Our kids had never been to Washington DC before and this was something we’d been looking forward to for a long time. This was one of my favorite places when I was a kid and we have (more) great friends in the area so lots of reasons to visit.

We hit a bunch of highlights: Air & Space, Lincoln Memorial, MLK, FDR, Washington Monument, Natural History, Arlington Cemetery–according to our kids just enough walking to actually risk loss of limb. On that point, Europe will be a RUDE awakening.

Here’s the Lincoln Memorial:

And our own little Lincoln back on Maui:

He talks tough but he was equally entertained on both occasions.

Air and Space with Amaya and Sarani:

Astronaut ice cream always sounds better in concept than in practice…

And my personal favorite Arlington National Cemetery. The kids have 2 great-grandfathers and a great aunt buried there and we visited both sites to bring flowers and say hello. Arlington has always been so striking to me and we talked to our kids for a long time about those who sacrificed for our country and our gratitude to them.

We got to spend time with yet another 2005er and her family which was amazing. They were awesome hosts and tour guides and even showed our kids the literal ropes at rock climbing (Ben is so proud of that pun.)

Here’s the thing about DC today: You visit all these amazing sites filled with quotes and inspiration from truly incredible people. Martin Luther King, Jr, Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, John F Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt–the list goes on and on. And it’s so moving for all the work they did, the sacrifices they gave, the people they inspired to action.

And then you see where we are today. It’s hard, really hard, to look at these halls with so much history and so much potential and know the absolute levels of bullshit going on there now. It is equal parts disappointing and infuriating and I find it so difficult to appreciate the inspiration. The inspiration these people gave so much for.

And this is how I feel.

But I’m raising some pretty great people. And so is Corey. And so are you. They are coming and we may be leaving them a shit show but they will bring the motivation and the power to make positive change.

Morgan’s family thinks she would make a pretty great president. She has exceptionally high moral standards and she is growing pretty tired of this nonsense.

And hopefully one day we’ll take more heed of these words from JFK:

AND SO MY FELLOW AMERICANS

ASK NOT WHAT YOUR COUNTRY CAN DO FOR YOU

ASK WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY

MY FELLOW CITIZENS OF THE WORLD, ASK NOT

WHAT AMERICAN WILL DO FOR YOU BUT WHAT TOGETHER

WE CAN DO FOR THE FREEDOM OF MAN

And maybe one day we can feel like this again: