At the end of the day we found 27 caches and only struck out once.  With a few scrapes and scratches and one wicked bruise, I managed to keep my geocaching injury streak alive.   These finds were a ton of fun.  The unfortunate result is now all other geocaches will seem boring!  Great time with great friends!

No teenagers here...

....at least until next May when Rachel turns 13.  Aaron's 20th birthday was Sunday.  To celebrate leaving the teens behind we filled the house with a bunch of kids from Aaron's college and career group from church.  Great group of kids!

Even had a special guest appearance from Ronin the dog

Happy Birthday Aaron!